Bike Business
Buster, I have noted, came by way of the Ray Price Harley-Davidson dealership in Raleigh.
Now if your idea of a motorcycle dealership is an old ESSO station converted to serve the purpose, forget it. This place, built for the purpose, is a two story affair with floor space of 60,000 square feet, a third again as much as a football field. Inside and out it glistens. Imagine yourself at a Bloomingdales filled with motorcycles and related merchandise.
The main sales floor is an atrium and right down the middle of it is an alley with streaks of rubber that Ray Price, a former drag racer of some renown, layed down when the building was being constructed. Hogs of almost every flavor line the alley.
Now I say "of almost every flavor" because my motorcycle, a Sportster, cannot be found among them. The Sportster, you understand, isn't worthy. It is bottom of the Harley-Davidson line in price and power, and is kept in the back, in a alcove behind the tee shirts, with the Buells in the tiny sports bike section. If you want to wipe the smile off a salesman's face, just tell 'em you are interested in a Sportster!
Yet, once you get a Sportster on the street, it's a Harley to everyone ... except, of course, real Hog riders.
Now if your idea of a motorcycle dealership is an old ESSO station converted to serve the purpose, forget it. This place, built for the purpose, is a two story affair with floor space of 60,000 square feet, a third again as much as a football field. Inside and out it glistens. Imagine yourself at a Bloomingdales filled with motorcycles and related merchandise.
The main sales floor is an atrium and right down the middle of it is an alley with streaks of rubber that Ray Price, a former drag racer of some renown, layed down when the building was being constructed. Hogs of almost every flavor line the alley.
Now I say "of almost every flavor" because my motorcycle, a Sportster, cannot be found among them. The Sportster, you understand, isn't worthy. It is bottom of the Harley-Davidson line in price and power, and is kept in the back, in a alcove behind the tee shirts, with the Buells in the tiny sports bike section. If you want to wipe the smile off a salesman's face, just tell 'em you are interested in a Sportster!
Yet, once you get a Sportster on the street, it's a Harley to everyone ... except, of course, real Hog riders.
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