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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Is It Me or Is The Emperor Not Wearing Any Clothes?

One Saturday afternoon I was wandering around the Harley Davidson Dealership checking out the new 2007 motorcycles. It was really great to see the changes that they made on the various models. Sigh…I’m in love yet!!

While I like the look of the new Fatboy—when I sat on the motorcycle….it wasn’t love at first sitting. Harley Davidson changed the seat on the Fatboy and it actually has a higher seat height and I can not flat-foot the bike! Grrrr…..already.

If you know, nothing annoys me more to spend X number of dollars on anything and then spending way more to change stuff I don’t like. Motorcycle accessories aren’t cheap, ya know??

Overall, I like most of the changes and my friend and I were having great fun sitting on all the various models and just drooling over this change and that change.

So after the lusty “there’s new motorcycles” haze faded away, I noticed that I was not liking the majority of the paint colors and combos on a good many of the motorcycles. I have been reading and hearing about Harley Davidson pushing towards marketing to women and I’m finding more colors and combinations that are…..unattractive!

Olive green is NOT a girly color. I’m sitting on a very niiiiiiice blue/white Fatboy and looked over at the Springer parked next to me. Okay, maybe if you are an Army guy or girl, you might like this. But I’m thinking that the majority of Army personnel don’t drive Army Green personal owned vehicles. They’d want to buy an olive green Harley?? As a matter of fact…I can not recall any automobile manufacturer that has an olive green vehicle in their line up.

Not to mention that it is a “custom” color (read…NOT BLACK)…it is going to cost more!!!

Of course, from what I hear the ‘07s are flying off the showroom floor and I guess you can order a black Harley and wait half a lifetime (I have no idea what the wait time is to order a bike) or you can cough up the extra cash…and then spend more money to have it painted…again.

If I *were* to buy a new Harley Davidson, I would probably go with the Road King Custom. Of course, the only colors I’m partial to are the yellow and the new “powder” blue.

Well, if I had unlimited pockets, I REALLY like the look of the CVO Road King. But what is there not to love about this red motorcycle with flames? Now THAT is a girly bike!!! Unfortunately, I hear a couple extra cha-chings too…

I’m really disappointed with the color schemes this year. Is me or is it just awful??

Keep the Shiny Side Up…

~The Rainbow Wahine

3 comments:

Lucky said...

Hey Christine,

I've never found, and most likely never will, a bike that fit me like a glove fresh off the showroom floor. If I ever do find it, then I'll be pulling out my checkbook faster than the human eye can see. But in the meantime, I rather enjoy the whole process of changing this or tuning that to make the bike a better fit to my body and style of riding.

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to find a bike that you really like (esthetically, at least) only to find out you can't flat-foot it!

Isn't it odd that manufacturers claim women are the fastest growing market segment for motorcycles, yet they don't seem to be doing much to get them in the game?

Cheers,
Lucky

Christine said...

I know, Lucky...it just peeves me though.....

Kathleen Jennette said...

Its not just you. I have been up north again and had to get a Harley fix so I dropped on in the dealership.... I saw the olive green too and wondered how fast that will go...interesting to see that one happen. The blue is pretty and the reds are deeper, but if they are going to make more "girl friendly" bikes....I wish they really would instead of talking about it. In the meantime, I am happy with mine.