JDPEagle
Active Member
I am cautiously "throwing" this out there for those of you with personal or dealer experience in this topic.
I went to a local dealer's demo day over the weekend. Everything seemed as it normally would be; however, I personally witnessed three people lay a bike down (at low speeds) either in the parking lot or pulling out onto the roadway in front of the dealership.
I found this curious, so I watched a little more. The local HOG chapter was running the demo (including lead/sweep operations). The end of the ride culminated in a sharp 75-90 degree low speed turn to line up the machines for the next rider (NEVER had seen this type of "advanced" maneuver [the dip] utilized for prospective demo riders of unknown skill levels on heavy motorcycles). It was here that I saw two bikes get dropped (including a 2010 Street Glide). Following each accident, the General Manager of the dealership would tell the "offending" rider that they would be contacted on Tuesday (two days later) with the cost of damages. No pictures were taken (at least by dealership staff) and the bikes continued to be ridden by others throughout the day. The manager would follow-up a few minutes later by telling the (obviously shaken) riders that if they purchased a bike from them in the near future, he could waive the cost of the unknown and unstated damages. This seemed to ruffle the feathers of quite a few prospective riders, and one even stormed off mumbling wishes of contacting a lawyer.
Out of curiosity, I obtained a copy of the legal release form that the riders were signing, and it only seems to disclaim the dealership and Harley-Davidson from legal responsibility in the event of personal injury or death.
I have never personally dropped or damaged a bike on a demo ride; however, I always assumed that dealers carried insurance to cover this risk. I later found out that the demo bikes are often sold as "new" on this particular dealer's sales floor. From what I saw, and from the experience that I have, the damage to these bikes seemed to be exaggerated by the dealership staff to the unsuspecting riders, and I don't see how the dealer could discriminate any particular damage to any particular rider (since they continued to operate the motorcycles for an unknown time period and an unknown number of riders). I'd hate to know what kind of "bills" these prospective customers will be getting.
Does this practice seem common to any of you who have experienced such things? I'm all for the demo rides, but this seemed to be taking on a role more representative of entrapment. I've never seen anything like it before. Yikes!
I went to a local dealer's demo day over the weekend. Everything seemed as it normally would be; however, I personally witnessed three people lay a bike down (at low speeds) either in the parking lot or pulling out onto the roadway in front of the dealership.
I found this curious, so I watched a little more. The local HOG chapter was running the demo (including lead/sweep operations). The end of the ride culminated in a sharp 75-90 degree low speed turn to line up the machines for the next rider (NEVER had seen this type of "advanced" maneuver [the dip] utilized for prospective demo riders of unknown skill levels on heavy motorcycles). It was here that I saw two bikes get dropped (including a 2010 Street Glide). Following each accident, the General Manager of the dealership would tell the "offending" rider that they would be contacted on Tuesday (two days later) with the cost of damages. No pictures were taken (at least by dealership staff) and the bikes continued to be ridden by others throughout the day. The manager would follow-up a few minutes later by telling the (obviously shaken) riders that if they purchased a bike from them in the near future, he could waive the cost of the unknown and unstated damages. This seemed to ruffle the feathers of quite a few prospective riders, and one even stormed off mumbling wishes of contacting a lawyer.
Out of curiosity, I obtained a copy of the legal release form that the riders were signing, and it only seems to disclaim the dealership and Harley-Davidson from legal responsibility in the event of personal injury or death.
I have never personally dropped or damaged a bike on a demo ride; however, I always assumed that dealers carried insurance to cover this risk. I later found out that the demo bikes are often sold as "new" on this particular dealer's sales floor. From what I saw, and from the experience that I have, the damage to these bikes seemed to be exaggerated by the dealership staff to the unsuspecting riders, and I don't see how the dealer could discriminate any particular damage to any particular rider (since they continued to operate the motorcycles for an unknown time period and an unknown number of riders). I'd hate to know what kind of "bills" these prospective customers will be getting.
Does this practice seem common to any of you who have experienced such things? I'm all for the demo rides, but this seemed to be taking on a role more representative of entrapment. I've never seen anything like it before. Yikes!
