Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

The 2008 wasn’t Harleys fault, the whole economy took a dump. A few years later things got tight, so they really tightened up expenses, waste. Where we used to get taken out for lunch if we met monthly goals and a few other bonus incentives, we lost a number of things.
One President of the Motor Company was thru one of the factories and put his foot down. Employees had booths at their work stations, selling this and that. He told the floor supervisor those had to go, they worked for Harley, the union didn’t set the rules. I agreed. With competition, things had to change and be more efficient. HD is still around, gotta be smart.
Duane

 

Oh, I agree it was not just Harley at all. I don't agree with everything they did though. Getting rid of having their own drivers and farming it out was a disaster for a long time. We had a truck so up at the dealership and they had actually stacked new bikes in the crates 2 high in order to haul twice as many bikes per load. Needless to say those light steel pallets wrapped in cardboard were never built to be stacked. Handlebars poking through the crushed cardboard, collapsed crates, etc. Our shop refused to even offload any of them and turned them away more than once.

I live in the York, PA area so I new more than a few people at the plant that got cut. I knew one of the former engineers that helped oversee the opening of Kansas City and heard horror stories about that fiasco. Tax breaks in exchange for hiring people off unemployment or welfare to do some fairly skilled work. Payday rolled around and the next day half the assembly line was empty from so many call offs now that they had some money. We had bikes arrive that during the uncrating found a foot peg on one side and a foot board on the other. Not their brightest moments.

 

the kc plant was a shit show and a half... had family and friends work there... back during that time they hired temps a few buddys who were skilled in welding took the job and there would be times they wouldnt pay them... idk the reasoning behind it but it was some issue or another... they also liked to dangle oh we will hire you! then never would and keep them as a temp... work them really long hours so on so on... for family members my cousins dad was one of the higher ups and met the dude who ran buell and even got a bike gifted to him that he cant sell since it was a gift. but he told us the horror story's of the place and how poorly they treated people during that time and he ended up leaving and going to work elsewhere. him and others i know are glad the place shut down here in kc. yes it sucked they lost a job but a lot of them started working where i work now or went elsewhere and have done much better now. well minus one buddy doing asphalt now lol

 

Stuff like this I never hear about.
Duane
PS: I worked in the financial end so only get to hear what they want us to know, unless there are connections thru friends or relatives, but I wasn’t privy to who might know.

 

LOL someone remembered or stalked my build thread. I think I paid 22,800 in 2015.

 

no i was just guessing lol

22k in 15 is a good deal tbh. i paid 26k for my grey 13 in 2016. i dont wanna say how much i paid for the red truck lol

 

all stuff i was told from family and friends who worked at that location. utter shithole from the sound of it....


also id be surprised if you did being ya know a few hundred something miles away lol

 

It's not extreme just can feel it.

Love hate relationship. Truck has It's perks too for loading.

 

agreed i do miss daily driving a fun car to work and for trips but im always needing to tow a trailer or help someone out with something so its honestly pointless for me to not have a truck anymore even if it sucks at mpg lol

 

York plant used to host a huge open house every September. Plant tours, demo rides, free hot dogs and sodas all day. 5 area dealerships would set up shop in one of their big parking lots. Employees who rode any bike other than Harley or Buell were ordered NOT to ride to work during the event. The smarter ones finagled a demo bike to ride, others still rode but parked off site for fear of repurcussions. The 5 dealerships were actually given a list of what we were allowed to bring and sell. Only the York dealership could offer any parts or oil. Each dealer could bring all of their dealership logo t-shirts but one dealer was allowed to sell boots, another got rain gear, one got gloves, another had jeans and certain women's items. Total political sit show with dealership regular customers acting as spies and reporting back to their favorite shop if another dealer had something not on their approved lists. Absolutely nuts.

I remember clearly doing something that made the new owner's wife almost lose her mind. Old stock and obsolete stuff was fair game, any dealer could bring it and blow it out. Somehow our shop had a leather women's thong and we had brought it. Barb, the owner'so wife had her back to me and a couple I was very close friends with came in. I told Tami my buddy's wife that if she bought it I'd offer free installation. Barb's head snapped around so fast I thought her eyes would fly out as the husband, my friend Lenny died laughing telling me he'd like to see that. Good times!

 

I worked out west in Carson City, at the time, the Motor Company didn't have us under their wing, but later they somehow absorbed us as we were a cash cow, financing bikes.
Duane

 

https://youtu.be/t-7oNtHQONk?si=HJeEVUZYT9yLCaAQ

Partially featuring yours truly. I gotta say, im not a fan of how the insta360 is. Maybe he has it at the wrong angle

 

I really hate it when companies do shit like that... Oh you want something other then the junk we sell! Park elsewhere... I had to go to the local Ford plant for something when I was in matching school and was forced to park in the other parking lot... Can't stand that type of stuff lol

Ah interesting did you get anything out of them coming in and absorbing you?

 

Here ya go, 2 in 1!

 

Not much changed, our President had to answer to the Motor Co. We still got bling, t-shirts. Oh, bonuses were adjusted.
Duane
PS: Before the recession, we would have a Christmas party in early December at a casino in Reno, drawings for prizes and a low mileage Sportster that had been repoed.

 

Yup all the "big 3" do it. Haven't been to a foreign car plant

 

I was gonna say rack is fine for the taco but on the hot hatch. Man. That's asking A LOT. Even on the taco you can feel the weird weight of a dirtbike way back on a hitch rack vs a trailer with the same tongue weight as it's way further back and thus has more leverage.

Use the trailer for the hot hatch IMO.

 

Yeah im kinda leaning that way too. I could make it work but the trailer certainly won't cause issues.

 

Wheel stripes and “M” stripes removed!

 

Oh. Muuuuuuch better IMO

Black n white with a lil red and gold is always classsssssy.

The super tenere had a similar color way one year and I really liked it as well.