Why I’m Glad I Bought a Harley-Davidson

I should probably start with the bike. Well, maybe a little background. I have been riding for over 45 years. I raced semi-professionally as a teenager (meaning I had sponsors who paid for stuff and we rode a local circuit). Raced motocross, trials, cross-country and hill-climb. Loved it. Me and my dad did it for years. My first motorcycle was a Honda 305, sometime in the mid-60’s. I was a kid, rode in the thousands of acres behind our house, and if I dropped it I couldn’t pick it up. Had to wait for my dad to get home. I learned not to drop it. Had a Hodaka racer, then we had Maicos and many Hondas etc. Rode mostly Beemer street bikes as an adult. Stopped riding for a while. Returned a couple years ago.

Also as a kid my family owned race cars and a high-performance auto center. I basically designed racing engines as a teenager. Spent a lot of time working with customers etc. Had a great time. We had a large garage at home and built cars and bikes constantly.

When I returned to motorcycles, I was baffled to learn that almost all the Japanese makes were fitted out with "plastic." Not only were the fenders and side covers plastic, the damm chrome (so-called) was plastic. OK. Fine. I’ll live with it. Over time I came to realize that this was sort of symptomatic of the throw-away nature of most of these modern machines. At the NY Motorcycle Show last winter, I saw a display of "Vintage Japanese Bikes." I loved them, but had to wonder how many of today’s would be around in 30 or 40 years for a similar display? My own Honda Aero was already showing signs of unhappiness with only a few thousand miles on it.

Not only that, but the bike (Honda) was not very susceptible of home-wrenching. Hard to explain. It’s just not laid out or built for that. I doubt that most of the people who buy them even own and real mechanic’s tools.

Now, the dealers. Well, basically, the metric dealers mostly sukk. I’m sorry, but that’s my impression, and I’ve been in many. I bought my Aero at probably the best Honda dealer in the region, and while they were nice enough to me pre-purchase, pretty much immediately afterward it was "who are you, again?" I would walk in there, with money in my pocket, and with not a customer in the store, the five employees would twiddle their thumbs and ignore me. Even when I stood at the parts counter obviously wanting help.

When I did get "help", it was, "Yeah, what do you want?" "Well, I was thinking of putting on [x]. Do you have any thoughts or recommendations?" "Show me what you want and I’ll tell you how much it costs." Etc. Gruff, totally uninterested, totally unhelpful. Same with service, gear, etc. Cold, indifferent, borderline obnoxious.

The people. Hell, I almost got in a fist fight twice in the **** Honda dealership, with azzhole customers who wanted to push and shove their way around and show how big and tough they are. The people I would run into in these places all seemed to have something to prove. I think maybe twice I had a kind word from a customer or "fellow rider". I eventually found another dealer I liked better, but only because the owner himself was actually a nice guy, once you drew him out. But they had lousy prices on the bikes, and not much inventory, and terrible hours.

Skipping over a lot… The first time I took my HD to the local dealer, I was amazed. I parked in the parking lot and went in. The service manager was not just polite, he was interested, human, looked you in the eye and seemed like a decent guy. And he was *helpful*, even offering ideas and suggestions right off the bat. Wow.

Then I was amazed by the … "Well, just ride your bike up this ramp and into the shop." Huh? A big, beautiful ramp, a double automatic glass door, and your ride your bike right up to the service counter. Literally. Holy cow! Nice air conditioned space, clean, large and well organized. And they’re helpful! The service people at both the HD dealers I have dealt with have been tremendous. When I was in the other day, not only did the service manager spend a lot of time with me, the mechanic who worked on my bike saw me near the bike and came over and volunteered some thoughts. Nice people. Just straight up, no bull****, nice people. Same with the parts people — just bend over backwards to help you figure out what you need to do what you want to do.

I also quickly learned that the HD is easy to work on. It’s just laid out nicely, and you can see how to remove and replace stuff. It’s basic wrenching. Plus, there is a TON of aftermarket stuff for these bikes. It could take YEARS just to learn the market. Not only that, but HD itself makes a ton of "aftermarket" stuff, and so far all of it I have seen is top quality. Seriously. You can customize these bikes to your heart’s content (and your wallet’s discontent ). That’s what it’s all about.

When I was in the racing world way back, that was the way it was. People in the business wanted to help you. They liked other enthusiasts, just because. They shared their knowledge and their time freely, even loved doing it. I know, I was one of them. As was the rest of my family. Well, you don’t see that much any more. Except I see it plain as day and in full living force at the HD shops. Go figure, eh? How’d they do that?

Find ten Hayabusas and I bet 9 of them will be stock. And you may ask, why change a ‘busa? But why change a Super Glide, either? The answer is, it’s fun, and it personalizes your machine. And you can change it around next year if you feel differently.

The people. I had this kind of fear about the whole "Harley crowd" thing. I’ve had my "encounters" with some scary people in the past (many years ago) (and also some very pleasant encounters). But I was just kind of nervous, like "I don’t really fit in." Well, my experience has been so damm different from that, it’s just remarkable. It seems like every time I come face to face with another HD rider, there is just sort of this automatic, assumed… I dunno, just basic decency. People smile, chat, ask about your bike, toss around ideas. No condescension, no patronizing, no rudeness… nothing to prove, never mind pushing around and trying to pick a fight with people in a motorcycle shop.

Mind you, I’m aware that I may be exxagerating a bit, or possibly over-glorifying things or unduly ****ing other things. I know there will be countless examples and stories of people who had great experiences in a "metric" shop, or terrible ones in an HD shop. I know that, so please there is no need to hammer me with that. I’m just telling you about my experience.

I should even mention the "moto-clothes." I was skeptical, and didn’t want to seem like a dweeb, so I didn’t pay much attention to all the HD "gear" in the clothing section. But then I decided to really check it out. And damm, there’s some really nice stuff there. The jackets are very high quality — and i know the difference, I bought one of my first sets of street leathers from Vanson when they were a fledgling company on the back streets of Boston (never forget the babe who measured me for my chaps… ). I have lots of leathers, of all qualities. The HD stuff is very nice. And I got a cool t-shirt for my 5 year old son. He will not take the damm thing off (smells like hell, I’m gonna have to get a bunch more).

The bike… runs like a bat out of hell. It’s actually scary at times. At 70 mph, in 4th gear (out of six), twist the throttle and hang on for dear life. You can easily cruise at 80 or 90 with the engine running well below 2500 rpm’s. It’s powerful as helll, torquey beyond belief, and just plain awesome.

Not to mention, everywhere I ride it chicks show me their … oh, never mind. (Just kidding).

I’m sitting here right now with a set of t-bars and some related parts on my desk. I ordered these from Accutronix. I spoke to them on the phone (three times). Like everyone else I’ve dealt with in the aftermarket HD world, they were just tremendous. Helpful, friendly decent as hell.

So guys, just think about it a little. I don’t have a "point." Just wanted to share my experience. But still, it’s a good American company. Lots of flaws, but still, a good, solid publicly traded American company, making a damm nice product.