How to Choose the Best Harley-Davidson for YOU!

hey how's it going guys Matt here from Laidlaw is Harley Davidson so I wanted to make a video to kind of talk about what I pretty much do on a daily basis and that is how people choose the right Harley Davidson for them so basically I got five tips or five things that you should really ask yourself and five things you shouldn't consider when you're looking to buy a Harley Davidson so the number one question I ask people when you're looking to buy a Harley Davidson is what type of riding you plan on doing that question right there is we're gonna help me and help yourself figure out exactly what bike is gonna be best for you so basically the best thing to do is also consider the the platform's of holiday Vicent has so basically there's three major frames or holidays and builds all their bikes on you got the touring frame you have the Softail frame and you have the Sportster frame so depending on what type of riding you're gonna be doing it's really gonna help you figure out exactly what frame to get you've also got the street platform as well and I'm gonna be talking about that as well but the street is very a niche type of riding style and in a niche type of buyer for a street motorcycle for the touring platform for someone that likes to get out on the highway and you do a lot of highway or miles so 65 mile an hour or plus highway riding then the touring chassis is gonna be probably your best bet personally I'll use myself as an example I have a touring chassis bike 90% or more of all the miles I put on my Harley Davidson are on the freeway doing 65 miles an hour or greater that combined with how tall I am which I'm going to get into stature in just a minute that combined with my stature I'm six foot six inches the touring chassis bike is pretty much an easy and easy choice for me to make as far as what Holladay was saying I should pick if you're someone that gets out on the highway a lot and do it does a lot of miles in combination with maybe you go on overnighters maybe you ride with two people a lot then the touring bike is definitely the platform for you so many times I get people coming into the dealership they say you know what Matt I'm stuck between a Street Glide and a Street Bob I'm just really not sure which one I should get to me what that says about this person is they have absolutely no idea about the different frame that harley-davidson offers so you really got to know the basics on the frames and what each of these these three core frames or holiday Vicent offers do best and how they kind of are differentiate from one another the other frame the second frame the midsize frame is obviously the soft tail we now don't have a Dyna frame the soft tails and the dinettes kind of meshed together where there were subtle differences but they kind of served the same type of a mid frame platform for customers now it's a lot easier if you want a mid frame bike it's your the easiest obvious choice is a soft tail so first off tail it's obviously it's for the guy that's an experienced rider someone's been riding for a while wants to ride more aggressively than you're able to or capable of on a turning bike and someone that you know wants to do kind of a combination of everything it's kind of your best like Swiss Army knife bike where it's good out on the highway not as good as a touring bike but it's it's a very capable bike out on the highway but it's also really good through the canyons and local stuff as well so it's probably your best all-around motorcycle I would recommend it for someone that's been riding for a while it can be a beginner bike but there are better bikes suited for beginners that takes me to the Sportster which is the smallest frame of the three core frames it's heavier than the street frame but the the sorcerer frame I feel like can meet a couple different riders needs maybe you're a newer rider I think this the Sportster frame is a great frame for a newer rider it is a light motorcycle it's about 100 pounds lighter than the the soft tail the sorcerer is very limited and its capabilities out on the highway so where I really find people trading up or not being satisfied with their Sportster are the guys that buy the Sportster and then they find themselves riding within groups they get out on the highway and do 2 3 400 miles in a day you really don't have the the fuel capacity on worst of the sorcerer's and just the ride comfort out on the highway isn't the best on a Sportster either if you ask yourself what type of riding am I going to be doing if you're going to be doing a lot of local stuff or if you're a beginner then the Sportster could be a good option for you and I'd also factor in your stature and also your budget as well which I'm gonna get to budget at the very end I think the budget is probably the question you should ask yourself at the very end not because it isn't important just because I'm a strong believer and you need to be buying a bike don't buy a price tag buy a bike if you spend a little bit more money and get a bike that's right for you that's really going to be worth the extra money you pay in the long run you're gonna enjoy your your bike more and you're gonna be riding for a longer time and you won't find yourself looking to trade up immediately all right guys so point number two that I want to make and I brought this up kind of in fragmented ways in other videos I've talked about is another thing you want to do is pick the bike that is closest to the final project or your final vision is possible so many times I get guys that come in here and I'll give you an example they say hey man I want to get a Road Glide oh by the way can you get me an accessory list with a tour pack lower-leg fairings and speakers in the rear and I just look at them I say well did you know about the Road Glide Ultra because you can get all those things you just asked for at a lower price point then if I were to install them all here at the dealership and you're paying you know for all those those parts you're on a dealership level and I'm all about making money but at the same time you know I want to get the best value for the customer as well so you know so many times guys come in here and they don't realize like all the different available models and they don't pick the bike that's as close as possible to their ultimate project and a lot of it also is just cost-effectiveness you know if you want on you want a blacked-out bagger well then then get the special you know the street guys special the Road Glide special and then add those items to it I totally get that because to strip everything down a black powder coat and everything it's going to exceed the price of like a rogue light ultra or a limited or something like that so I guess the my best advice is is just learn about all the all the models don't just feel like hey I got to go in and buy the iron 883 or I got to go in and buy the street Bob you know two really popular models that I feel like people just kind of have this preconceived notion of the cool bike to buy open your eyes you know figure out exactly what you want you know a lot of times guys want storage and they're on their bike they'll come in they'll look at a Softail and they'll say hey Matt you know can I put bags on this bike and the answer is usually yes but I said well did you know about the sport glider the Heritage they already have bags on there or guys will say well you know I want highway Comfort I'm gonna get a lowrider and I want to outfit it with bags and a windshield and I and I usually say well did you check out the Heritage and so pick the bike that is as close to your final project or vision as possible when you pick your so the third tip or the third thing that I have people ask themselves is what type of writing experience do you have generally I like to ask them if they've ridden bikes before if they have ridden dirt bikes or they're coming from sport bikes a lot of people are coming from sport bikes and this is their first Harley so they're asking me well what's a good Harley a transition bike into the world of Harley Davidson so generally like to point him out on a Softail they're looking for that more sporty ER bike they're not ready for a big touring bike just yet Softail is a great bike to start off on the people that are just brand new to the world of motorcycles straight out of the Academy or just beginning to look at Harley's or any type of two-wheeled transportation I join we start them off on a Sportster or a street 750 normally Sportsters are a better choice for a lot of people because of the styling and you know the way the bike looks and stuff like that one of the first things I asked you is what are you riding right now and how long have you been riding and what type of riding have you been doing like Andrew said you know are you a dirt bike rider did you grow up riding dirts have you never been on on street before are you a brand-new rider and have it don't even know how to work the clutch on a motorcycle these are things that you're gonna want to ask yourself before you pick a bike if you're someone who's brand new obviously you want to get a bike that's on the lighter side but also bite that you can confidently touch the ground with both of your feet on as well and something you feel comfortable on that isn't too big and we're gonna get into your physical stature in just a minute but your physical stature plays a big part also when you're a brand new rider you want to feel comfortable and confident on the motorcycle someone who comes in and has been writing sport bikes for their entire life you know guys have been coming off like are ones or CVR 1000 whatever it may be these guys are really confident riders some of that comes in like that I'm not gonna try to put them on a Sportster I just think that this for sure is gonna be very underwhelming and I don't want this to turn into a video where we're harping on Sportsters forces are awesome iconic bikes they definitely have their place in the lineup but in Southern California we're on the highway so much and you know a lot of people are doing that 65 mile an hour plus with only 5 speeds a lot of times experienced riders aren't happy with a Sportster and I just see them trading up frequently so ask yourself what kind of experience you have and I would always recommend that this is one thing you really want to do especially to kind of determine how your experience matches up with the bike you ultimately choose you want to do a test ride there's really no substitute for doing a test ride generally it's all about what type of riding you're going to be doing and who you're gonna be riding with because if you're most of your dad's buddies and your friends and so on and so so forth they all have touring bikes probably not a great great idea to get a an iron 1200 I've ridden with a bunch of people that had Sportsters and some that had touring bikes and you're kind of the lead anchor when you're on a Sportster 48 and you got to stop every 70 miles to fill up doing to ask yourself you know what type of experience do I have right now and my experience confident rider if you're a confident rider you can pretty much get on any bike in here and then it just kind of gets narrowed down to what type of riding you're going to be doing and you know if you're gonna be doing any traveling riding with a passenger you'd the storage then you kind of those other factors kind of play a role past the fact that you are an experienced rider or if you're a beginner okay so my next tip is you really want to pay attention to your physical stature and how you physically fit on the bike so I'll talk to you guys about probably the most common things that I see and also the the biggest fears that I see as well so I guess I'll start with the biggest fear the biggest fear is I see these people coming in that maybe are smaller in size maybe you get on a bike and you're on your tippy toes and you're not confident with the weight of the bike versus your feet being planted on the ground and depending on your riding experience there are certain things that I think you should keep in mind or take into account so the greater your writing experience is the less important it is to have your feet your heels planted on the ground for a long time growing up I always could just be on my tippy toes my dad always put me on bikes that were too big for me maybe it's because I he was putting me on his bike and you don't want to buy a brand new bike for young Matt I don't know if andrew had similar experience but usually growing up in a family that's on dirt bikes you kind of just take hand-me-downs and you ride what so ever available but as I got better you know I even rode bikes where I was just on one foot and I couldn't even touch on both sides it's because I had the ability to take off on just one foot so I think people really what I'm trying to say in the bottom line is if you're an experienced writer and you come in to a Harley Davidson dealership if you're oh if you're on the balls of your feet you're gonna be okay and so choosing a bike or or I should say weeding out a bike completely because you don't feel like your feet are firmly enough plants on the ground pull through heels on the ground that's a mistake in my opinion now I don't want to contradict what I just said a minute ago where if you're a beginner you should look for that because if you're a beginner having that confidence of having both your feet plant on the ground that is a plus and that helps you to learn how to ride I've had a few customers that come in and their father their uncle their cousin had a badass heritage or deluxe so as grown up they've always wanted that bike that bike but they might not be as tall or you know have a longer inseam as they did but they they know they want that bike well I've recently had a customer that came in here knew he wanted you know a deluxe sat on it just couldn't quite reach the the kickstand to fully extend it all the way so there is the option and Harley has all the tools to help you build the bike to fit you and when all else fails you know you sit on the bike and I suggest when you are bike shopping and you are in the market and you're sitting on different bikes and you're in a dealership kind of where the footwear you're going to use when we're actually owning and riding the bike because people come in here with flip-flops sitting on bikes and they don't realize well I can't reach this well you're gonna have about an inch of a heel to work with on a boot so wear your boots just walk in here where the pants you're gonna wear if you're kind of tippy toed keep in mind most dealers have the reach seat you know you can throw on the bike and sit on the bike like that adjusting the handlebars a quarter inch forward or back can help a lot too as well so keep in mind there's always that option you can build the bike to fit you the second thing I see is on the opposite side of the spectrum maybe you're too big so a lot of times when I get these guys that come in here and you know maybe there are six three they're way like 280 pounds or something like that and they they jump on a sport maybe even a Softail and a lot of times regardless of the type of riding they plan on doing if they're a really big dude like that I'll almost always steer them towards the turning chassis bike just proportionately I mean they just look better on the bike they're gonna fit better on the bike if you fit better you're gonna be more comfortable in the motorcycle as well you're gonna be able to have full use of in full range of motion of the handlebars and the controls and everything so take kind of a personal inventory of yourself and be have enough self-awareness to to know okay hey I'm too tall for this bike I'm too big for this bike or I'm too small for this bike but also be confident in your abilities you know if you're especially for experienced riders I've seen I had this one guy in here who was a really accomplished sport bike rider I mean this guy would do all kinds of stunts and everything but then he was looking at buying a Road Glide and he was really intimidated by the Road Glide and I was like dude you're a good rider like there's nothing to be intimidated about this Road Glide it does weigh more but with a little bit of the correct muscle memory and a little bit of just technique how the Davidson's really do carry their own weight and the weight on a harley-davidson is probably the number one thing that I see people get intimidated by and it is actually something that is kind of a non-issue the other day I had a lady who come into the dealership she was 65 years old she was 5 for 5 foot 4 inches and she weighed 130 pounds and she wrote a road glide this woman had no strength she had no height but she did have good technique with good technique the weight of a bike really means nothing so use my criteria when you're buying a bike that I've mentioned don't don't think about the weight too much you know the weight obviously a little bit but like I just said in the example I just gave you weight is kind of meaningless but in the long scheme of things especially when you know what you're doing and if you're experienced rider you're gonna adapt to a Harley very very quickly so again on that on that tip be self-aware about your physical stature and and how it pertains to the bike that you choose alright guys so my second-to-last point is gonna be the style you're going for now I've said this again in kind of a fragmented way in a bunch of other my past videos style is really important you know a lot of times guys will will look at all the soft tails and they'll they'll basically narrow down that they want the soft tail chassis the soft teal chassis is most conducive to the type of riding they do in their physical stature and everything else that I've already mentioned and they say well do I get the street Bob or do I get the soft tail slim and sometimes I just say you know what man which one you like the looks up or they'll say hey I wanted Street glider or Road Glide and I'll say which one you like the looks and style of more now there's other factors that come into account between a street guy and the rogue lied but but the looks and the style as shallow that may sound is actually a really big factor in choosing between a street glide and a row glide or maybe between a Fat Boy and a breakout it's really all about the style you had to ask yourself do I want the post-world War two ERA styling of a slim do I want the modern muscle fat cruiser style of a fat boy do I want that raked out chopper style of a breakout you know a lot is the type of style that you want and that's why harley-davidson has so many bikes to fit a variety of different people and different riders and rider ability levels but also to fit a bunch of different styles as well here on the west coast we kind of have our own Flair and we have our own style in the Midwest I'm sure they have their own Flair and their own style as well you know certain models that do better out here probably don't do as well there but they have models that do well out there so it's all about starting with the bike that's is as close to the ultimate goal as possible and then making your your twists or whatever to kind of make it your own and give it the style that you want to want to give it ultimately don't be afraid to pick a bike that's that's kind of a choice dictated by the style that you want now on the opposite side of the spectrum I see the mistake and this is a very common mistake I get people coming in the dealership and they've been on the internet and they just kind of cycle through all the bikes and they've picked out the one that they think looks the best and they come in and they want to buy that bike they say you know what Matt I don't really need your help in figuring out what bike I should buy I already looked at all the bikes and I figured out which bike I like the best and it was funny because I saw this happen the number one bike that's what's happened with all the time was the v-rod I swear half the people that bought the v-rod bought it just because they liked the looks when really they were buying the highest performing harley-davidson that they offered at the time the bike was just so much more than the capabilities the bike was so much more than most of the people that bought it could even comprehend they didn't know of the first thing about the view rather they just know that knew that it looked badass and that's great and like I said you should like the way that your bike looks but to buy a motorcycle 100% based on just the looks and to just kind of negate or forget about the other factors that I've already explained to you is a big big mistake the other thing that the other bike that I see that being done with a lot is the iron 883 a lot of guys will come in maybe there are newer riders they like the budget they like the fact that the iron comes in at $9,000 they like the look of it and they say irons for me let's do it let's buy it and I say well wait wait one second you know and let's ask a couple more questions what are your writing abilities and the number one question that I said I asked people is what type of riding do you plan on doing and like and you mentioned already the group of riders you ride with what do they have and what type of riding are they going to take you on when you buy your Harley Davidson so there's more to it than just picking the bike that you like the look of and just kind of the bike that you have this preconceived notion that you know you want the bike when you walk into a dealership but so bottom line style is important but it's not the most important thing there's there's other things you want to take into consideration before you just blindly pick a bike because if you like the way that it looks so my last point that I want to bring up is that if budget and a lot of people might put this as the first thing like well if you can't afford it then why even consider it and I put budget it's the very last last reason because I see another really common mistake that buyers make people come in and they buy a price tag my biggest thing that I see and I tell people this all the time look man pick up the bike that you feel is gonna suit your needs the best that you would like the best and you're in love with the most and then let's look at the price and see if you can afford it if you can't afford it then maybe save up a little bit of money you know I in some circumstances I recommend to people that hey maybe it's not time for you to get a bike yet maybe save up a little bit more money that way you're getting the bike that is best for you and most conducive to your writing abilities you know as much as I'm losing out on the sale I would rather see someone wait a month or two save up the required down payment or make room in their budget for the extra hundred dollars or whatever it may be a month and get on the bike that they're gonna be happiest on as opposed to shoving someone out the door with a Sportster because it was an inexpensive motorcycle only for them to come back and say hey Matt you know 90% of my riding a mile I'm out on the highway in the fast lane with my buddies I'm getting left behind I'm the one that has to stop for gas every 90 miles I mean I've seen people make a motorcycle choice over 20 or $30 a month to me that's just like crazy talk for 20 or 30 dollars a month to get on the bike that you know is best for you to me that's kind of a no-brainer so budget is important you want to take into you know consideration where your budget constraints are but at the same time that is the least important thing in my opinion the most important thing is you getting on the right bike and having a bike that you enjoy what we'd rather do spend $10,000 on a motorcycle that isn't right for you that you end up disliking that you don't ride or spending $15,000 on a bike that you absolutely love meets all of your needs perfectly that you ride really frequently I think I made my point anyways guys thank you very much for watching if you're interested I'll be live-streaming at the dealer announcement meeting this coming Tuesday August 20th at about 10:00 a.m. so if you want to come out log in and check out my youtube channel at 10 a.m. central time I'll be in Milwaukee where they're announcing the 2020 model year I'll be live-streaming from the expo floor so check out my livestream the 2020 model year and if you're looking for a new bike in Southern California check us out here at lady lost harley-davidson we never have any added dealer markup fees same transparent pricing for over 60 years thanks a lot guys take care

Channel: Matt Laidlaw

Views: 852,448

Keywords: Harley-Davidson, Motorcycles, Laidlaw's, new rider, Choosing a harley, How to choose the best harley, Picking a harley, How to pick the best harley for me, matt laidlaw, laidlaw's harley -Davidson, Iron 883

Id: L8Qzy2F20C4

Length: 21min 49sec (1309 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019