I might have to. If you want anything done right you gotta do it yourself.

Oh that will come to. Believe me I tried as hard as I could not to order anything and just buy the bike to ride at first but my will power failed. It's what I get for starring at parts all winter before buying the bike.

I'm already working on a second parts list for next year, which probably is insane.

 

It took 4 months for the bike. My dealer had a list of the bikes he was getting for the next quarter. I got to sit down and pick my model and color, made a 500 buck down payment and waited on it to come....Back in those days most dealers didn't have more than a half a dozen new bikes in the showroom for you to see and 99% of those were already sold and waiting to be picked up. It wasn't uncommon for a bike to come in and them to let it sit on the floor at least a few days so customers could see it before they called the new owner.

I ordered mine on August 15th. It came in on December 22nd and I learned it was there. I called up and said I wanted it and picked up up on December 23rd. The sales guy told me they had hoped to at least have it on the floor for "viewing" for a few days, but let me have it since I knew it was there.

 

I remember the 90's, when my 95 sportster took 9 months just to get here from factory. My uncle had to wait nearly 2 years for a fatboy, ordered in early 93, delivered end of 94, stock black. That's back when dealer limited people to 2 bikes b/c they would buy then turn around and sell in newspaper for $5-10k above MSRP. I do miss thumbing through the classified ads in pre eBay and Craigslist times...

 

Yep, the 90's were tough to by a bike in. Most dealers marked 'em up at least a couple of thousand over MSRP. I refused to pay more than MSRP and rode an Ironhead for nearly a decade before getting a new bike.

As far as long waits goes, I have a friend that put a $500 down payment on a 2003 Anniversary model in 1993 or so. He thought their was only gonna be a few limited models made....He was really ticked when he found out all of the 2003's were Anniversary models.

 

Seems like if all it's missing is a fender bib and air cleaner you could be out riding it till the new parts come in.

 

I think I waited 5 days for the dealer (Lone Wolf in CDA Idaho) to locate my 2010 Super Glide (they didn't have one on the floor) and have it ready to go. Of course, the FXD is a pretty basic big twin, and I wasn't really concerned about adding a bunch of stuff (I spent about $500 on extra stuff, which was matched dollar for dollar by HD under a promotion they had at the time...so I rolled out of there with about $1k in various items...all of which I installed).

I'm glad I didn't go for a bunch of modifications at the time of purchase, because it gave me time to properly evaluate what I actually wanted. The $500 dealer match was, of course, an enticement to add a lot more (I watched another FXD buyer add an additional $7K to his bike before it actually showed up at the dealership...and if it made him happy, that's what counts....he was a middle aged working man who looked like a 7 year old on christmas morning...I felt happy for him...and he had a good OL who was enjoying his happiness too). Frankly, my OL wouldn't have cared if I added an additional $10K, because she's a peach...and a rider too.

I have to say that Lone Wolf HD dangled some pretty tempting meat in front of me, but being the cheapskate I am, I'm quite happy I added most of my simple touring comfort mods after I had possession of the bike. A stock FXD is a decent performance machine (for a Harley)...and most everybody I know that spends more time riding than showing off dyno numbers cares more about reliability than horse power. I already have those kinda high performance metric machines anyway.

Ya know, this is really one of the big differences between HD, and the metric dealerships. When I saw something I liked on other HD models, and asked if it was available on the bike I was buying...they answered (quite truthfully) that they could set the bike up any way I wanted....sure, at a price, but at a metric dealership you basically don't have many options (not dissin metrics...I own 3 of 'em....but it's just a different ballgame). If you have the coin....HD can pretty much do anything you want (and a good indy can do the rest).

 

I put a deposit on my FXCWC as soon as Harley announced the 2008 line up July 27th of 2007.
It was delivered May 24th 2008.

Once I knew it was actually on the way, I ordered $3K worth of parts.
The day I picked the bike up I ordered another $2K in parts.
I started installing the parts the day after I rode the bike home.

I've paid cash for both my Harleys, so I choose to install my own stuff and save on the labor.

 

Yup I was thinking the same thing all day. I'll call the dealership tomorrow and see if I can pickup the bike and ride until my last 2 parts come in.


Thanks for the responses everyone!

 

Good plan. Go get it and enjoy. I won't say 'ride it like you stole it' because it's an overused phrase. Ride it like you bought it lol

 

I ordered a new E-glide back in 04 and had to wait 2 1/2 months for it. And that was for a black one.