First of all Thank you for your service. What is the nature of your disability that you can ride a bike but not work? You may say its none of my business but your disability comes from the taxes all of us that are working pay in. So some of that money you are spending is mine and I would like to know why I am buying you a motorcycle. In my area this disability thing is out of hand. A friend of mine is on disability from the VA he is 66 years old was a farmer most of his life and did very well for himself. He didn't pay in to social security so when he was ready to retire he went for disability. He drives a $70000 diesel pickup, has a new mustang, has a 66 mustang that is being restored and just bought a model a. He has 300 acres of grapes that he leases out and doesn't pay property tax because he is a disabled vet. He is not disabled. He worked hard his whole life. Now he is receiving $3600 per month in (reparations) because he spent 2 years washing airplanes in Vietnam. I don't mind taking care of the vets that need help but there are too many like my friend. How about the guy living under the bridge that is to proud to ask for help? Lets rent him an apartment instead of buying toys for people that are probably capable of taking care of themselves. I'm sorry but this disability stuff is pissing me off. If your capable of riding a motorcycle you are capable of working some kind of job to pay for it.

 

I agree that other deals are to be had besides the cost of the bike. You might be able to negotiate a free first service, discount off parts and merchandise within 90 days and the obligatory free Tshirt.

If you just need an out the door price for your disability what does it matter what the price is now. Get a quote in writing on any bike you've chosen and present that figure. Surely you don't need to buy it immediately after you get the money? Then wait a few weeks and go negotiate again with all the stores.

 

Sound advice

 

Some good advice here. Unfortunately for you as a buyer, it is a sellers market at the moment due to the shut down in production that COVID caused. If you have the time, it can't hurt to spend an afternoon popping around to get a sense of inventory but you should be prepared to move on it if you find the bike that you want. Also, as mentioned, paying cash gets you nothing as dealers are incentivized to sell the financing, so I would go in preparing to finance it and once deal is closed, pay it off at soonest window...some stipulate that you have to hold off for 6 months to do that. Good luck and let us know what you do...photos are always welcome around here!

 

It's a whole bunch of issues that are compounded together. PTSD, Depression, Bipolar 1, Partial deafness, and fibromyaglia.
You may know what some of those do but let me explain what fibro does because most people don't really know what it does to you.
Fibro is a muscular pain disorder where the body overreacts to normal pain stimuli, and the body does not recover properly from rest. As an end result, I will wake up and be in agonizing pain through out much of my body.
Have you ever been hit by a baseball bat? Imagine that, over a fair bit of your back, arms, and legs. Or better yet, you ever been in a motorcycle accident where you didn't break anything, but you walked away with road rash and muscle pain that kept you walking properly? Imagine that pain, but you didn't get hit. That happens without warning. Just like that one day you wake up and it feels like someone hit you with a car or beat the **** out of you with a baseball bat.
That's what a severe case of fibro does.
It's a permanent lifelong syndrome that does not go away, and currently there is no viable treatment for it. And many of the mildly successful treatments that do work only make things marginally better, but the drugs cause major drowsiness.
For me it caused some neurological issues with fine motor control that robbed me of one of my favorite hobbies years ago, which was modifying laptops.
Working with tiny small wires, screws and parts is pretty much impossible for me now.
There are days where I wake up, and I cannot do much but simply go back to sleep.
Somedays I'm fine and I can take on the world.

Now imagine for a second, you hire me at whatever job, doesnt matter. And you get a call from me "hey I cant come in today, I'm in agonizing pain" one time you're ok with it, next time a week later, you're not happy. 3rd time you tell me to "F off" and im fired because I cant work the position you hired me for when and where you need me.
How employable do you think I'd be in that circumstance?
Now you go add up the other stuff above to that mixture.

Riding a motorcycle is not the same thing as working a job. And a lot of disabled people who have some mobility left will buy motorcycles because they are a therapeutic part of their lives. They're a distraction and project that lets them focus and get away from the dark little demons in their head that they cant chase away.
I've seen **** I never want to see again, images that are burned into my brain that I never want to see.
Riding has been one of the few things I've experienced that helps me let go for the moment.

For what it's worth, I kinda was that person. After I got discharged from the Army, things did not go well. Job after job, living situation after living situation. I tried my best to keep my head above water until I ended up in the hospital a few times and then in a shelter. It's been a long 8 years trying to get back up to a place where things are ok.
You never know what someone's going through.
You never know what demons they're fighting off, or how much is being stacked on their plate.

Oh and just FYI, a large amount of the money that's going to me is actually from social security that I paid into.

Now this is the last I'm gonna talk about this. I don't really want to talk about it anymore.
I wanna talk about bikes, not sad depressing **** that no one really needs to worry about.

 

Do not finance hobbies unless you have the total in an investment making more then the loan will be!? Haaa... I'm the only one that does that, so. Do your homework on the best deal for finance. Do the homework on what it cost for taxes, plates, title. (if you are not careful, they will throw all kinds of extra stuff and overpriced in, then when they do the real papers, sneak that double taxes and such into bike cost. Know what they have in the bike. Then you can decide what kind of profit you are willing to stomach that they get or walk.. They have to make a profit. If you offer half the profit and walk, they will call you back. If you just throw BS out there and walk away, they will move on to the next person.


I purchased a new car a couple of months ago as a graduation gift. The first write up had all the taxes and plates doubled. Went down thru lining it out, Took me about 5 minutes using my homework sheets. Told the salesman politely not to do that to me anymore or I was walking. If he wanted the sale, see what his manager thought about my rework. He got up but I told him to call him over since I was a little miffed at the BS.

He came over, pondered it, and wrote OK. My homework showed they made about $1500 on a NADA 2020 Honda 20K car. (They had that much when I first started on that optional sticker they put on above NADA for Adjusted Markey Value.) I will never even consider that. He also had $199 for nitrogen and $199 for wheel locks on that extra sticker. (I gave him $55 but did tell them they could take them off and out.)

They still stuck me for about $55 that I had paid for a year tag. They put a 90-day temp telling me they would refund the difference since they could not get DMV to respond for the year tag online. I have tried twice but they just give me the runaround. They keep telling me different things they need. I have never seen an honest dealer in 50 year.

 

Just a thought ... If you're that concerned about where and how your ( and my ) tax dollars are spent you might want to consider unfriending those "so called friends" who are bilking us out of millions ... Again, just a thought ... :>)

 

Wow, this thread went sideways in a hurry.

 

Very good point and I guess I should have said former friend. I can't stand to be around the guy anymore. He acts like we should be happy that he was smart enough to jump through all the hoops to get on disability. I don't mind helping with necessities, food and shelter but when our tax dollars are buying toys thats just wrong in my opinion.

 

It's going to our new reality bike buying for the foreseeable future, a 30 percent reduction in units produced was announced a long time ago , and they dropped several models so what you can now buy is limited now.

As I was told in 2016 when I went looking Harley's new game plan was to bring value back to the brand and everything I just passed on to you was told to me back then by a dealer owner.

What's happening now was planned years ago.