Should You Buy a New Harley Davidson

You may think that purchasing a new motorcycle is as easy as simply picking a model, going to the nearest dealer and paying for it. Well this is not true, especially if this is going to be your first motorcycle. It is important for you to know that owning a Harley Davidson is comparable to owning a legend. Therefore, you should look at it as an investment, not just a purchase. Since a Harley Davidson is also expensive, you need to know what you want, what you need and what you can handle before you make the purchase. Before you purchase a new bike, you really should do some research since not all Harley Davidsons are suitable for cruising. In other words, just because a bike looks good does not mean that it is the right one for you. Instead, you are going to want to take the time to find one that runs well, is comfortable for you to ride and handle. If you are just starting out, then you may want to start with a smaller bike until your skills improve. You will find that touring bikes are actually the heaviest of the Harley Davidson bikes. These bikes range in price from $16,000 to more than $20,000 without you even customizing them. Models include the FLHR Road King, FLHRS Road King Custom, FLHRC Road King Classic, FLHX Street Glide, FLTR Road Glide, FLHT Electra Glide Standard, FLHTC Electra Glide Classic and FLHTCU Ultra Classic Electra Glide. If you would like a slightly smaller bike that is also faster, then you should go for the VRSC models. These bikes include the VRSCAW V-Rod, VRSCD Night Rod, VRSCXD Night Rod Special, VRSCX and VRSCR Street Rod. You will pay between $14,000 and $20,000 for these bikes. For something even lighter than that you will want to check out the Softail models, which cost between $14,000 and $18,000. These models include the FXST Softail Standard (a bare bones model), FXSTB Night Train, FXSTC Softail Custom, FXSTD Softail Deuce, FLSTF Fat Boy, FLSTN Softail Deluxe, FLSTSC Softail Springer Classic and the FLSTC Heritage Softail Classic. There are also the Dyna models, which sell for between $12,000 and $17,000. These models include the FXD Dyna Super Glide, FXDC Dyna Super Glide Custom, FXDB Dyna Street Bob, FXDL Dyna Low Rider and FXDWG Dyna Wide Glide. Now if you are in search for the lightest Harley bike that you can buy, then you will want the Sportster model, which cost between $6,500 and $10,000. At the upper end of this price range you will find the special 50th Anniversary limited addition model. Other models that are available include the XL Sportster 883, XL883L Sportster 883 Low, XL883C Sportster 883 Custom, XL883R Sportster 883, XL1200N Sportster 1200 Nightster, XL1200C Sportster 1200 Custom, XL1200R Sportster 1200 Roadster and XL1200l Sportster 1200 Low. Some riders think that the Sportster is the most difficult bike to ride even though it is so light. This is because of the high placement of its gas tank and the bikes center of gravity. For this reason, you should test drive it first instead of simply assuming that you will like the way that it rides. Regardless as to which model you choose, you should test drive it before you purchase it. Actually get on a new bike, start it up and listen to the engine. Take the time to feel its vibrations and go for a ride. It is possible that you may need to actually test drive several different models before you purchase your new Harley.

March 18, 2011

As gas prices grow, motorists consider new rides

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Fri Mar 18, 2011, 05:00 AM EDT

PRINCETON — Gasoline prices continuing their climb toward the $4 a gallon mark are inspiring some motorists to reconsider the vehicle they feed with their gasoline dollars.

As of Thursday, average prices at Virginia’s gas pumps stood at $3.47 for regular, $3.53 for premium and $3.74, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. In West Virginia, prices were $3.62 for regular, $3.73 for premium and $3.84 for supreme.

Prices edging into the $4 a gallon range are forcing more low income households to seek help with gasoline when they have an emergency.

“Let’s see,” Craig Hammond of the Bluefield Union Mission said as he checked his records. “Let’s look at today’s alone. There was a man who had to get help to North Carolina whose wife was having surgery, which we verified. We had a referral from Montcalm. They needed gas because their mother was bedridden and they had to go pick up her medicine.”

During the first two months of 2011, 55 families asked for gasoline assistance. Twenty-two families have requested this help so far this March, Hammond said.

“Their reason for this is the high price of gas,” he said. “It’s really had an impact; ours are mainly for medical travel and emergencies. We had one who came down here for a funeral and couldn’t get back home.”

Households that are better off financially still have to deal with the bite gasoline prices are taking out of their budgets, especially when commuting to and from work accounts for much of the driving.

Tim Shinault, sales manager for Cole Harley-Davidson, Inc. in Bluefield, said the dealerships has seen new customers arriving. Some of the new interest has to do with warming weather, but others are looking at motorcycles that can get 40 to 60 miles per gallon.

“Some folks who are purchasing now have 40 to 50 miles to drive to work,” Shinault said. “They’re looking to save some gas.”

Scooters have been popular in other parts of the country because of their fuel mileage–80 to 100 miles per gallon–but most people seeking a bike for gasoline savings have looked at motorcycles, said Reggie Poe, sales manager at Hillbilly Cycle Sales in Princeton.

“I’ve sold a couple of bike in the past month because of that,” he said of fuel prices.

Fewer scooters are used in West Virginia because the law requires drivers to have licenses and tagged vehicles. In Virginia, scooters that are 50 cc or lower do not require licenses, tags or registration, Poe said.

“If West Virginia would change the law in the 50cc and lower scooters to where you didn’t have to have a license to ride them, there would be more scooters out there,” he said.

Some motorcycle dealerships saw record sales the last time gasoline prices approached the $4 a gallon mark.

“This year we’ve already started out ahead of last year’s sales in motorcycles,” said Darrin Coe, general manager of Swampfox Motor Sports. “And two years ago when gas was about $4, we had a record year in motorcycle sales.”

Motorcycle sales tend to “ebb and flow” with the economy and gasoline prices, he said.

“I certain expect to see it (good sales) based on gas prices and the floor traffic we’ve had,” Coe said. “We’ve already sold several street bikes. I’m just tickled to death.”

A slow economy can impact motorcycle sales since many people do not consider motorcycles a necessity; this can change when fuel prices get high.

“We sell for fun in this building, but a motorcycle can get 50, 60 miles per gallon and you have a guy that commutes 20, 30 miles a day, that could save him a lot of money,” he said.

Paul Jr. Designs Unveils a New Chopper at J&P in Florida – [VIDEO]

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March 14, 2011 | By: J&P Cycles

Paul Teutul Jr., co-star of the Discovery Channel’s “American Chopper: Sr. Versus Jr.”, rolled onto a stage at our Ormond Beach, Fla., store last Friday with one of two custom Harley-Davidson motorcycles he designed for CrankyApe.com.

The long-touted unveiling occurred in the middle of Bike Week at our Destination Daytona store with thousands of Paul Jr. fans on hand to get a first-hand look at the blue custom-made motorcycle created especially for CrankyApe.com, the online powersport auction company. Paul Jr., his brother, Mikey, and other Paul Jr. Designs employee/stars signed autographs and chatted with J&P visitors after the unveiling. The popularity of Paul Jr.’s TV series was evident, with hundreds of fans rushing forward to get an autograph or a photo with the PJD team members.

The primary chopper design was based on a Harley motorcycle on the auction site. The custom bike will be publicly auctioned on the CrankyApe website with the proceeds going to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), a charitable organization that generates support and commemorates the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Last Friday’s event was filmed for an episode of “American Chopper” that will air this spring. But visitors to our Daytona store got a sneak peek at the CrankyApe.com company bike — a blazing blue beauty that drew appreciative applause from the J&P faithful and onlookers alike. Later this spring, CrankyApe will bring its custom motorcycle back to the company’s store in Cannon Falls, Minn.

Stay tuned to this blog to find out when the J&P Cycles Daytona episode of “American Chopper: Sr. Versus Jr.” will air.

Below you will find a video shot by J&P staff of the unveiling. Also, make sure you check out our Facebook page to look at all the pictures we took during Bike Week and the unveiling of the CrankyApe.com bikes.

Boston Biker is GROWING!

Boston Biker was started in 1996 by Larry Cahill initially out of frustration when trying to find information on LOCAL rides, bike shows, paint shops, and all sorts of stuff like that. It was very easy to find information on the internet but poker rides in California or airbrush artists in Florida were not what he was looking for. Like many folks that have a special interest, he began collecting information (from brochures and business cards picked up at motorcycle events to scribbled notes on scraps of paper) about motorcycle activities and motorcycle related businesses. It wasn't long before the format of the site began to take shape. At this point the website was still intended solely as a way to to share this information with a few friends. You know the story, they told a few friends, and those folks told a few friends. As the website grew in popularity the readers started sharing their knowledge and then the site really began to grow. It wasn't long before Boston Biker grew into a full blown business. Why? Because nobody had done this before. There was a huge need for this.

For the next 14 years, Larry saw other folks try to copy the concept. They didn't have the passion. One by one, their websites fell by the wayside and expired. In early 2010, Larry began the task of expanding Boston Biker into a regional website that still provided the much needed local content. In the Summer of 2010, New England Biker LLC was born and Boston Biker became a division of New England Biker, LLC.

As New England's leading provider of motorcycle news and information, NewEnglandBiker.com, continues to add content from all over New England. This is a place for all of us to share information. The categories on the home page are also dynamic. If there is a category you think I should add, let me know.

See you at the shows... we will have a booth at all of the bike shows in New England! Sto

Seacoast Motorcycles Wins Legal Battle over North Hampton Noise Ordinance

Seacoast Motorcycles has won a round in a legal battle over a noise ordinance in North Hampton, N.H.

A federal court has declined to hear the dispute, sent the case back to Rockingham County Superior Court and ordered opponents to pay the dealership's legal fees.

New Castle resident and New Hampshire Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles (NH CALM) founder Bill Mitchell sought to have the case moved to U.S. Circuit Court, contending it involves a federal statute.

In an order dated Feb. 4, U. S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty ruled that NH CALM didn�t have the standing to move a case between the dealership and the city.

�Without formally analyzing the issue, the court observes that NH CALM's claim for federal-question jurisdiction appears to be exceptionally weak,� the judge wrote.

She also ordered NH CALM to pay Seacoast Motorcycles' attorneys fees in an amount to be determined within 20 days, according to the Portsmouth Herald.

In the underlying case, Seacoast Motorcycles sued North Hampton over the city's ordinance regulating motorcycle decibel levels. The ordinance requires a federal Environmental Protection Agency sticker on all motorcycles manufactured after 1982, which indicates decibel levels don't exceed 80. Seacoast argues that the state�s less-restrictive 106-decibel requirement should prevail.

Big Bear Choppers is expanding operations

02:03 PM PST on Wednesday, March 9, 2011

By TIFFANY RAY
The Press-Enterprise

Big Bear Choppers is expanding operations down the mountain with a Perris facility that will double as a service and repair shop and Big Bear Choppers dealership.

The Big Bear Lake business got its start as a repair shop in 1998 and quickly morphed into a motorcycle manufacturing operation. Today, the company produces motorcycles that are sold around the world through a network of about 45 active dealers that stretches as far as Japan, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Mona and Kevin Alsop, the company's founders, said Big Bear Choppers grew to 100 employees at its peak and sold about 800 motorcycles a year, but the recession has brought that down to about 25 employees and 200 motorcycles a year. At the same time, the company's Southern California dealer network has shrunk from six to two.

Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise

Kevin Alsop and his wife Mona, co-owners of Big Bear Choppers, and shop manager Mickey Morosoli stand outside of their new dealership and repair shop in Perris.

The Perris shop is a way to maintain a dealership presence in the Inland Empire market, and offset the downturn in motorcycle sales with service and repairs. It opened quietly a couple of weeks ago along a strip of Highway 74 between interstates 215 and 15. The boxy gray building is nondescript, but the huge Big Bear Chopper banners that hang from it are hard to miss.

Mona Alsop said they chose the site, in part, because the highway is a popular route for bikers and down the road from Hell's Kitchen, a Lake Elsinore restaurant, that is a popular biker hangout. It's also central to key area markets such as Riverside, Temecula and Lake Elsinore, Kevin Alsop said.

Mickey Morisoli, shop manager for the Perris facility, said many of the smaller repair shops have shut down, and the ones that are left are tied exclusively to a manufacturer. He said the Perris shop will fill the gap by handling all makes and models, from dirt bikes and four-wheelers to Harley-Davidsons and Kawasakis.

"In this economy, you can't specialize in one area," he said.

Mickey Morosoli looks over the new repair shop at Big Bear Choppers in Perris. The shop services all makes and models of motorcycles.

Morisoli is the owner of Chopper Doctors, a shop in Corcoran that is an authorized Big Bear Choppers dealer. He said he'll run the two shops in tandem through at least the end of the year.

The last few years have been a rough ride for the motorcycle industry nationally.

Motorcycle sales were down nearly 16 percent in 2010 from the year before, according to preliminary data from the Motorcycle Industry Council. That follows a 41 percent drop in 2009.

Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise

Mona Alsop and manager Mickey Morosoli have seen the chopper business struggle over the past few years due to the recession.

Cam Arnold, vice president of communications for the Irvine-based group, said current data on dealerships isn't available, but there has "definitely been some shrinkage" across the country.

Big Bear Choppers' broad reach has helped keep the company afloat during the recession. In 2009, the company continued taking orders from Europe as the U.S. market tanked, Kevin Alsop said. And last year, European sales dropped, but sales to Australia picked up. Now, they are seeing orders beginning to pick up in the U.S.

"We're cautiously optimistic," he said.

Morisoli said he plans to market the shop through word of mouth at biker bars and gatherings. Plans for a grand opening are in the works.

Already, visitors have begun wandering in who heard about the shop or saw it along the highway. Morisoli said the company's name will help bring in customers.

"You have to have a good reputation to keep people coming back," he said.