Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Hey Artlee, no meltdown, lol, just thinking about the old days. Well old to me, I've got no problem with the new dealers, I remember a couple of HD deales in Jersey that HD made them clean up. I only cared about the service, which was good.

 

Popcorn is one of my favorite food groups. Doesn't really matter to me either way. Our local shop normally has what I need when I need it.

I enjoyed the days when it cost fifty cents to go to the picture show, when gas wars got gas to nineteen cents a gallon and a burger basket was a dollar.

 

I miss the old days, when a motorcycle shop smelled like oil and old metal. When you could ask for a part for your obsolete bike, and they would be able to go out back and find it.

Nowdays, all their inventory is in clothes and dog toys, and anything you want for your bike has to be special ordered.

 

No way. My 86 Sporty had a few drops of oil under it in the showroom from the shifter shaft seal. They replaced it and so did I again but it leaked a little bit until the day that I sold it. A lot of the late mode AMF Harley would also have oil leaking from the clutch cables on showroom floors.

I don't like dealers in general but I guess I will take the new over the old because now you don't have to put your name on a list and wait a year for a bike And you can haggle below MSRP on most models when in the past you would pay over that.

 

Back in the early '70's there was a store by us in Rahway nj called B@D's. It was a dealership owned by Bill and his wife Dorothy, who started the dealership in the late '30's I believe. It was the kind of place where when you walked in you were greeted by handlebars and gas tanks hanging off the ceiling, with drag pipes every so often. The place smelled like a bike shop and had new Harley's sitting on the showroom floor with drip pans under them. They sold chrome exchanged parts, as well as used stuff.Usually there were new motors also just sitting on the floor waiting to be bought. Even Bill's wife new her stuff about the bikes and parts. Then, when Harley wanted them to spend big bucks to expand their showroom they fought them on it, and it wasn't long afterwards Harley pulled their dealership.You couldn't blame them. They spent a good part of their lives promoting the Harley product, had a good business on a busy highway, took care of their costumers, and didn't feel the need to spend close to a million dollars to do the same thing they have been for the last 40 years. As time passed so did bill's wife, he developed health problems and had both his legs amputated. I was passing by one day and saw him sitting in a wheelchair out in the parking lot just looking at the building.it wasn't long after the shop closed up. Even the local paper did an article about him and their store, and how Harley took it away from them. That was in the mid '80's if I recall. That was a real bike shop.,,

 

Hey man, you know I meant melting cause of the temperature?
One of my hottest riding moments was sitting at a light on Rt 17 in July.

 

That's one of the dealers I was thinking about, is deal n wheels across the street still open?

LOL got ya Artlee, yeah I went for ride yesterday it was hot even at 7o mph! LOL

 

No, a few years ago the state moved RT 1@9 around. They bought deals n wheels property, and made a U turn where the building used to be. I asked Leo if he was moving the shop and he said he was maybe going to retire. Haven't heard anything else about them.,, Heres's some cool pics of the store from the early '60's. http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=35318

 

Either I'm getting old or you're clearly too young!

When I picked up my new 1975 FX Superglide at the dealer, ( $3490, ) there was a cookie sheet under every bike on the floor.

Aside from that I miss the old dealers...of course we didn't know what a R.U.B. was back then either...