Electra Glide In Blue

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Harley-Davidson unveiled the new Iron 883 – the latest Harley-Davidson Dark Custom motorcycle.

The black powder-coated 883 Evolution powertrain with black covers takes the Iron 883 deep into the heart of darkness.

With drag style handlebars, side-mount license plate holder, and how long has it been seance you have seen gaiters on a factory sporty?

Then there is the 150 rear tire with a chopped fender, combination stop/turn/tail lights and, as stated above, the side mount license plate holder, and everything is in black.

With black 13-spoke cast aluminum wheels, front and back, the rest of the Iron 883 gets a darker-suited presence with black front forks, legs and fender supports, fuel tank, oil tank cover, belt guard, drag style handlebars and mid mount foot controls. Yea everything is black.

The Iron 883 Sportster starts at just $7,899, you can check out the Iron 883 along with the other Dark Custom motorcycles at Harley-Davidson/DarkCustom.
-Ride Safe-

I have been spending to much time watching Craigslist lately waiting for a sweet motorcycle project to jump on. I found a few deals, and made some calls and emails, but took no action, with a $1,000 budget I wanted to play it smart. Late last week this ad caught my eye, with no pictures and just a brief description, the Craigslist listing went like this;
Title – Harley Davidson Rolling Frame and motor, and the ad copy stated; Have 1963 Harley Davidson rolling frame. Also 1998 1200cc motor supposedly rebuilt with transmission. They are separate. Have titles. Have new forks and new rear wheel with new tire. I have approximately four boxes of misc. parts. I am selling as an entire package for the best offer.
Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx. If no answer, please leave message. Thank you

Like I said no pic’s and a brief description, and the only words about price is “best offer”. So I call the guy, about a half hour after he makes this post, he says that he loaned some money to a friend and this package was the collateral for the loan. He told me there is a rolling frame, one motor, a new tire and rim, new front fork, four boxes of stuff, and two titles. Then he says ” I don’t know anything about motorcycles”. Now this is happening around 7pm, and it would be an hour drive, so I tell him I wouldn’t be able to go over a grand on the deal, and would call first thing in the morning prior to leaving, to take a look see. I was surprised when I called in the morning and he’s still setting on all this, I jumped in my truck and headed his way.
This is what I found, made the deal, loaded up 5 boxes, the rolling frame and two motors with titles;
1963 sporty frame

1973 1000cc motor

1998 1200cc motor

Just in case you are wondering I offered $500, he countered with $700, I countered with $600 cash, while reaching in my pocket, he said he would do the 600 cash. I made it home and transferred the titles to my name, unloaded the truck, and took a nap.
I now have several project options to play around with, all from a 600 dollar Craigslist motorcycle deal.
Watch for updates on this project.
Ride Safe

News out of York, PA states Harley is looking to cut around 400+ jobs at the The Springettsbury Township Harley-Davidson plant, with lay-offs starting the first of May.
Established as an assembly facility in 1973, Harley-Davidson Vehicle Operations in York, PA. is the largest Harley-Davidson manufacturing facility. The York facility covers more than 230 acres and has over 1.5 million square feet under roof. Harley-Davidson employs about 2,900 union and nonunion workers at this facility. Employees assemble the Touring and Softail® models, as well as limited production, factory-custom motorcycles. They perform a variety of manufacturing operations—from machining, polishing and chrome plating, to forming, welding and painting.

News from Kanas City is, the plant will remain open, but 80 union and five nonproduction employees will be let go by May 1, said Bob Klein, a Harley spokesman at the Milwaukee headquarters. The plant currently has about 1,000 employees, including 850 production workers.
On Friday, officers were called to the plant at 11401 N. Congress Ave. just before noon after a maintenance worker found a spray bottle with a liquid inside hooked up to a battery. One of the wires from the bottle was disconnected from the battery, so the maintenance person poured out the liquid, said KC police Capt. Rich Lockhart.

And the news out of Wisconsin, Harley is consolidating two engine and transmission plants in Milwaukee into its facility in Menomonee Falls, and will close its distribution facility in Franklin, Wis., About 650 Harley jobs in Wisconsin will be lost.

Things are not looking that good, I think I will just stick with my68flh and the 49 FL, all I need is gas and oil. Ride Safe…..

Harley-Davidson Inc. said today it would close plants and cut 1,100 jobs as a global pullback in consumer spending pushed the motorcycle maker’s quarterly earnings down more than Wall Street had expected.

The company also reported an operating loss at its in-house finance unit as a result of continuing dysfunction in the credit markets as well as growing delinquencies among borrowers.

Harley (HOG, Fortune 500) said it was taking several actions to cut costs, including plant closures that would result in the elimination of 1,100 jobs. That would be about 12% of Harley’s total workforce, according to its most recent annual report.

Fourth-quarter net income fell 58% to $77.8 million, or 34 cents a share, from $186.1 million, or 78 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected the Milwaukee-based company to report a profit of 57 cents a share.

Sales fell 6.8% to $1.29 billion.

During the fourth quarter, Harley said worldwide retail sales of its motorcycles fell 13.1%, pulled down by a 19.6% drop in the United States, its largest and most important market. But sales also fell in once-robust overseas markets, including Latin America, which saw a 28% decrease.

In response to the slowdown, Harley said it would slash its production of motorcycles in 2009 by as much as 13% from already reduced 2008 levels.

“We reduced our production levels prudently in 2008, helping our dealers achieve lower inventory levels,” Jim Ziemer, the company’s outgoing chief executive said in a statement, “and we’re going to show similar discipline in 2009.”

Along with the production cuts, Harley said it would combine its two engine and transmission plants, consolidate paint frame operations into one facility, and close its parts and accessories distribution center altogether. In the future, Harley said it would use a third-party to distribute those products.

The 1,100 jobs to be cut over 2009 and 2010 include about 800 hourly production positions. Harley said most of the layoffs would occur this year.

At the in-house financing unit, higher projected credit losses forced Harley to take writedowns of $35.1 million on retained securitization interests and $28.4 million on finance receivables held for sale.
Source CNN Money