Harley insurance

An ad (illustrated at left) in the August 2011 issue of my Cycle World Magazine finally attracted my attention.
It first appeared in last month’s issue.
Harley-Davidson doing motorcycle insurance?
Harley manufactures motorcycles. Usually when a company branches into something unrelated to what they do, it signifies trouble.
I doubt Harley is in trouble.
People are buying Harleys left and right.
$16,000+ to wait for antediluvian technology.
Other manufacturers make motorcycles more civilized, and much more state-of-the-art.
What Harley is selling is the bad-boy image. Their motorcycles are heavy and vibrate, and can make torrents of noise.
Although usually that is their owners switching to unmuffled exhaust-pipes.
The ad is obviously aimed at the bad-boy image.
The rider is an evil monster, totally unrelated to reality.
A cartoon caricature, of course.
Behind him is an attractive cutie.
How anyone could be drawn to such a monster is beyond me......
I ride motorcycle myself, which is an adventure in self-sufficiency and independence. But I don’t feel I’m trying to be a bad-boy.
A few months ago we happened to be in north Florida the same time as Bike Week in Daytona.
I was surrounded by blatting Harleys — their riders trying to affect the bad-boy image.
Which I guess means pigging out, among other things.
I happened to patronize a restaurant offering a “Biker Breakfast Special.”
It included steak, sausage, bacon and eggs.
We renamed it “The Cholesterol Special.”