Well i cant say you guys didn't warn me. The place had so many bikes i thought it was a show!! Outside inside......Go inside had to find my way around a bunch of sales guys.( nice friendly guys wanting my autograph!) Than tee shirts and coffee mugs. They have more do dads than..well i dont know.
Found the parts desk,got my parts but had to give so much info. Than as i walked out the guy said stay for a bit we are having a hog meeting for new guys.Damn i don't want to smell hogs and ship.Or maybe it was some fat chicks coming? Well after looking at all those colors and chrome got to thinking...All the work i did and my ole pig is just that and ole turd. Wow thought the place was a Volvo dealer or Mercedes dealer from the cars in the parking lot. Well i do drive a Volvo but its 25 years old and was 1500. bucks wrecked 20 years ago.
Guess i wont be let in those places till i take a bath and get my hair done..oppps got no hair.
It was interesting.....

 

I remember walking into any Harley shop in the 70s or 80s and not a bike in sight except maybe the owner's ride. The good ole days when Mom and Pops owned the shops. All corporate and fancy buildings now. Guess that have to mass-produce and charge a mint to pay for all the inventory, overhead and lighting.

 

lol @ stealer

 

Lot different now than in the mid 70's. Only time I get in a dealership, these days is when we have the Dixie Thunder Run for our troops.When I look at the new Ultra's & see the $30,000 price tag, it's time to go.
Ride safe,
Harold

 

Yeah, we all bag on the dealers and the RUBs but they keep the company in business in a way that scooter trash like us never could.......in 25 years time we'll be riding old, beat up Fat Bobs and stuff and taking the **** out of the V4 watercooled bikes with GPS, Auto Pilot and a $100,000 price tag ;-)

 

Ya do have a point, Spanner. Cuz if it wasn't for the ones with more money than brains, I wouldn't be cruzin on a low mileage, inexpensive, Lowrider!
Ride safe,
Harold

 

They can't be that daft, they buy Harleys after all and that also means the market always has plenty of older bikes at a good price

 

I go into a stealer only when prats i can't find are needed and it's hard to come off the money they want for the parts but sometimes you have no choice. otherwise i walk around and look and droool but when i look at a sticker price i turn and walk out and complete the build i'm doing on a wreck or burn victom. can't see spending that much when i can wait and buy a repairble/ salvage for alot less.

 

I guess you should not be surprised, just a sign of the times. Used to walk in to a gun store and the guy behind the counter would say Hi Doug, hows that Browning working out for ya. Now you walk in to Cabela's and it's another 100 yards to the gun counter through a sea of camo clothes. Or it's "welcome to Walmart" when you walk in to get some ammo on sale. Same with hardware stores, paint stores, autoparts stores and even drug stores.

Harley is no longer about the ride, it's a style, a fashion statement, why else can you find 10 year old bikes with 3 thousand miles. The owner spent more time talking about it than sitting on it, but I'll bet he's got a cool jacket and a sharp mug on his desk...

Ds

 

I understand. My comments were sorta tongue and check. They were very nice people and just maybe if i didn't have a couple race cars and a few unfinished streetrods and ....well honey do list I would just buy a nice new... Nope i would go buy another salvage bike and fix it.
It was culture shock for sure. To be honest they did have the parts for a friends bike no BS BO and the price was not crazy.