Buying Harley Davidson Apparel
March 15, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Each and every year it seems we see much more motorcycles on the highway. Living on the east coast back in the 1960’s, I usually felt quite alone at times on the road. But lately, motorcycle riders mirror a very good cross section of our modern society. Quite a few would likely acknowledge that the marketing and advertising for the Harley Davidson motorcycle has had a good deal to do with this new level of respectability. It’s not out of the ordinary today to see your neighbor trade in his suit for his leather and Harley over the weekend.
Needless to say with all the rising acceptance of motorcycles, the need for parts and accessories have grown enormously. Many of us that have ridden motorcycles for just about any length of time can certainly recall when purchasing accessories or parts seemed to be really a hassle. You used to be restricted to motorcycle dealerships that normally just stocked their own merchandise and oftentimes a very limited variety of aftermarket parts or accessories. It had been common to observe an aftermarket product or part in a show or in any magazine just to find out no one would stock the item where you live. as you might expect, as a lot more men and women began enjoying motorcycling, a lot more retailers for Harley Davidson Parts & Accessories popped up online.
I’ve discovered that for best results, it is best to seek out a web based retail outlet that provides motorcycle parts, accessories and clothing. Online shopping is not that different from shopping in your neighborhood in so far as it really is easier and less expensive if you’re able to locate all your requirements at one place. You’ll do better also if the website provides items through many different sellers. this presents the shopper with not only the greatest variety but the best prices at the same time.
I’ve found retailers stocking almost everything related to motorcycles from aftermarket motorcycle parts, and custom motorcycle parts to accessories such as bell motorcycle helmets, full face motorcycle helmet, to carbon fiber motorcycle helmets. the best aspect about shopping online for parts and accessories is you’ll find that the majority of things just require a few days to reach you, and that is an enormous improvement over the local stores that tell you any special order will take two to three weeks.
The most popular category for motorcycle accessories is clothing. Once again, this is when online stores excel because they have such a large variety. With little energy, you should have no problem finding Harley Davidson clothing, Harley Davidson women’s clothing, mens leather motorcycle jacket, motorcycle racing leathers, motorcycle racing boots, and leather motorcycle pants most any size and color.
As the more comfortable weather approaches, it’ll shortly be time for getting our equipment together for another season of riding. this time, make the first stop your own Computer to equip yourself the simplest way.
Buying Harley Davidson Apparel
America, Please Don’t Buy a Harley Because it Gets 50 MPG
February 13, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
So I read all the ranting and raving. To get a couple things straight here. I am a motorcyclist that regularly rides 400 plus miles in a day, I live in WI, I do not ride a Harley, and I wear all the proper gear when I ride. I ride because I love to do it, I love the smells, the sounds, the sights, and the people you meet. I don’t care what you ride as long as you are having fun doing it.
I see the ad as trying to get someone to buy a bike so they can feel good about helping the blue collar worker and then pull up at the bar to show off their new “american made bike”. good job, it goes along with all their other ads and marketing.
To get a Harley you can spend $9K. To get a “decent” Harley, you need to spend at least $18K. To own a “nice” Harley you need to spend $22K. who are you guys kidding, do you ever look at their prices. Lets be serious here. You walked in and got sucked into the “image” of the HD motorcycle, not anything else, including reliability or safety. the bikes are old, heavy, loud(99% fo HD’s have aftermarket pipes), and there is nothing new or cutting edge about those bikes. (Excluding possibly the V-Rod). everyone knows the expression “you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig”. that is what it is. the lipstick is the chrome and glitz, but underneath that is an old bike. You just walked out of the store with your new bike that you and every other Harley rider knows deep down that they got ripped off on. But hey at least you got your image and you can fit in with the other HD riders. Don’t forget to get your protective gear to save that image. Loud pipes don’t save anything, your pipes face behind you. so when you get on the throttle it isn’t to save you, you just, piss off your neighborhood, your community, other motorists, and mostly other motorcyclists because you are giving them a bad rap too.
As for the Jap bikes, there isn’t a ton of soul in those bikes but they aren’t buying an image. They got a heck of a bike for a steal! and you know what, it is faster, safer, and just as fun to ride as every other bike out there. those are the guys you HD people should be waving at, make friends with them because they are the smart ones! OK except for the moron with the helmet strapped to the side of the bike.
German and Italian bikes are still the best, I don’t care who you are. Yeah they are expensive but not as much as an HDs. plus they will most of the time out handle and sound better than anything out there. plus there is technology, feel and safety. You may say some of them are unreliable, which is true but you also have to think that someone has to take the leap outside of the box and then the rest will follow. these are the guys you want to meet, you may think they are snobs but maybe you should talk to some of them. most of the time they are the safest riders out there.
I love motorcycles and I love riding. I hate the idiots that don’t wear the proper gear. Because when they go down it is everyone else who has to pick up the pieces. I still feel and smell everything that another unprotected rider does, but the bonus of wearing the proper gear is that you can ride longer at one time and hopefully longer in your lifetime.
As for this comment:
“Actually, no, America will just lose that many more union, family-wage manufacturing jobs.”
Did you ever think that the old Union way doesn’t work in today’s workplace. most Union employees are overpaid for the job they do which in turn creates a huge overhead, which forces companies to move their labor elsewhere or cut costs where they shouldn’t be such as R&D. If all the Union employees would make what they “should be” American companies could compete. Believe me a lot of my friends work for big Union factories and they laugh all the way to the bank about what they get paid but then when people get laid off, they don’t get it.
Maybe if Unions were not there everyone could buy products made in the US that are reliable, well build and competitively priced. this would be a move in the right direction.
I hope this gets some of you thinking.
America, Please Don’t Buy a Harley Because it Gets 50 MPG
When Hawgs Could Fly: The Harley-Davidson Tri-Hawk
February 3, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Yes, the legendary manufacturer of the classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle now long past celebrating its 100th Anniversary did indeed sell an automobile well, kind of.
For many years in addition to its big Twin cruisers and lighter weight Sportsters. Harley-Davidson made three-wheelers in the form of utility and police trikes, but they were Barney Rubble lumps compared to the svelte Mirage Fighter looks of the short-lived, but fast-paced Tri-Hawk, circa 1984. Chances are you didnt ogle one in your local Harley dealers showroom for they appeared only briefly, and were chalked up to a marketing miscalculation and rather rapidly deselected from the Milwaukee line-up.
The two-passenger Tri-Hawk had already been in limited production before the Motor Factory decided to take it on as their own ostensibly to fill some exotic niche which had no name. in the previous year, H-D had made a deal with the Austrian Rotax company for engine-gearbox racing units destined for 500 cc short track racing, so maybe it was in this euphoria of internationalism that Milwaukee opted for a three-wheeled machine powered by a French-built Citroen four-banger. and yes, Citroen does seem to loosely translate as lemon. but this lightweight, knife-edge handling bird-of-prey was no bit of sour citrus.
Decades earlier the fuel-economical, albeit quirky German Messerschmidt car, a recycled bit of Luftwaffe fighter plane, had carried two passengers around post-WWII Germany. since then all kinds of other motorcycle engine-powered three-wheeled car/bike hybrids have been born in Dr. Frankensteins lab, but none ever caught on. in the early 80s, the Tri-Hawk appeared at a time when experimenters were again looking for alternative designs and better power to weight options. the Tri-Hawk was a product of this enthusiasm, the design conjured up by race car engineer Robert McKee while the deep pockets underwriting the project was millionaire sportsman Lou Richards. the finished product was assembled in a small plant located in a beachside town called Dana Point that basks in the SoCal sun betwixt Los Angeles and San Diego. the 1299 cubic inch flat four air-cooled engine rode up front while the frame and suspension echoed McKees racecar experience. Again borrowing from French technology, the builders incorporated a hydraulic braking system manufactured by Renault.
Tipping the scales at 1300 lbs., and powered by 80 horsepower through a 5-speed transaxle transmission, theTri-Hawk has what could be called exhilarating performance characteristics. also it was not shy in the exhaust note department, a snarling Formula one rapture issuing from the pipes.
If you wanted to buy a Tri-Hawk back in the autumn of 1984 at the time of Harley-Davidsons acquirement of the company, you had to cough up $12,000 which today will buy only about two-thirds of a big Twin. back then 12K seemed a lot for a vehicle with no top and only three wheels. Yet it had appeal, and substance, both in performance and in the looks department. it coulda, shouldabut the Factory game plan was lacking in the area of infrastructure to support sales. Milwaukee decided not to sell them through their dealers, leaving only the factory in Dana Point and three other franchise locations to sell the Tri-Hawk not exactly universal availability nor were there Super Bowl ad spots in the way of promotion. Even then, only about eleven Tri-Hawks were leaving the factory nest on a monthly basis, again not exactly flying out of the assembly door into the waiting arms of the motoring public. so like many endangered species, the Tri-Hawk died not from intrinsic design flaws, but from neglect.
Bottom line, the Tri-Hawk is an intelligently designed, seriously made sports machine that shares much of the adrenaline producing qualities of the Cobras eyeball sucking performance and the Lotus cars nimble handling, but with motorcycling licensing and insurance perks, plus a bit of jetfighter tossed in. it could carry two in relative comfort, and safety thanks to the integral roll bar and safety belts. and you didnt need to know French to drive one. they werent delicate or temperamental, gave good gas mileage, and were easy to park. and in the curvies, they ate big Beemers and Benzs for breakfast. Today 12 grand seems a bargain, except the last Tri-Hawk this author knows about sold for $25,000. You might catch it near Los Angeles flying around the Malibu Canyons piloted by a guy with a big grin.
Chrome Harley Shifter Linkages
