Archive for October, 2009

Me On A Harley? The “Convince Me” Challenge

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve never been a Harley guy. Rather than spend big bucks on a loud, expensive bike with the pegs way out in front, I have always preferred the cheaper, quieter bikes with the pegs underneath so I can stand up on bumps.

Well, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. For me, as someone who writes about motorcycles, I sometimes have to ride Harleys. Just have to, you know? There’s no escaping it. Dirty job and all that.

Harley-Davidson Road KingThis is just a heads-up that I’m going to be making the ultimate sacrifice in the coming weeks and I’ll be spending a lot of time on a variety of Harleys. I was talking the other day with Troy Terranova, the finance manager over at Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson, and he’s going to try to change my mind.

As Troy puts it, he believes Harleys are hands-down the best motorcycles in the world and if money were not an issue the vast majority of riders would own a Harley–just that simple. For my part, I acknowledged that I’ve rarely ridden Harleys and have never spent any real time on one. For obvious reasons, Troy can’t put me on a new bike for an extended period but with used bikes it’s a different matter. He’s going to set me up to spend some real time on a selection of Harleys, in the hopes that I’ll fall in love.

Troy’s motivation here is simple. Rocky Mountain H-D gets publicity, and it would be especially good publicity if he does in fact convince me. My motivation is to see for myself what is behind the Harley mystique that I have never experienced before. Plus, of course, it gives me good stuff to write about on all my various gigs, such as Examiner.com and RumBum.com.

So stay tuned, I think this is going to be very interesting.

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Biker Quote for Today

It’s a fast Harley…but a slow motorcycle.