Go ahead...void the warranty. If the model you have has been around for at least 2-3 years, the bugs have already been worked out...and any minor things that may jump up, will cost a portion of what you will pay the dealer to keep this warranty up to date.

You Canadians need to come across the border, get your work done, and then go back. I met a Guy from Saskatoon who rode to Rapid City, got a TON of engine work and other stuff done, sold the guys at the dealer his take off stuff, and rode back home. He was estatic when he told me how much money he had jsut saved! I told him I thought it was a good move, and wished him the best! Really cool dude.

You just have to decide "enough is enough" and do what you must to have what you want.

My bike is 8 months old, and I have not hesitated to do whatever I want with it. I will deal with "difficulties" later on if and when it comes up. Life is too damn short to "wait until the warranty runs out"...man, FK THAT! Do it NOW and enjoy the bike and your life before something happens to change things. Old age comes too quickly.

~Joe

 

well, it may not sound like free market, but this is now the MoCo protects it's franchise prices and keeps it's prices up. When someone buys an HD franchise they're buying a monopoly on sales in their area. The MoCo then has to ensure that dealers are not competing with eachother and "stealing" eachother's business via internet sales. Dealers in expensive areas are complaining that dealers in areas where it's cheaper to do business are undercutting them and they aren't seeing the kinds of income the MoCo promised them when they paid their ridiculously high franchise fees.

So...the MoCo steps in and says everyone must sell everything at MSRP so that buyers have no incentive to go outside their local dealer.

On the one hand you can complain and say this isn't free market, but it kind of is. You don't HAVE to sell Harleys. But if you CHOOSE to, you have to sell them according to the franchise rules set by the mothership. They're not telling you how to sell motorcycles or even how to do business. They're just telling you that if you want to sell THEIR motorcycles, you have to do it their way. HD isn't the only company that does this. BMW's Mini division, Toyota's Scion division, Nintendo, XBOX, Playstation, Tiffany, and many others, do it too, mostly with luxury items.

HD has been working on repositioning themselves as a luxury brand. They're not the HD of 20 years ago. They sell $20k+ motorcycles and expensive accessories. They're positioning themselves as an expensive and exclusive brand - this is what attracts the kind of people that buy $20k+ motorcycles every few years.

If they didn't do this, they would have gone out of business 15 years ago.

Their attitude is like Mercedes - if you can't afford it, we don't want your business anyway.

 

believe every word of this
took me 58yrs to figure it out

 

ANOTHER attempt to pigion hole their customers into buying their overpriced stuff. I LOVE my harly rocker, but I don't buy anything from them that has an AMERICAN made replacement if I can help it. Same with they can't send parts over seas, the customers their get jammed by the local dealer. Dealing with HD is like losing your money in Vegas but without the pretty dancing girls and cheap drinks...

 

Who buys new HD parts on Ebay to start with? I go there for the used stuff. Any thing that is new and HD brand I can get cheaper at any of the local dealers (and some used things) and most things that are new and no HD I can get cheaper at J&P Cycles.

Ebay is a great place for used parts and accessories and the sooner they get the new stuff off of there, the happier I'll be not to have to wade through it or screen it out of searches to find the real deals.

 

They're not banned from selling parts on ebay, they're banned from selling discounted parts on ebay.

 

Actually it IS free enterprise. The most likely anti-free thing would be the government telling HD they aren't allowed to enforce those restrictions in their franchise agreements, in order to promote "free trade," but what they'd really be doing is imposing socialist controls that would hurt the market. Free enterprise is when a company makes its own decisions, without government control.

Part of the bargained price of a Harley franchise is the dealer being bound by Harley's rules which, in turn, are designed to allow LOCAL dealers to stay in competition, even if they aren't as big as those giants selling on Ebay from Chicago or Minneapolis.

Why is that good? Next time you're riding down the highway and there's a Harley dealer off the exit every 75-100 miles, that restriction on selling on Ebay or shipping to Europe is why it's still there. Otherwise, you'd be calling the nearest dealer, in St. Paul, Minn., when your bike breaks down in Tennessee.

SUMMARY: Boo-*******-hoo, I can't buy new Harley parts on the internet/ebay, but because of that, I can still go buy them for the same price or close to it, from any of the 6 dealerships within a 2-hour drive of my house or the 2 within 30 minutes.

 

Me. I buy new parts on eBay, mostly non-HD but also a few HD too. Why wouldn't I? It's cheaper than from local dealers and there's no sales tax (7% for me).
I don't do it for $20 but for $200, I certainly do. Saving $40 or $50 is well worth it.

And free enterprise is to let business owners do what they want with their money and their business. They buy their stuff from HD at the same price as the others, so they should be free to sell it at whatever price they want.

 

I don't know...

It wasn't on eBay, but I bought my lower fairings for 150 bucks off of MSRP through Lake Shore Harley Davidson and they gave me free shipping.

Can't speak for you, but 150 bucks is a good chunk of change for me.

All you have to do is go to their on line sales site (www.lshd1.com), type in the Harley part number and they give you their discounted price. If the total is 500 or more~Free Shipping.

And....it sounds like that will hold until 31 dec if what guys on here is saying is true.

~Joe

 

I get most of my parts from Demonscycle.com and so far they've supplied me we everything!