Lakeshore Harley Davidson Shops

A few days after learning about the Wisconsin Harley Davidson Dealers Association Passport Tour I rode off on my first dedicated ride to secure stamps at participating dealers. I packed up a nice lunch and aimed my 2016 Harley Davidson Low Rider S south on Interstate 43.

My goal was to get two stamps on the ride. It was a perfect June day for riding and the traffic was light. Wisconsin is an open state as far as the corona virus goes, but many people are still staying home and staying safe. 

Harbor Town Harley Davidson is located on the I 43 west frontage road in Manitowoc. Most of the stores have been quiet during my midweek visits and this one was no different. There was not the usual picnic table outside Harbor Town, but I found a shady spot to eat before going inside.

After browsing around the new and used bikes and the discounted clothing rack I got my Passport stamped and prepared to continue south. 

Lunch at Harbor Town HD

Route 43 Harley Davidson is the dealer in Sheboygan and is about 20 miles south of Manitowoc. It has been in this location since Harley's heyday in the 1990's. I bought my first real motorcycle jacket here in about 1999. It is the Marlon Brando style and although I don't wear it much now I got a lot of use out of it. 

I parked near the picnic tables outside the store and hydrated a bit before going in. One thing I have noticed is that the Harley dealers are all doing their own thing as far as protecting themselves and their customers from the virus. There are very few masks on the employees, if any, and I have only seen one with the plexiglass shields at the service counters. 

Made in the USA

After checking out the shop and looking for another deal on a jacket I asked the representative about getting my Passport stamped. He said that the dealership "had not made the cut" this year and were not participating. He said they had sent in all of the paperwork, but were not included in the tour. He asked which ones I still needed and was very helpful in providing a good route down to Suburban Harley Davidson in Thiensville. That would be for another day.

As I prepared to leave I resolved to spend some time studying the Passport and make sure that my trips would not end up without a stamp. It was a great day to ride though, and any ride that ends in perusing shiny new bikes is a good ride. 

Discovering the Wisconsin Harley Davidson Dealers Association Passport Tour

A couple of days after my trip to Wausau I loaded up my backpack and rode south. My destination was Open Road Harley Davidson in Fond du Lac with a stop at Appleton Harley Davidson. The sun was out and temperatures were in the high 70's. This is prime riding weather in Wisconsin.

I purposely did not leave Green Bay until mid morning. My route was down I 41 and the traffic during morning rush hour is legendary. By the time I was on the road it was tolerable. Appleton Harley is about two miles off the interstate and I arrived ready for a water and stretch break.

This dealership holds some wonderful events during the year and there is ample room for them. They have a brat shed on the grounds for some events and a large parking area. Across the street is another parking lot that they use for the Harley Davidson Riding Academy classes. On this day there was one to one instruction happening. My wife and I stopped in early this year, prior to the pandemic shutdown, for their Wing Ding event. Local wings places set up shop in the maintenance area and for a small fee attendees can sample local wing delicacies. It was very well attended and a fond memory of when we could talk and mingle freely with fellow motorcycle and chicken wing enthusiasts. 

Appleton Harley Davidson

The shop had a good selection of new touring bikes and a few nice Sportsters. I always like the looks of the Sportys, but I don't see one in my future. I had one twenty years ago, but now that I am used to the Dynas and big twins I do not think I would be happy on a 1200. This dealership has very friendly associates and after a few brief conversations I packed up on got back on I 41 south. 

The Open Road dealership is on the frontage road on the west side of the interstate. It is in a huge building with a covered picnic area next to the parking lot. All of the newer Motor Company dealerships seem to be built next to the main highways and are on big pieces of property. It makes it easy to get in and out and provides plenty of room for dealer events. The pandemic has shut down the events, but the amenities are still there for riders like me. 

Open Road Harley in Fond du Lac

I parked next to the covered picnic table and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. Like the other shops, this one had very few customers. A couple of people drove up in cages and came out with parts and clothing. A couple on a trike rode in for a mid week visit. After eating I went in to find a lot of pandemic related safety features. I sanitized as requested and began to check out the merchandise.

Lunch break at Open Road

One of the associates came over and I told her I was visiting as many Wisconsin dealers as I could this summer as all of the usual events and rallies had been canceled. She told me about the 2020 Wisconsin H-D Dealers Association Passport Tour. The Passport Tour began on April 1 and ends October 31. There are fifteen dealers in the state participating. She gave me a Passport and explained how it worked. As you visit each dealer you get them to stamp your Passport. Depending on the number of stamps you get, you are eligible for prize drawings in the fall. I accepted the Passport she offered and realized that I had just found a riding goal for 2020. 

My ride home took me up the east side of Lake Winnebago. It is a much nicer ride than the interstate and quite scenic. During the ride I was planning my trips back to Bull Falls Harley in Rothschild and Mischler's in Beaver Dam to get the Passport stamps and visualizing rides to the far corners of Wisconsin. It is nice to have reason to ride in the middle of the madness.

Riding During the Pandemic

The spring of 2020 will be remembered for many reasons and one of them is the cancellation or postponement of just about everything. Tickets for sporting events, concerts and vacations sit unused in desk drawers or on digital devices. As springs rolls into summer and the pandemic continues to hover the postponements turn to cancellations or become 2021 events. 

For motorcyclists one effect has been the cancellation or postponement of many rallies and events around the country. Riders schedule vacations around them and for many of us the rides to and from the events are highlights of the riding season. The BMW National Rally was scheduled to be held in Great Falls, Montana this coming week. My brother and I had hotel reservations and talked all winter about the route to take out there from Wisconsin. By late March we began to realize the rally was in jeopardy and by May it had been canceled for 2020. 

Over the winter I mapped out a plan to ride some of Wisconsin's Rustic Roads. They are all in the west and northwest part of the state. The plan was to ride to Madison to watch my niece receive her diploma from the University of Wisconsin in early May and then head up to the Rustic Road hunting grounds. But there was no graduation ceremony and I had no interest in trying to find a hotel to stay in at that time. In addition, the state was on lockdown and there would have been no restaurants available.

Last weekend I decided to take my Harley for a ride out to the Harley Davidson dealership in the Wausau area. I had never been there and it was a beautiful day to ride. So I packed a lunch and rode west on US Highway 29. Doc's Harley Davidson is near Shawano, WI, and right on 29, so I made a stop there. If you have never been to Doc's, it is a "must see" dealership. He has everything from a zoo to an antique store on the property and his motorcycle related creations are inspired.

Doc's Harley Davidson

After a brief walk around the shop I continued west toward Wausau. The traffic was light and the miles clicked past. The dealership in the Wausau area moved from downtown Wausau to Rothschild several years ago. Like many of the Motor Company's shops, this one moved close to the four lane highway. In this case it is near the intersection of US Highways 29 and 51. As I pulled up I immediately began looking for a picnic table or some area suitable for a relaxing lunch. Most of the dealerships provide a spot like this and Bull Falls Harley Davidson did not disappoint.

A perfect spot for lunch

The sun was warm and I took my time eating. A few riders came and went, but there was not much activity for a sunny Saturday in June. I had thought that this shop was called Rib Mountain Harley or something like that, so I was interested in the new name. After disposing of my lunch packaging I ambled into the shop.

Harley Davidson in Rothschild Wisconsin

It all looks brand new although the building went up in 2006. As I was looking over the new bikes I heard someone call my name. I looked up and it was a representative who I knew from my local shop, Vandervest Harley Davidson in Green Bay. He had helped me trade in my 2004 Low Rider for my 2016 Low Rider S. He explained that the Vandervests had bought the Rothschild dealership in April 2019 and several employees split their time between the two shops. I was glad to see a familiar face and we spent some time catching up. 

Harley Davidson, like a lot of manufacturers, shut down for a period of time this spring. The showroom had a good selection of new touring bikes, but there is not the number I would expect. I have learned that there will be limited numbers of 2020 bikes built and the 2021 models will not be introduced until February 2021. Normally the new models are unveiled in August.

On the way home I turned south at US Highway 45 and meandered back to Green Bay on the back roads. During the ride I began to think about the possibility of spending a few days over the summer visiting the Wisconsin Harley shops. Over the next few days a plan took shape and the 2020 riding season had a new focus. 

Riding Season on Hold

I spend at least a few minutes each day browsing a couple of motorcycle forums. One, advrider.com, is an excellent source of information and inspiration for all things concerning my BMW R 1250 GSA. The other is hdforums.com and feeds my appetite for information about Harley Davidson motorcycles. The former is geared toward all motorcycle riders interested in adventure style riding while the latter focuses exclusively on Harley Davidson bikes.

There is one type of thread that shows up with some regularity on both forums in some fashion or another. It has to do with which of us are "real motorcyclists". I generally avoid these threads, but sometimes they pop up in unexpected places and I find myself reading down the rabbit hole. The arguments range from type of motorcycle, how it's equipped, the type and amount of riding gear worn by the rider, the number of miles ridden each year and wrenching skills. It all makes for some righteous internet outrage.

This was on the day Wisconsin went into Safer at Home.

But the one thing that defines all motorcyclists is our desire to ride. Maybe it's around the block or it's around the world, but we all own motorcycles in order to ride them. In the northern hemisphere some of us parked our bikes when the neighborhood was alight with jack-o-lanterns. We have spent the last several months planning the routes to new or old destinations. The bike magazines have been filled with articles about rallies and events scheduled for the 2020 riding season. Some of us attended motorcycle shows over the winter, perusing the latest bikes and bike gear. As the calendar turned to March, the beginning of the season for north country riders, the anticipation built.

Back in December the news out of China was troubling, but China is far away. The months of January and February did not bring about any real concern. I attended the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago on 8 February and the Automobile Show in Milwaukee on 27 February. I purchased a ticket for the Milwaukee Brewers opener to be played on 26 March. But by early March I began to sense that things had changed. If the Brewers did play their opener on schedule, it looked like it would be to an empty stadium. I took the BMW out for its first ride on 7 March, but there were ominous clouds on the horizon.

The new Acura NSX in Milwaukee.

The world changed on the evening of 11 March. A National Basketball Association player had tested positive for the coronavirus and the league shut down play indefinitely. All college and pro sports soon followed suit and we have been on a path toward isolation since. As I write this. my state, Wisconsin, is under a Safer at Home order until at 24 April. This means all non-essential businesses are shut down and citizens are expected to stay home unless they have a good reason to be out.

The result is the riding season is on hold. All of the planning may in fact be for naught, as we are in the grip of a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in over a hundred years.
Whatever your attitude toward other bikers, we are all faced with the same reality. Bikers want to ride, and it may not happen in 2020. A popular refrain in the media is, "We are all in this together" and that applies to all of us as motorcyclists, no matter how we or others define the term. There will be stories of compassion, heroism and sadness throughout the next several months, or however long it takes to find a  vaccine for COVID 19. As motorcyclists, let's use this as an opportunity to realize that there is more that brings us together than keeps us apart.

Stay safe, wash your hands and keep those riding plans handy!

House and Furnishings for Sale

AMA Motocross racing is on tonight but the weather does not look much warmer in Arlington, TX, than it is in Wisconsin tonight. It is still not near to riding weather up here, though. We got about a foot of snow over the past couple of weeks, so it will be a while before it is gone.

My wife and I have owned a duplex for the past forty plus years and we are getting ready to sell it this spring. That has kept me busy since the beginning of 2020. I have had all of my motorcycles and gear on one side, along with enough furniture to keep it comfortable. I am selling or giving away the furniture using Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. It has been a lesson in the old saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure". The other side has had the same renter for twenty or so years, and now that she is out there is a lot of redecorating to be done. I have made a lot of trips to the local Home Depot for cans of white eggshell paint. We are going to try and sell it without using a real estate agent, so it will be a learning experience.

Duplex for sale!

Having all of this to keep me busy this winter has been good. As spring nears, however, I am feeling more of a sense of urgency to get things done. The riding season is short and I want to be able to take advantage of the warm spring days that will eventually reach us. I will have to make room in my garage now for both of my bikes, too. I had them both at my house for a couple of years, so I know I can fit them in there. It is pretty tight, though.

In my free time I have been shopping for a few new motorcycle items. The new Klim Badlands jacket still looks pretty nice, but I am also thinking about the Aerostich Darien. I will be going through Duluth on my Canadian fishing trip in May, so that will be a good opportunity to stop at their factory store. A few new bits for my Harley Davidson Lowrider S are looking good also. I am planning on getting the black flush mount gas cap and gas gauge along with some black trim pieces.

This bike needs a little more black on it.

A trip to my BMW dealer this weekend revealed that they are undergoing another remodeling project. They have just added Royal Enfield to their stable of brands and are making a space for the bikes. They knocked down a wall or two also so customers don't have search around for the Ducatis and Beemers. The variety and brands of motorcycling gear and clothing is being evaluated and changes will be made. It will be interesting to see how it all comes out.

Chicago Motorcycle Show

The snow is falling at a rapid pace as I watch the AMA Supercross race from sunny San Diego. Motorcyclists in the Great White North have to find their two wheel fixes where they can this time of year and the supercross season coincides with the snowiest months of our year. Even better, yesterday I got an up close and personal look at former champion Eli Tomac's motorcycle.

Eli Tomac's championship winning Kawasaki

Televised racing is a nice diversion, but there is nothing like the opportunity to experience motorcycles old and new in person. That is exactly what the Progressive Insurance International Motorcycle shows provide. I attended this year's edition at the Donald A. Stephens Center in Rosemont, IL, yesterday. The show comes around at a perfect time for me and I haven't missed a show in quite a few years.

There were some beautiful custom bikes on display.

The last few years a few of the manufacturers have passed up the opportunity to participate. This year saw a drastic drop in the number of not only manufacturers, but aftermarket vendors. Aprilia, BMW, Ducati, KTM and Triumph were all no show. Some of the notable vendor absentees were Twisted Throttle, Mosko, and Cobra. There were no aftermarket lighting or exhaust system vendors in Chicago. Some of the manufacturers and possibly some of the vendors showed up in New York and Long Beach.

I got to meet AMA flat track champion Jared Mees!

The absence of vendors and bike builders left a lot of open space. The IMS filled it with open areas for kids to learn to ride bicycles and the opportunity for adults to ride electric motorcycles around the expo area. There was a large area that was formerly used for exhibits that was closed off. All of this makes me wonder about the future of the show, not to mention motorcycling itself.

The Harley Livewire is a smooth runner.

But there was still a lot to see and appreciate. Harley Davidson offered the opportunity to sit on their new Livewire and rev it up. It felt very smooth as the revs came up, but it was not easy to hold the bike at a steady speed. It produced a loud whining sound, but the technician explained that some of that was from the rollers under the back tire. Harley also had examples of the new Pan America and the Bronx. They were not available to sit on, however. These bikes face some stiff competition in the biking fields they are entering. In my view BMW, KTM, Ducati and the Japanese Big Four have a big lead in the adventure and streetfighter motorcycle styles that these bikes are modeling.

Harley Davidson Pan America

Harley Davidson Bronx

T



he vintage bike area was a little smaller, but still provided some interesting conversation pieces. There was the usual contingent of British bikes from the are, but there was also a shiny Honda CB 160. I was admiring it while being reminded of my 1966 Honda 160 Scrambler when one of the vintage guys walked up. He recently bought a 1967 160 Scrambler and we had a wonderful talk about the bike. There is a Honda 160 race series now and the bikes are harder to find and more expensive than they used to be. I have neither the garage space nor the skills necessary to make me a buyer of an old motorcycle, but it is so much fun to reminisce with someone about a favorite old motorcycle.

Honda CB 160

I checked out a few of the riding jackets and the helmets. A Shoei RF 1200 is almost certainly in my future. There are some great graphics and the helmet will be perfect for riding my Harley Lowrider S. The one I tried on felt like a perfect fit. The Klim Badlands Pro riding jacket felt great and Revzilla had a 20% discount, but I just could not spend that much. I am still thinking about it though.

At 1600 we all got back on the bus and headed back home. The motorcycle shop sponsoring the bus stopped and picked up pizza and soft drinks for the three hour ride, so it was a perfect end to a mid-winter motorcycle experience.

Harley Davidson is Looking Ahead

Harley Davidson is trying to bring some new riders into the fold. The hype surrounding the new LiveWire electric motorcycle has been in high gear for several years, and dealers expect to have the bikes in their hands this fall. One dealer in Milwaukee reported to The Business Journals that he has deposits on all ten bikes in his allotment.

The rollout hit a bit of bump in the highway this month when Harley halted production. There was a glitch in the home charging mechanism. It turned out that it was in only one bike, though, so production is back underway.

Ease of operation is one reason that Harley thinks this bike will be an opportunity to draw in new riders. Riders do not have to master clutch or shift pedal operation, something that will appeal to those who do not enjoy that part of the two wheel experience. It is difficult to find a new car with a standard transmission now and part of the reason for that is not many people are interested in learning to drive with a clutch. This attitude will be an advantage when sales people are pitching the LiveWire to potential buyers.

In 2016 Harley introduced the Dyna Lowrider S. This was Lowrider with the Screaming Eagle 110 engine, dual disc brakes up front, cruise control, ABS, and an upgraded suspension. These were all upgrades from the standard Lowrider and it came with a modest cost increase. The bike was popular with buyers and well-received by the motorcycle press. It was only in production for two years and the next year the Dyna platform was discontinued.

For 2020 Harley has issued a Lowrider S based on the new Softail frame. It carries over many of the styling features of the original Lowrider S, but there are some inexplicable deficiencies. The most glaring is the lack of cruise control. This is a major step backwards and I cannot understand the though process behind this. One styling change that I do not like is putting silver clutch and brake levers on the bike. It is a blacked out bike, so this seems like a blatant move to encourage the buyer to switch out the levers. The reviews of this bike are favorable, but the writers continue to praise the 2016-2017 model.

My 2016 Lowrider S at UW-Green Bay Phoenix sculpture.

It will be interesting to watch Harley Davidson over the winter. They have two other bikes that they have teased over the past couple of years. One is an adventure style bike and the other is in the streetfighter type. The new LRS was announced without much fanfare, so these two could appear at any time.

It is a difficult time for motorcycle manufacturers and I applaud Harley for making an effort to keep there base of riders while attempting to draw in new and younger ones.