Harley-Museum

[milw.pirates]

boutique dealers

Remember when that change happened! A lot of ma and pop dealers went by the wayside and the attitude of the boutique dealers sales staff changed. what happened to the good old days?

Ken S. = # 6457

[vph-d]

I think Motor Company lost a lot of the ma and pop dealerships in the mid 80s due to the recession. Perhap the poor quality of the product had something to do with it. Most of us looked at the FLT with horror. A feeling borne out by the outrageous amount of warranty work that model required. Paperpushers at modern dealerships have it easy...
VPH-D

[mmoore]

50 years from now some of our decendents will look at pics of some old dealerships (like the one that used to be in princeton ill. which also doubled as the princeton airport) and wonder if we saved anything from it.I wish i did but harley did change to try to survive as they used to lose a lot of money letting other people make money off thier logo. I took a 68 sportster wheel in to a new one a few years ago to get new spokes. I was actually thinking of adding a new bike to my collection and was probaly going to buy one that day but when the kid behind the parts counter told me that that was not a harley wheel (because it had no disk brake) I just left. (this was not the dealer in princeton which used to be gants) thats been a couple of years and I still have no desire to return to that (my local) one. however I stopped by a st louis dealer last summer and mixed in with the new bikes there were a few old ones that looked like brand new! they were scattered all around the showroom. I looked at every bike there (great way to make me look) to find all the old ones. Im getting the urge to have one of those easy button starters and rack up some miles so i will probaly look hard there

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Fritz/Herbert, that's an interesting photo of the first shed. It always looked to me as if that 'Harley-Davidson Motor Co' on the door in the factory history pictures was put on by the photo retoucher, and this tends to confirm it. Best regards.