| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
Henry Patterson, the most awarded dealer in the history of Harley-Davidson, was the dealer who drew me, in 1987 into the world of motorcycles. I was running my fledgling business . . working long days, mostly 7 days a week and growing rapidly. I didn't have time for hobbies like golf. But, I recalled those photos of my Grandfather, also an Electrical Contractor, who never drove a car but always rode his Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles everywhere. I bought my first Harley-Davidson in 1987, it was one of those $3,995 883 Huggers when they were running the "trade up to a Big Twin in 12 months and get your entire purchase price applied". Well during that year I bought a couple FLH's an XR-1000, a 1977 XLCR and 3 more Sportsters that were turned into various racers (old timers will recall the 883 Twin Sport series) During those years I sponsored Mike Patterson in the AMA Flat Rack series . . . he loved the sponsorship and I loved going to places like the Springfield Mile and the Sacramento Mile. It was at the Sacramento Mile that I saw the first Buell RR-1000 . . chartered a plane and headed straight to Mukwonago to find the company. I recall looking for a large sprawling manufacturing facility and what I found. That day . . .sitting for hours, babysitting the 2 young girls while scrawling "we could do this if . . " notes on a legal pad . . changed my life. It's so great to see the Patterson's celebrating this award. If you are ever anywhere near Topeka, make the trip to the store. There are NO Harley-Davidson stores in the USA that even compare and the trip through history is well worth it. It's been a week for great news and seeing this today was icing on the cake. Court http://cjonline.com/news/business/2014-10-18/topek as-harley-davidson-dealership-business-more-100-ye ars#comment-1163719 |
