Passes & Canyons Blog

I received an offer of a free pair of fancy ear plugs to review and all I needed to do was come out to Avalanche Harley-Davidson for their May Bike Night and connect with the vendor at their booth. Just to be sure, I googled Avalanche before I headed out and good thing! They moved.

While I was set to head out to Colfax and . . . what? Simms? . . . but instead it turns out Avalanche has moved to a huge new site out on what the map tells me is officially U.S. 40, but what I would think of as CO93, just north of I-70. If you remember where Heritage Square used to be, it’s right there. Heritage Square was set back up off the road and Avalanche and a bunch of other new shops are right there but right up along the road.

So OK, I didn’t waste my time going to the wrong place.

And what a huge, fancy new place it is. They have got to have at least 120 bikes on site ready for sale, and it’s not at all unusual to see bikes being ridden right in and out the front doors to/from the display floor.

Now, when someone buys a bike things really let loose. They fire up some loud music and then the buyer steps up and rings this big bell, announcing to everyone that they are now the proud owner of a new Harley. Then all the floor staff line up to shake the new owner’s hand. They make a big deal out of it.

So it makes me wonder. I’ve been reading for some time how motorcycle sales are dropping, and Harley especially is having trouble because the big cruisers they make don’t appeal to the young riders all the brands are looking for. This big new facility cannot have been cheap, and it is pretty much the standard for all the Harley shops across the country. Is somebody getting ready to take a big financial fall, or are these places going to continue to thrive? I have no idea. It will be interesting to see in the next few years.

Biker Quote for Today

Gawd’s honest truth, never give up the asphalt…The bike wants to turn more than you do, at least try to help it do so…

I’m sure there are others who already knew this, but I just found out yesterday that Freedom Harley-Davidson is no more. Under new ownership, the company is now called Avalanche Harley-Davidson, although at least for the time being the URL for their website is still http://www.freedomh-d.com/.

According to a report in the Denver Business Journal, owner and founder Ken Allen sold the dealership he established at 8000 W. Colfax to Michael Veracka, who is a partner at several other Harley dealerships around the country, including Grand Rapids H-D in Michigan and Rawhide H-D in Olathe, KS.

Although I don’t ride a Harley, my emotional connection to Freedom H-D goes way, way back. About 25 years ago, before I even owned a motorcycle, I was editor of the Sentinel newspapers in the suburbs north of Denver. We were always receiving gifts and various schwag from businesses hoping to get some free publicity out of it. As editor I got to pick and choose what I wanted and would distribute the rest to my staff.

One day a package arrived and it contained a T-shirt from Freedom H-D in connection with a poker run or something else they were sponsoring. I didn’t have a bike but I had always wanted one, ever since I was a kid. And in fact it was just a very short time later that I did buy my first bike, my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom that I still own and ride.

Anyway, I kept that shirt. And I wore it a lot, until it was finally shot full of holes had to go in the rag bag. So I’ve always felt a bit of connection to that dealership that I have never felt to the others.

Now time marches on and there’s a new owner and new name. I just have to wonder, though, why they changed the name. It seems like you’d be hard put to find a better name than Freedom. Just makes me wonder.

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Biker Quote for Today

Hot women come and go, but a beautiful bike stays with you long after you sell it.