Do you remember the Iron Horse magazine article (April '97) on Harley dealers B&D in New Jersey, by David Snow? When H-D started forcing their dealerships to turn themselves into boutiques, long-established shops like B&D often couldn't afford the transformation. They were left out in the cold by the MotorCo.
This great B&D ad from 1948 was sent to me by Jeff Baer. ("They were the accessory kings", he says).
If anyone's interested, I'll risk copyright infringement again and post the excellent Snow article here.
3 comments:
I have that magazine, it´s a heart breaking story, it shows pictures of the owner and his wife, in their prime.
He used to race HDs and Indians, back in the 40´s and 50´s. 1997 pictures show an elderly, saddened widow, in a motorized wheel chair who has lost not just his wife, but both his legs.
It makes you hate the factory even more, when you read about what they were forcing this guy to do.
There´s no way he could comply to their demands to turn his museum like showroom floor into a neon boutique.
So they were getting rid of 50 years worth of vintage ads and logos...very very sad. FTF
post it !
I remember that shop. I grew up about 5 miles from there. There was another shop a block or 2 away that was owned by the nephew of the owner of B&D. The name of the shop was Deal In Wheels, the owners name was Leo. My Dad went to high school with him. I miss those good old shops. You could buy and learn just about anything if you hung around long enough. But as usual the "motor company" had to mess that all up..... Fuck them and their corporate b.s.!!!!
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