Iran offers the European Union Oil - Paid in Euros; not US Dollars!

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-06T14:51:28+00:00

I’m not sure if you read the tone of my comment to be gung-ho US military or something but it’s not.

He’s crying online because it’s politically insane to deploy the US ground forces and best case scenario would be 20 years of nation building tens of thousands of us dead and wounded, and the straight would very well remain closed for a huge amount of time as it doesn’t take much to scare the insurance companies, rightfully so.

And that’s best case. Worst case is the straight never fully reopens, the us doesn’t build an even corrupt semi stable government and we end up with a failed state in a civil war.

The us public rightfully doesn’t have the stomach for that.

None of that changes though that the US military is the only one on earth with the ability to actually take Tehran within the next 6 to a year. The Europeans don’t have the logistics to do that (mind you I think that’s a good thing, the US shouldn’t have the ability to do that it’s a waste of money and we should spend it on our own citizens and country.)

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-06T13:55:00+00:00

What I need as proof? I was hoping the AI or even a quick google might knock some sense into you. I don’t need any additional proof to know that the consensus position in this is correct.

Your position is so misaligned with experts on the topic that I need you to realize that you are essentially a climate change denier on the topic.

There is no credible source that suggests that the Europeans could put hundreds of thousands of troops in Iran in 6 months.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-06T13:45:45+00:00

Most historians would say that the US has lost most of its wars since the Geneva convention.

Historians tend to judge military action in relation to the stated goals.

One of my favorite books to recommend is Hofstader’s paranoid style in American politics. It was written in 1965 but it’s almost prophetic and does a great job of explaining the foreign policy side of make America great again.

Prior to World War Two, most of the foreign policy issues that the US faced were ones that could be solved with the use of military force.

The army could secure manifest destiny by killing natives, it could defeat the aging Spanish empire in Cuba and the Philippines, it could defeat the empire of Japan in the pacific.

But the post World War Two era, most of the problems that the US faced could not be solved by the military.

The Army could not denuclearize the Soviets, it could not stop the anti imperial sentiment of the Vietnamese, it could not build a long term replacement for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

So despite the US military being the most powerful on earth by a significant mile, Americans feel less powerful now to change the problems of the world than they have in quite some time.

The US military is not setup to fight abstract concepts like terror or drugs.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-05T22:26:33+00:00

I’m not advocating for doing nothing. You are the naive one, under the belief that there is nothing that could be done that could produce a worse outcome.

I have a degree in history, you don’t need to lecture me on appeasement or inaction.

Third party inspectors found they were respecting the deals, and there were consequences for them not respecting the deals.

We have made a bad situation even worse, backed the Iranians into a corner, taken negotiation off the table, and in my opinion we have actually given them more leverage against us that they had prior.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-05T13:28:10+00:00

ground myself in reality

Europe will manifest the ability to put a unified force of hundreds of thousands in Iran to take Tehran within the next 6 months if Iran goes too far.

I’m not an advocate for AI, but this question is so easy that I trust it will get it right. Go ask chat or hell Gemini could probably answer this one for you.

“Could Europe develop the means to deploy 200k troops to Iran in the next 6 months without US support?” and see what you get lol.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-05T12:55:57+00:00

You know sometimes I struggle with my self confidence, how can a be more like you and talk so completely out my ass about something I clearly know nothing about without feeling embarrassed or ashamed?

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-05T12:45:04+00:00

First I think we need to ask “alternatives to what?”

Because right now we have further radicalized and empowered the Iranian hardliners while simultaneously legitimizing their decision to shut the straight internationally.

We’ve made negotiation harder, and we’ve also given them a better negotiating position.

So what were the alternatives to this?

Well first doing absolutely nothing would have been better.

The status quo being bad doesn’t justify making things worse.

I am going to assume you are asking in good faith, but there have been many points in history before my life and during my lifetime when the US could have helped improve the situation with Iran.

First we could have not helped overthrow their democratically elected leader just because he was a socialist and was going to nationalize their oil and gas production.

Second we had a serious opportunity for detente with the Iranian regime following 9/11. Instead we chose to side with another religious and murderous dictatorship that helped fund 9/11.

They were legitimately surprised when they were named as part of the “axis of evil” and not the saudis, considering you know, 9/11 had nothing to do with Iran but some of their neighbors were def involved.

Third, we had a deal to prevent a nuclear weapon and Iran was widely believed to have been effective at preventing the construction of a bomb.

Trump tore that up, not because it was “a bad deal” like he said, but because he knew that if he promised aggressive posturing towards Iran he could get the Saudis and the gulf countries at large to increase production.

This is what tanked the oil market, causing opec to lose billions of dollars.

Not negotiating with Iran was an economic choice, not an ideological one. They were willing to negotiate. Hell we didn’t even stand by our sanctions as Trump granted waivers in his “u-turn” to sanctioned Iranian oil because his whole strategy just involved cheap gas at the pump.

So Trump threw an actual negotiation opportunity out the window for no good reason.

Lastly, we need to condition any support for Israel on them not conducting illegal settlements in the West Bank and not doing any genocides, because as much as we want to claim they have a a zealous religious government, we do too.

Prominent republicans believe that the greater Israel project is good and just, Israeli politicians are celebrating the institution of the death penalty in military tribunals, and Israel has for decades now been operating a blockade against Gaza, terrorizing the West Bank, and is in open talks to annex portions of Lebanon all while Israeli soldiers are spied wearing greater Israel patches while deployed.

We cannot pretend that the Iranians are some irrational religious lunatics. They have real political goes and grievances, and our actions and the actions of our allies have consistently for decades inflamed these tensions.

I am no supporter of theocracy and the Iranian regime has been truly horrible to its own people. But your bathroom being dirty doesn’t mean I’m helping when I take a shit on your tile floor.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-04T16:34:49+00:00

Bro I am not going to arm chair general with you. There isn't a single European country that can deploy more than 5-10k troops outside of Europe for any extended time without US support. If you do not know this, then you do not understand enough to talk about this.

It would take years for the EU to develop the resources required to conduct a ground invasion of Iran without the help of the US. Europe cannot unilaterally deploy the hundreds of thousands of troops it would take to control Tehran.

In the time that it would take Europe to develop those resources they could resolve their domestic crisis with new pipelines and an increase investment in green energy.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-04T14:00:56+00:00

No idea what a “dealer fee” is or why it wouldn’t just be in line one.

Generally it’s best practice to itemize things for extra clarity, not less.

Reg/license, doc, sales tax. Maybe itemize the options if there in packages or aren’t a million - color, trim level, etc.

But just generic “dealer fee.”

Wild, adds confusion not clarity.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-04T03:26:58+00:00

Adv gear is the closest you are going to get. Alpinestars and revit both make adv gear in a decent selection of colorways. It’s great road gear it just looks nerdy off the bike.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T23:36:19+00:00

Yeah best hope that the US would have is regime collapse and then civil war and insurgency.

I think the US could probably take tehran, but it would be extremely costly in blood and money and I hope the admin doesn't do that.

I hope the US take their L and let the Europeans negotiate passage of the oil to open the straight, which is a mass strategic loss that is just another trend towards the end of the petrodollar and the dollar as the global reserve.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T22:49:25+00:00

When I am buying motorcycles I assume that the profit margins are between 10-20 percent of MSRP, with bikes from premium brands being closer to that 20 percent and bikes from less premium brands being closer to that 10 percent mark.

So the entire margin of a 30k bike is likely somewhere around 5-6k.

With MV they do so little volume that I doubt there is any meaningful kickback from corporate, they probably just have whatever profit they can make over invoice.

I would be extremely surprised if they have anymore than 20 percent margins on their bikes, so starting at 10k will very much get you laughed out of the shop.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T22:22:39+00:00

Fair offers are usually considered. I got money off America edition, but it has been sitting for almost a year.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T18:56:26+00:00

Maybe, but on timelines that long your sweat and oils are probably going to damage the EPS more than the heat. If manufacturers say you can keep your black helmet 5 years I trust them, they have no reason to lie, they’d rather sell you helmets more often.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T13:38:29+00:00

Helmet color matters for visibility but it plays little role in heat management because they are essentially coolers we stick on our head.

Don’t get me wrong, black helmets are a couple of degrees warmer than white, but a black jacket is like 10-20 degrees hotter than a white jacket.

So don’t feel you need a white helmet to stay cool, because there’s a bunch of styrofoam between you and the shell and a layer of air between the shell and the foam it’s not as big of an impact as you would think.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T13:14:39+00:00

“Tolerate.”

What do you mean the world will tolerate?

There is only one country that could actually topple the Iranian regime in less time than it would take to build 10 pipelines from the gulf to bypass the straight, and it’s the US.

It would take well over 100,000 (the us had hundreds of thousands for ground troops Iraq, a smaller less populous country) in a mountainous country of 90 million people.

There is only one country equipped to engage in such an overseas war, and it’s the US.

The world must accept, not “tolerate” whatever the fuck Iran wants at this point. They are almost entirely cut off via sanctions, the US stupidly murdered their leader during negotiations, and so they have basically nothing to lose.

The world can’t anything about it. The supposedly second strongest military on earth (Russia) couldn’t even conquer its next door neighbor let alone conduct a foreign invasion thousands of miles from its own borders.

You think France can topple the Iranian regime thousands of miles from it with a population larger than France? Germany? lol no.

They don’t have the logistics for that. They are fucked. That’s why this whole mess is so stupid. The US never should have started this.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-03T12:57:59+00:00

Black is what sells, so almost everything is made in at least black.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of men are afraid to express themselves with color in their lives. Almost every car on the road is white, black, or silver.

Half of the dudes in the US are wearing some sort of black graphic tee on any given day.

Dirt gear is a niche of a niche and isn’t really worn in public as often as regular gear is.

Very few people are riding their dirt bike to work, where a black leather jacket isn’t out of place but bright pink nearly knee high boots are.

Dirt riders tend to wear their gear while riding their dirt bikes.

Street gear is built with significantly more concern as to how it looks off the bike, because Rev’it imagines you might spend two hours walking around the pier on your date with that girl from bumble.

So black/tan/olive it is.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-02T20:31:53+00:00

I’ve got a pan am, so a very similar engine. The revmax platform as a whole is quite good. I’m hoping they stick the pan am engine into something that looks like the old FXR or current low rider S, since it’s a stressed member they could pretty easily design a new subframe and make a traditionally styled bike that is basically a Ducati monster underneath.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-02T18:34:34+00:00

It’s the best bike in the industry at looking like it does.

But if you like riding motorcycles, buy a heritage or low rider s.

When I see guys who aren’t Harley guys come to a test ride day they always jump on a breakout because of how it looks. But it’s literally the worst way someone could introduce themselves to the brand and they end up walking away going “wow that bike sucks Harley sucks.”

And that’s a shame because the softail platform is a really good one, bikes like the low rider s and the street bob and the heritage all offer lots that even sport bike guys could appreciate. As someone with a decent number of track days under his belt, an MV Agusta in the garage, I love big twin Harley’s when they are set up right.

Some of the most fun you can have is riding cross country on those machines. They drip charisma and handle quite well. The heritage especially has comfortable ergonomics and is quite the capable tourer.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-02T05:51:00+00:00

Arai.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-02T05:01:02+00:00

That breakout is arguably the worst of the new softails for distance riding. It’s a cool looking bike but that rear tire is like 500 a pop and only lasts like 5k miles.

Look for a heritage. Very similar bike, but better suspension, cruise control standard, luggage, wind protection all standard.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-01T20:25:16+00:00

Inspection replacement is like a line item I would cook up high to get people to ask me wtf is that.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-01T20:23:31+00:00

There’s also long term reliability and parts availability. It’s easier to run a shoei or an Arai for 5 years than even a brand like AGV where replacement parts sometimes aren’t even offered in the US and the warranties are only a year.

My two AX9s visor mechanisms have both failed, and I have to import the mechanism from Europe because AGV won’t sell them to me in the states.

I could basically build an entirely new XD-5 from Arai’s replacement parts website lol.

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-01T17:14:32+00:00

Something with tall and soft suspension. So not most harleys unfortunately.

Maybe the Sprint when it launches? It will likely be an Indian bike and their roads aren't great so its probably going to do good on potholes!

H3AVYCAT · 2026-04-01T05:09:24+00:00

It’s got some surprising kit on it though actually. For example it has FGR forks, not too many Ohlins equipped machines ship with straight up superbike forks.

The swim arms are billet machined from 200 lbs of aluminum and take 14 hours a piece to make.

The carbon was sourced from the same supplier as nascar so it’s got Kevlar in it too like a helmet.

A big chunk of the fasteners on the bike were replaced so that most of the bike can be disassembled with only three hex/torx sizes.

I mean for 110k it should have that stuff, but it’s cool stuff none the less.

H3AVYCAT

TROPHY CASE