Bought My First Half Helmet

Back on the 21st of May, I stopped by Dillon Harley here in Omaha and looked through their selection of motorcycles. My wife and I chatted the salesguy up a bit, talking about a few things like the 2010 Harley colors and models that were going to be released soon.

Of course, while I was doing this, in the back of my mind I was thinking:

I might as well pick up a half helmet while I'm here.

So I did.

Nice box, huh?

Ok, after I opened the box, I had the nice surprise of seeing my new half helmet in a helmet bag. Now, I don't know if helmets usually come with bags, but this one did and it was a nice touch.

After opening the box:

And after opening the bag and moving things around a little bit:

What you see here is a Harley-Davidson Spoiler half helmet. This half helmet weighs just 1 pound and 11 ounces and isn't uncomfortable at all when it's on my oversized head. The weight is due to the Aramid fiberglass shell, and the comfort level is increased with the thick liner inside that is supposed to wick away sweat. The liner, combined with the forehead venting that is built into the front of the half helmet, should reduce the chances of my skull heating up beyond my ability to deal with it.

Not that I am concerned about sweat because I have a huge sweaty head, you understand.

The visor in front is removable, which I will probably take advantage of because half helmet visors tend to catch the wind and push your head back - which is just a general pain in the ass thing that I don't need.

Now, I'm not quite done with this helmet, or with helmets in general. I did have Holstein's Harley order a half helmet, which I'm probably not going to need at this point. And I feel like an ass for not picking that up, but...I'll go over there at some point and pick up (and pay for) a good 3/4 helmet with a visor.

Also, after browsing around on Amazon for a while I found an interesting accessory that I'm going to have to pick up - the Road Tech Bluetooth 2.0 Helmet System:

I don't intend to be out on the road without my iPhone, and driving anything without using a Bluetooth headset or earpiece to have a phone conversation with is a bad idea.

So that helmet system might be one of my next purchases.
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2010 Harley-Davidson Color Information

I stopped by Dillon Harley here in Omaha tonight and chatted with Jason Davis again. He's got to be tired of seeing me come in.

I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend there, which was a relief to my wife, but I did confirm with Jason that the list of 2010 Harley-Davidson colors has been out for a while now and that the turquoise and antique white two-tone will be discontinued. So 2009 is the only year for that color combo, at least for a while.

Jason and I also talked a bit about the custom motorcycle painting that Dillon Brothers can do. For about $2500 or so, (and this is just a rough guesstimate on his part, so I'm not holding Dillon Brothers to it) he said they could do just about any color scheme I could think of.

That might be fun, I mentioned, as my wife shook her head.

Yeah, I'm still thinking about it.

After I got home and did a little searching, I was able to find the official list of colors that Harleys are going to be available in for 2010.

First off, Harley-Davidson is going to discontinue these colors that were available in 2009:

• Black Pearl
• Pewter Pearl
• Dark Blue Pearl
• Pewter Denim
• Red Hot Denim
• Dark Blue Denim
• Crimson Red Sunglo

So if you had any of those colors set in your mind that you really wanted, you might want to put your money down now.

Here are the colors and color combinations that are going to still be available on the Harley 2010 model year:

Solid colors

• Vivid Black
• Flame Blue Pearl
• Brilliant Silver Pearl
• Black Denim
• Red Hot Sunglo
• Mirage Orange Pearl
• Brilliant Silver Denim

Two-tone colors

• Brilliant Silver Denim/Black Denim
• Vivid Black/Mirage Orange Pearl Race Stripe

And here's the list the new colors that Harley's going to be introducing on the 2010 model year lineup:

Solid colors

• Scarlet Red
• Black Ice Denim
• Black Ice Pearl

Two-tone colors

• Black Denim/Brilliant Silver Denim Race Stripe
• Vivid Black/Brilliant Silver Pearl Race Stripe
• Scarlet Red/Vivid Black
• Flame Blue Pearl/Brilliant Silver Pearl
• Vivid Black/Brilliant Silver Pearl
• Vivid Black/Black Ice Pearl
• Flame Blue Pearl/Vivid Black
• White Ice Pearl/Black Ice Pearl

Here are some pictures I managed to scrounge up on the Internet of the Harley 2010 colors:

I can say with all honesty that I'm really looking forward to July 25th, when Harley-Davidson is expected to officially release all the 2010 model year information.
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Visiting Holstein’s Harley-Davidson Dealership For The First Time

As part of the whole process of shopping for a new motorcycle, I'm going to be checking out as many dealers in the Omaha area that I can. When you're preparing yourself to drop about $18,000 to $19,000 on a new motorcycle, you want to make sure that the place you buy it from is going to be able to take care of you, that you can trust them a bit not to rip you off.

From the looks of things, unless they want to drive for a while, people who are interested in buying a Harley in the Omaha area have three choices - Dillon Brothers Harley at 180th and Maple, Frontier Harley in Lincoln and Holstein Harley-Davidson at 72nd and L street.

While it's not the first dealership I went to, I did have the opportunity to stop by the new showroom of Holstein's Harley-Davidson on the 15th of May, 2009.

Holstein's Harley-Davidson new store is located at 4940 South 72nd Street, right across from where Rod Kush's furniture store is/used to be.

I've been talking with some co-workers about different dealerships in the area, listening to their experiences and getting ideas about what the motorcycle-buying scene in Omaha is about. We have some long-term riders in my workplace, who have been buying motorcycles for decades in the Omaha area. Everyone I've talked to about the different dealerships in the area have been pretty unanimous - with most people having a negative opinion of Holstein's Harley. In some cases, vehemently negative opinions...

I've been told that Holstein's dealership wasn't really interested in selling bikes, that they just kept the franchise to get the dealership discount, that their service department sucks, that they treated people like dirt during the years that they were the only Harley dealer in town - that type of thing.

I snuck the visit in with the wife as we were heading home from Kubat's pharmacy, so I went with my wife and kids in tow. The kids were tired and the wife was tired of the kids being tired, but she indulged me and hauled everyone inside to check things out.

From what I could tell during my visit to the Holstein's dealership, it looked like they'd put some money into the building and the presentation of the place. It was very clean and well-lit. They had a pretty good selection of bikes on the floor, both new and used.

From what I saw, they had about as many bikes on the floor as Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson has. I wandered up and down the aisles and checked out the bikes. I noticed that Holstein marks their freight and dealer prep on the tags attached to the bikes - something that was missing during my many previous visits to Dillon Brothers.

I was asked once if I needed any help by a youngish-looking salesguy. I didn't need any at the moment, told him so and he left me alone, which is what I wanted. There were a few other customers in the store, more customers than salesguys, so I figured I'd let him go help someone who might want to buy today.

The selection of clothing and accessory merchandise didn't seem as extensive in Holstein's dealership as it did in Dillon Brothers. I checked out a few helmets while I was there, and was helped by a nice saleswoman.

She seemed knowledgable about helmets and was eager to help me find what I needed. When we found out that they didn't have the exact helmet that I was looking for in stock, she took down my information and told me it would be ready in about 5 days. She asked if I was law enforcement, I explained my situation and she told me to mention it when I pick the helmet up to get a discount. Good customer service there, as long as they get back with me.

Despite what I've heard about their dealership, my first experience visiting Holstein's Harley-Davidson dealership was a good one. I haven't actually talked to anyone there at length, but I'm waiting for that call back about the helmet and will talk to an actual bike salesperson the next time I stop by. We'll see how that goes.
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What I’m Looking For In A New Motorcycle

I've been looking at a few different motorcycles for the last few years, waiting to save up a little money and for the wife to put her stamp of approval on the idea.

Up until a few months ago, I've just been casually looking around, checking out what's out there, looking at everything from Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda to Harley, Triumph and Victory.

So far, I haven't seen any metric cruiser-style bike with looks to match the Honda Shadow Aero's. That bike is a little too small for me, however.

Since business has been good, I've been seriously looking at bike manufacturers that were previously out of my price range, namely Harley-Davidson.

At the moment, I'm really leaning towards Harley-Davidson's Road King Classic. Why? Because from what I can tell, it's got just about everything that I'm looking for.

So what am I looking for?

My Personal Motorcycle Style Preferences

These are only my personal preferences, everyone has a different opinion about what they like, and I can respect that. I'm not sure why I like what I like, I only know what I like when I see it. there are a few common factors in what I like, however:

Fenders - I'm a big fan of and really like full fenders. I've never liked the small, chopped fender up front.

Fairing - No fairing. Please. Yeah, I know it's great for long trips. Yeah, I know it's great to have a fairing in the wind or rain. Yeah, you can put a radio in it and listen to your tunes while you ride. I just don't think that it looks right on a bike. It's just me. Maybe in 10 or 20 years I might change my mind.

Windshield - Having one available is good. If there's one on the bike, I'd like to be able to take it off easily, however.

Engine - I'm not going to be racing anyone, but I don't want to feel like I don't have enough power to move when I need to move.

Size - I've got a 30 inch inseam, so I need to keep things close to the ground. I'm open to lowering things an inch or so, but I don't know how much I can drop a bike without causing problems for the ride.

Seat - I'd prefer the leave the back fender bare, so a solo seat, or something that would convert easily to a solo seat would be great. Don't intend to take anyone with me for the most part, but having the option is nice.

Saddlebags - Kind of need these if I'm going to be riding to work. I'd like the option to take them off relatively easily, but the bike has to look good with them on.

Features - Cruise control would be nice, but I don't plan on making a whole lot of long trips. ABS would be nice, but not essential.

Visually, here's a few bikes illustrating what I like:

I've also been looking at the 2009 Harley Softail Deluxe - which is probably the best-looking modern Harley out there right now, in my opinion.

The only reason I'm wary of that model is that it doesn't come with the windshield or saddlebags, it doesn't have cruise control and it has a 5-gallon fuel tank as opposed to the 6-gallon fuel tank that Harley Tourers have. And because the Softail Deluxe has just about the same MSRP as the Road King Classic, I'd have to spend a bit more to get the Deluxe as decked out as the RKC.

Although, this 2005 Softail Deluxe has just about the look that I'm going for:

And because it's May 2009, and the 2010 Harley lineup will be announced towards the end of July, I'm curious as to what changes are in store. When you consider how much of a change there is between a 2008 Road King and a 2009 Road King, I don't want to buy something if it's going to go through an extensive re-design in the next few months, you know? So I'm going to wait to see what changes the 2010 Harley's bring before I pull the trigger and make my decision.

In the end, I know I'm going to have to get on more than a few of these bikes and ride them at length before I settle on something in particular. I look forward to it.