Motorcycle Financing Inquiries

I figured today was a good day to get started with my investigations regarding motorcycle financing, so I made a few calls and left a few messages with some people I know who work in banks who might be able to get me on the right path.

I basically left the same message with each of my contacts, detailing what timeframe I'm looking at (30 days or so), the manufacturer (Harley), the model (Road King Classic) and the amount I expect to finance (around $10,000).

Hopefully someone will get back with me, because I still have some questions. I've dealt with car loans numerous times, so I know the ins and outs of those kinds of loans - but how different are motorcycle loans? Are the rates higher and terms worse because motorcycles are typically considered pleasure vehicles?

Adding to the confusion is the fact that I intend to buy and title the bike in my company's name. Since my company is relatively new (less than a year old) that might be problem. Income isn't a problem at all, and putting 1/2 the price of the bike down should make things go smoothly...but who knows? If I need to just pay the entire amount up-front, I'd have to wait a month or two more, and that'd just ruin my summer.

I also want to know how long Harley-Davidson's financing approval period is and what interest rate terms I can get from them - so I can compare that financing with what my bank comes up with. I'm looking forward to that. I hate not knowing.

I have tomorrow off and the wife agreed to head on over to Dillon Brothers with me again in exchange for my help cleaning the basement. After looking through their online stock, I noticed that they had a deep turquoise/antique white Road King Classic in stock. Hopefully their website is accurate and up to date and I'll be able to see the color in person - with the wife giving the thumbs up or down.

How To Find A Great Motorcycle Dealership

When you go riding every weekend with your motorcycle buddies do you feel like your current ride isn't good enough? Maybe your bike doesn't stand out like you want it to, and you're lost in a sea of look-alike motorcycles? Maybe you're thinking that the time has come for an upgrade?

While completely custom choppers will obviously stand out, even the choppers from the larger manufacturers stand out from the rest of the cruisers or sport bikes out there. If it's been a while since you've been in the market for a new ride, read on.

Big Boy Toys Cost Big Boy Bucks

As you know, getting a new chopper can be a sizable investment. You're going to drop some money into your new ride, either all up front or piece-by-piece as you go. You have probably been riding your current bike for a while now, so you may or may not have been looking around at the local dealers. I'll tell you right now, though - one of the most important things you can do to help you with the whole motorcycle-buying process is choosing the right shop to buy the bike from.

You want a shop that you can trust to help you pick the perfect bike for you. Also, you want a shop that is going to charge you a decent price. And, most importantly, you want a shop with a great selection of choppers and cruisers to choose from.

First off, be sure to ask your friends or other riders you see out on the road for suggestions. They will be able to tell you where they had good experiences.

Shop Around For Dealers As Well As For The Motorcycle Itself

Where do you go to look? The first thing to keep in mind is the importance of shopping around. Regardless of where you live, there is more than one motorcycle dealership out there and there are usually many more. Check into each of them. Walk in, see how friendly the salespeople are. Talk with some of the other customers and see how they feel about their experience. If you're not completely comfortable, walk out. You're the guy with the cash, after all.

Use The Internet To Find The Right Bike For You

If you're smart, you'll use the internet to research motorcycle prices. You can use this research to send bike price quote requests via e-mail to motorcycle dealerships within a reasonable distance and possibly score yourself a deal.

Once you have either cash or financing on hand, get a list of all the motorcycle dealerships within a reasonable radius - I usually go with dealerships within about a 500 mile radius.

Once you have the list, work it a bit and, by visiting the dealership websites, get a working e-mail address for each of the dealerships. E-mail the right people at the dealership to get a line of communication going. You probably want their Internet sales manager, or their general sales manager, or both. Send out an e-mail to each dealership's sales managers asking them if they'd like to make a deal ASAP. The dealerships that respond will be the ones you'll focus on.

Don't be stupid, don't be greedy. Dealerships aren't in the business of giving bikes away, and you'll be cutting your own foot off and get nowhere if you make outrageous demands.

The best way I've found to get a good deal is to say in your follow-up e-mail that you have no problem paying MSRP (or a little lower) on the bike itself, but you were wondering what else the motorcycle dealership could throw in on the deal. Make sure the e-mail states that you're talking to other dealerships - and name them. This puts the ball in the dealership's court and, hopefully, they'll come back with a decent bargain for you. It's not uncommon to get an extended warranty, free services, a good amount of credit on a gift card or even an expensive accessory or two like pipes or seats to be thrown in to get you to jump on a deal.

It may take a little effort to find the right shop, but when you count the cash you've saved with a little research, you will be glad that you spent the time.

Worth Harley-Davidson Offering Employee Pricing

I'm about a month (maybe two at most) away from actually pulling the trigger and putting the money down on a new motorcycle, but if you're in the Midwest and looking for a Harley...you really should be checking out Worth Harley-Davidson in Kansas City.

From what I can tell, most Harley dealerships aren't very interested in getting too far away from MSRP, and that's good for people who want their bikes to retain their value. If you doubt me, just look at Chrysler and GM. Once you start offering significant discounts and rebates all the time - like Chrysler and GM did - everyone expects 'em and prices drop because everyone "knows" that their neighbor got that discount.

That being said, if the bikes aren't moving, you have to do something. According to the Journal-Sentinel Online, Harley dealers expect about a 10% drop in new motorcycle sales this year, although that number looks like it could be higher when you consider that new motorcycles sales are down between 20% and 25% from what they were a year ago.

Worth Harley-Davidson North is offering employee pricing on all the motorcycles on their sales floor.

Despite how annoyed some dealerships are going to be with this promotion, you have to respect Worth Harley-Davidson for making buying a Harley a slightly less financially damaging prospect. After all, the more people that can afford a Harley, the more people who are going to be buying parts, service and so on - probably from that dealership.

If I catch wind that another dealership within a day's drive of Omaha is offering a similar promotion in June, I would absolutely run down there on June 26th and put down my money and sign whatever contract they wanted. And I'd probably end up paying over MSRP anyway by buying a slew of accessories.

Bought My First Half Helmet

Back on the 21st of May, I stopped by Dillon Harley here in Omaha and looked through their selection of motorcycles. My wife and I chatted the salesguy up a bit, talking about a few things like the 2010 Harley colors and models that were going to be released soon.

Of course, while I was doing this, in the back of my mind I was thinking:

I might as well pick up a half helmet while I'm here.

So I did.

Nice box, huh?

Ok, after I opened the box, I had the nice surprise of seeing my new half helmet in a helmet bag. Now, I don't know if helmets usually come with bags, but this one did and it was a nice touch.

After opening the box:

And after opening the bag and moving things around a little bit:

What you see here is a Harley-Davidson Spoiler half helmet. This half helmet weighs just 1 pound and 11 ounces and isn't uncomfortable at all when it's on my oversized head. The weight is due to the Aramid fiberglass shell, and the comfort level is increased with the thick liner inside that is supposed to wick away sweat. The liner, combined with the forehead venting that is built into the front of the half helmet, should reduce the chances of my skull heating up beyond my ability to deal with it.

Not that I am concerned about sweat because I have a huge sweaty head, you understand.

The visor in front is removable, which I will probably take advantage of because half helmet visors tend to catch the wind and push your head back - which is just a general pain in the ass thing that I don't need.

Now, I'm not quite done with this helmet, or with helmets in general. I did have Holstein's Harley order a half helmet, which I'm probably not going to need at this point. And I feel like an ass for not picking that up, but...I'll go over there at some point and pick up (and pay for) a good 3/4 helmet with a visor.

Also, after browsing around on Amazon for a while I found an interesting accessory that I'm going to have to pick up - the Road Tech Bluetooth 2.0 Helmet System:

I don't intend to be out on the road without my iPhone, and driving anything without using a Bluetooth headset or earpiece to have a phone conversation with is a bad idea.

So that helmet system might be one of my next purchases.
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Visiting Holstein’s Harley-Davidson Dealership For The First Time

As part of the whole process of shopping for a new motorcycle, I'm going to be checking out as many dealers in the Omaha area that I can. When you're preparing yourself to drop about $18,000 to $19,000 on a new motorcycle, you want to make sure that the place you buy it from is going to be able to take care of you, that you can trust them a bit not to rip you off.

From the looks of things, unless they want to drive for a while, people who are interested in buying a Harley in the Omaha area have three choices - Dillon Brothers Harley at 180th and Maple, Frontier Harley in Lincoln and Holstein Harley-Davidson at 72nd and L street.

While it's not the first dealership I went to, I did have the opportunity to stop by the new showroom of Holstein's Harley-Davidson on the 15th of May, 2009.

Holstein's Harley-Davidson new store is located at 4940 South 72nd Street, right across from where Rod Kush's furniture store is/used to be.

I've been talking with some co-workers about different dealerships in the area, listening to their experiences and getting ideas about what the motorcycle-buying scene in Omaha is about. We have some long-term riders in my workplace, who have been buying motorcycles for decades in the Omaha area. Everyone I've talked to about the different dealerships in the area have been pretty unanimous - with most people having a negative opinion of Holstein's Harley. In some cases, vehemently negative opinions...

I've been told that Holstein's dealership wasn't really interested in selling bikes, that they just kept the franchise to get the dealership discount, that their service department sucks, that they treated people like dirt during the years that they were the only Harley dealer in town - that type of thing.

I snuck the visit in with the wife as we were heading home from Kubat's pharmacy, so I went with my wife and kids in tow. The kids were tired and the wife was tired of the kids being tired, but she indulged me and hauled everyone inside to check things out.

From what I could tell during my visit to the Holstein's dealership, it looked like they'd put some money into the building and the presentation of the place. It was very clean and well-lit. They had a pretty good selection of bikes on the floor, both new and used.

From what I saw, they had about as many bikes on the floor as Dillon Brother's Harley has. I wandered up and down the aisles and checked out the bikes. I noticed that Holstein marks their freight and dealer prep on the tags attached to the bikes - something that was missing during my many previous visits to Dillon Brothers.

I was asked once if I needed any help by a youngish-looking salesguy. I didn't need any at the moment, told him so and he left me alone, which is what I wanted. There were a few other customers in the store, more customers than salesguys, so I figured I'd let him go help someone who might want to buy today.

The selection of clothing and accessory merchandise didn't seem as extensive in Holstein's dealership as it did in Dillon Brothers. I checked out a few helmets while I was there, and was helped by a nice saleswoman. Woman, not girl. She seemed knowledgable about helmets and was eager to help me find what I needed. When she didn't have the exact helmet that I was looking for in stock, she took down my information and told me it would be ready in about 5 days. She asked if I was law enforcement, I explained my situation and she told me to mention it when I pick the helmet up to get a discount. Good customer service there, as long as they get back with me.

Despite what I've heard about their dealership, my first experience visiting Holstein's Harley-Davidson dealership was a good one. I haven't actually talked to anyone there at length, but I'm waiting for that call back about the helmet and will talk to an actual bike salesperson the next time I stop by. We'll see how that goes.
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What I’m Looking For In A New Motorcycle

I've been looking at a few different motorcycles for the last few years, waiting to save up a little money and for the wife to put her stamp of approval on the idea. Up until a few months ago, I've just been casually looking around, checking out what's out there, looking at everything from Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda to Harley, Triumph and Victory.

So far, I haven't seen any metric cruiser-style bike with looks to match the Honda Shadow Aero's. That bike is a little too small for me, however.

Since business has been good, I've been seriously looking at bike manufacturers that were previously out of my price range, namely Harley-Davidson.

At the moment, I'm really leaning towards Harley-Davidson's Road King Classic. Why? Because from what I can tell, it's got just about everything that I'm looking for.

So what am I looking for?

My Personal Motorcycle Style Preferences

These are only my personal preferences, everyone has a different opinion about what they like, and I can respect that. I'm not sure why I like what I like, I only know what I like when I see it. there are a few common factors in what I like, however:

Fenders - I'm a big fan of and really like full fenders. I've never liked the small, chopped fender up front.

Fairing - No fairing. Please. Yeah, I know it's great for long trips. Yeah, I know it's great to have a fairing in the wind or rain. Yeah, you can put a radio in it and listen to your tunes while you ride. I just don't think that it looks right on a bike. It's just me. Maybe in 10 or 20 years I might change my mind.

Windshield - Having one available is good. If there's one on the bike, I'd like to be able to take it off easily, however.

Engine - I'm not going to be racing anyone, but I don't want to feel like I don't have enough power to move when I need to move.

Size - I've got a 30 inch inseam, so I need to keep things close to the ground. I'm open to lowering things an inch or so.

Seat - I'd prefer the leave the back fender bare, so a solo seat, or something that would convert easily to a solo seat would be great. Don't intend to take anyone with me for the most part, but having the option is nice.

Saddlebags - Kind of need these if I'm going to be riding to work. I'd like the option to take them off relatively easily, but the bike has to look good with them on.

Features - Cruise control would be nice, but I don't plan on making a whole lot of long trips. ABS would be nice, but not essential.

Visually, here's a few bikes illustrating what I like:

I've also been looking at the 2009 Harley Softail Deluxe - which is probably the best-looking modern Harley out there right now, in my opinion.

The only reason I'm wary of that model is that it doesn't come with the windshield or saddlebags, it doesn't have cruise control and it has a 5-gallon fuel tank as opposed to the 6-gallon fuel tank that Harley Tourers have. And because the Softail Deluxe has just about the same MSRP as the Road King Classic, I'd have to spend a bit more to get the Deluxe as decked out as the RKC.

Although, this 2005 Softail Deluxe is just about what I'm looking for:

And because it's May 2009, and the 2010 Harley lineup will be announced towards the end of July, I'm curious as to what changes are in store. When you consider how much of a change there is between a 2008 Road King and a 2009 Road King, I don't want to buy something if it's going to go through an extensive re-design in the next few months, you know? So I'm going to wait to see what changes the 2010 Harley's bring before I pull the trigger and make my decision.

In the end, I know I'm going to have to get on more than a few of these bikes and ride them at length before I settle on something in particular. I look forward to it.

Here’s What We’re Gonna Do

Cruisers and choppers.

Choppers and cruisers.

I've been wanting a motorcycle since about 1994, when I took the motorcycle safety course through the Air Force back home in California. Back then, I debated whether or not to trade in my truck for a sportbike - a Honda CBR600 f2. Looking back, especially when I consider that my truck was my only method of transportation at the time, it was an idea which I am kind of glad I didn't follow through with.

I've ridden a few motorcycles that friends have lent me for an hour or two, but it wasn't until 2005 when my father-in-law picked up a 2005 Honda Shadow Aero, that I really got a lot of experience with riding a bike on a regular basis.

For a first bike experience for someone with virtually no mechanical ability, the Shadow was a good bike, with a maintenance-free shaft drive. My father-in-law did all the maintenance on it regardless, so I didn't have to worry about it much. I was able to take it out whenever I wanted, which was quite often.

I'd ride around Omaha to work and back, I'd ride from Tecumseh to Omaha, back again, to Lincoln and back again, Beatrice....you name it, I rode it.

I loved it.

There were only a few problems:

1) It wasn't really mine.
2) The Honda Shadow Aero is only a 750cc engine and wasn't really enthusiastic about getting up over 60. Oh it'd go up to 80 or so in a pinch, but it was very sluggish once you hit that big 6-0.
3) Cheap saddlebags - Again, I couldn't complain since it wasn't really my bike, but my father-in-law put some bags on it that couldn't be locked and weren't very secure.

Despite those problems, I really enjoyed the time I had with that bike, until my father-in-law ran into a deer with it. That's another story.

I picked up the chopperfanatic.com domain name a while back, and have been saving it from then until now - until I was actually ready to start looking into picking up a motorcycle.

After talking it over with the wife a few times and getting her approval for the whole thing, I finally decided that now was the time to share a bit about the process of selecting and buying a motorcycle of my own while I'm going through it.

Once I buy this motorcycle, I'll document my rides and maintenance, putting it all up here.

Because I use eBay so often, I've got a section of the site that shows choppers of all kinds that are for sale on eBay. I'll be modifying that section of the site so that it shows regular cruisers and other bikes I'm interested in as well.

Soon I'll be adding a forum and a classified ad section, so visitors and regular readers can talk about bikes, swap or sell items or just hang out.

Hit me up if you have any ideas or thoughts about what you want to see.

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