Colin,
Some Harley dealers went much further eg when the Roadking came out in '94 they were impossible to get hold of...the only UK dealership with any left was Manchester Bauer Millets and they would only sell the Road King with over £2k worth of accessories fitted, so they maximised their profits Same when the Springer Heritage came out, you could only get them loaded with accessories by the dealer, no choice this is what you get.
But the bubble eventual bursts and now Harley is struggling to make the levels of profit it made in the early 1990's when it only made about 45k motorcycles a year and now it makes nearly 250k motorcycles a year and much more expansive accessories and clothing business by comparison.
regards
John
Have a guess who owned the first Road King released to the dealer network in the UK? It arrived in a crate from the States for HD U.K. and when they unpacked it at their dealer (Windy Corner in Barwell) it was on a carb and they had ordered an EFi one as it had just been launched.
Windy Corner were my dealer and I had bought 3 HD’s from them so the dealer principal (Roger Winterburn) rand me and said ‘you know you wanted a Road King.....) I bought it unseen on the spot. It was ’States Blue’ and a stunner. Panic was 10 days later I was booked to go to the Harley EU Rally in Costelló De La Plana, Spain. We did a deal where the dealer would have the bike ready and I would have 3 days to run it in and get it back for first service. I rode it to Wales and back then the Lakes and back and we just got 1,000 on it and serviced. I also rode it down and across to France then changed the oil again on my way to Spain ( somewhere near Montelimar there is an oil slick near a hedgerow ;-)). When I got to the rally site Harley EU wanted to ‘borrow’ the bike as they didn’t have a Road King for their stand, having seen how many drunken bikers sit on display bikes I wanted a written indemnity they would repair all damage and scratches, when they failed to do this I refused them access to the bike but had plenty of people gathering outside my tent and it wasn’t me they had come to see.
A great bike and many said I was crazy taking a new bike on such a long run so early but it didn’t miss a beat. I had a 2 week holiday booked so on the way back (glorious weather) a couple of the lads from our chapter and I rode across to Monaco then back via Switzerland. Another great holiday.
The Road king had all the comfort of the Electroglide chassis yet the knees in the breeze of a Softail. Best of both worlds. I put 10K miles on that bike in 2 years before selling it.
BR
Colin
