For you guys that went to Daytona last week

[Old Ryder]

One thing struck me as different this year from the other 2 years I have been there. After you get past the 4.68 billion noisey chromed out Harleys that were there, what was the second most popular motorcycle manufacturer? Brand name, that is. I was a bit suprised. I know what stood out to me, but I am curious if others noticed it too?

[Spanky]

I saw alot of victory's and alot of Polaris slingshots. Indian was represented well. I was disappointed in general, These rally's don't seem to have the appeal they once did when I owned a Harley.

[Old Ryder]

I saw alot of victory's and alot of Polaris slingshots. Indian was represented well. I was disappointed in general, These rally's don't seem to have the appeal they once did when I owned a Harley.

BINGO!!!!! And on the very first response. Two years ago I rode my Kingpin all around Daytona and there was just a handful of Victorys and Indian had not started production yet. My Vic got a lot of attention at the time. Last year was not much different. But this year they were all over the place--and Indian, too. I was talking to one of the engineers at the Indian tent and he said they simply could not build enough Scouts and they are just now catching up with the other Cheif models.

This year it was nice owning a bike that the vendors actually had stuff for. I agree with you Spanky--it is starting to be the same thing over and over. Not even going to Myrtle Beach this year.

[Steve 0080]

Daytona is for H.D.'s.... even Sunshine Mall was closed!!!! Only hope is at the track/demo rides and the like....

[Old Ryder]

Daytona is for H.D.'s.... even Sunshine Mall was closed!!!! Only hope is at the track/demo rides and the like....

You are correct. Did get a great deal on a Bell Drifter (another helmet to add to my collection) at JP and spent $95 on an intercom system that is useless. Other than the show special on the Sun Shade the demo rides were it--and looking around. The Scout is about the fastest thing my fanny has been on in a while--if I were 30 years younger and 80 lbs lighter it would be a consideration. Also rode the Dark Horse. Went to the Moto Guzzi tent 3 times tring for a ride before I gave up and did not even try the 2 hour wait at the Yamaha tent.

Then I waited for 2 hours in the heat and traffic to cruise Main Street in the wife's MX5 convertible only to find it closed to everything but bikes. :banghead: The highpoint was fish and chips and Guiness at the Black Sheep. Sure beats going to work.

[typhoon186]

One thing I saw on the news in Daytona on Wed. morning was about bike sales (mainly related to HD). The guy that sells bike on the corner of Main and Beach Street said he brought 70 bikes to Daytona and had already sold 60 by Tuesday. He was scrambling to find more to get him through the weekend. He said on a scale from 1-10, sales was 29. said it was due to the improved economy. I must have missed the huge economic improvement.

[bobbyf6b]

Saw this on the news...

43 arrested during Bike Week sex sting in Volusia County

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-sex-sting-bike-week-volusia-20150316-story.html

[bobbyf6b]

One thing I saw on the news in Daytona on Wed. morning was about bike sales (mainly related to HD). The guy that sells bike on the corner of Main and Beach Street said he brought 70 bikes to Daytona and had already sold 60 by Tuesday. He was scrambling to find more to get him through the weekend. He said on a scale from 1-10, sales was 29. said it was due to the improved economy. I must have missed the huge economic improvement.

Most of them will probably get repo'd this summer. :icon_doh:

[typhoon186]

Saw this on the news...

43 arrested during Bike Week sex sting in Volusia County

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-sex-sting-bike-week-volusia-20150316-story.html


I've seen the undercover decoys walking Main Street a few times and was even approached by them. It was so obvious. It should be entrapment! you take 400,000 bikers, and 20,000 gallons of beer then dangle a hot taco in front of them. Somebody's going to want to buy one.

[bobbyf6b]

I've seen the undercover decoys walking Main Street a few times and was even approached by them. It was so obvious. It should be entrapment! you take 400,000 bikers, and 20,000 gallons of beer then dangle a hot taco in front of them. Somebody's going to want to buy one.

:biggthumpup:

[Phantom]

I've seen the undercover decoys walking Main Street a few times and was even approached by them. It was so obvious. It should be entrapment! you take 400,000 bikers, and 20,000 gallons of beer then dangle a hot taco in front of them. Somebody's going to want to buy one.


Unfortunately, I'm seeing the Police departments becoming a REVENUE generating entity for many municipalities and ethics are not what they once were. False accusations, borderline charges and rogue prosecutors are giving many good men in uniform a BLACK eye.

During the BOOM years, they had a lot of tax revenue coming in and many Departments went hog wild, today, they are trying to maintain the over expansion and using in my opinion un-ethical tactics to shake down many citizens simply for revenue.

When the New Yourk City department turned their back on the Mayor a few months ago, there was a HUGE PANIC within the city managers office because the REVENUE generated by the Police had stopped coming in... it was all about the money. Officials estimated New York’s lost revenue at just under $5 million (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html)


New York City police have finally resumed making arrests and issuing tickets after an unofficial slowdown (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/01/05/nypd_slowdown_ticket_summons_arrest_numbers_all_do wn.html) that began in late December and lingered into this month. Last week, police made 6,910 arrests citywide and issued 14,399 parking tickets and 14,367 moving violations, according to (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/nyregion/after-police-slowdown-arrests-and-summonses-continue-to-rise-in-new-york.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0) the New York Times. Those figures still aren’t on par with statistics from the same period in 2014, but they’re a big improvement over previous weeks, as you can see from the chart below:


<figure class="image inline " style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; width: 590px; float: none; ">http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/20/nypd_slowdown_new_york_city_has_lost_millions_in_p arking_ticket_revenue/nypd_slowdown.png.CROP.promovar-mediumlarge.png
Chart by Alison Griswold. Data from the NYPD via the New York Times.
</figure>

How much has that monthlong drop-off in police activity cost the city? Well, from the week of Christmas through Jan. 11, city officials estimated New York’s lost revenue at just under $5 million (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) from all fines, compared with the same period a year before. Parking tickets accounted for a shortfall of about $3 million—they reportedly average $69.13 per ticket and declined by about 44,000 in the slowdown’s first three weeks. At the same time, the Times noted (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) that the less-than-$5-million figure did not include “the additional loss of revenue from speeding tickets, other moving violations, and petty crimes that were not cited, totals that are more difficult to calculate, given the varying penalties for different offenses.”

So it’s hard to know exactly what New York City missed out on while police lowered their enforcement activities. We can loosely update the estimate from Jan. 11 by noting that even in the latest week parking tickets remained down nearly 40 percent, or roughly 8,638, from the same period in 2014. Multiplying that out by $69.13 per ticket, you get that the city lost another nearly $600,000 in the most recent week from the ongoing shortfall of parking tickets alone.* The New York City Comptroller’s Office on Tuesday was not able to provide an updated estimate of how much the city has lost to the slowdown.


While a loss of several million dollarsisn’t a terrible hit for a city with a $77 billion budget for fiscal year 2015, it’s also a not-insignificant amount of money. Police Commissioner William Bratton has countered (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) that New York may in fact be saving money from reduced overtime pay for officers. But it’s really anyone’s guess how the slowdown will appear in the budget when the final tallies are in.

*Correction, Jan. 20, 2015: This post originally misstated the approximate amount of money the city lost a shortfall in parking tickets in the latest week. It is $600,000, not $600 million.

[Limoles]

So - this is not about "TO SERVE AND PROTECT" anymore ?

[BobinMich]

yes, Daytona is "mostly" for Harleys....I think that is because "most" of the retirees that own motorcycles, own Harleys. Many go to florida for the winter as well = Lots of HOGS there. Indian prices are actually VERY good this year, so you'll start seeing more of them on the road (Vintage Chief, 22k, ALL chrome frontend, ABS, cruise, fringe saddlebags, etc), pretty good price for what you get (compared to HD). just my .02

[bobbyf6b]

It's too bad they have to drag bike week through the mud. AZ bike week is next week so we'll be under the microscope too I'm sure.

[taxfree4]

Unfortunately, I'm seeing the Police departments becoming a REVENUE generating entity for many municipalities and ethics are not what they once were. False accusations, borderline charges and rogue prosecutors are giving many good men in uniform a BLACK eye.

During the BOOM years, they had a lot of tax revenue coming in and many Departments went hog wild, today, they are trying to maintain the over expansion and using in my opinion un-ethical tactics to shake down many citizens simply for revenue.

When the New Yourk City department turned their back on the Mayor a few months ago, there was a HUGE PANIC within the city managers office because the REVENUE generated by the Police had stopped coming in... it was all about the money. Officials estimated New York’s lost revenue at just under $5 million (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html)


New York City police have finally resumed making arrests and issuing tickets after an unofficial slowdown (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/01/05/nypd_slowdown_ticket_summons_arrest_numbers_all_do wn.html) that began in late December and lingered into this month. Last week, police made 6,910 arrests citywide and issued 14,399 parking tickets and 14,367 moving violations, according to (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/nyregion/after-police-slowdown-arrests-and-summonses-continue-to-rise-in-new-york.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0) the New York Times. Those figures still aren’t on par with statistics from the same period in 2014, but they’re a big improvement over previous weeks, as you can see from the chart below:


<figure class="image inline " style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; width: 590px; float: none; ">http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/20/nypd_slowdown_new_york_city_has_lost_millions_in_p arking_ticket_revenue/nypd_slowdown.png.CROP.promovar-mediumlarge.png
Chart by Alison Griswold. Data from the NYPD via the New York Times.

</figure>

How much has that monthlong drop-off in police activity cost the city? Well, from the week of Christmas through Jan. 11, city officials estimated New York’s lost revenue at just under $5 million (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) from all fines, compared with the same period a year before. Parking tickets accounted for a shortfall of about $3 million—they reportedly average $69.13 per ticket and declined by about 44,000 in the slowdown’s first three weeks. At the same time, the Times noted (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) that the less-than-$5-million figure did not include “the additional loss of revenue from speeding tickets, other moving violations, and petty crimes that were not cited, totals that are more difficult to calculate, given the varying penalties for different offenses.”

So it’s hard to know exactly what New York City missed out on while police lowered their enforcement activities. We can loosely update the estimate from Jan. 11 by noting that even in the latest week parking tickets remained down nearly 40 percent, or roughly 8,638, from the same period in 2014. Multiplying that out by $69.13 per ticket, you get that the city lost another nearly $600,000 in the most recent week from the ongoing shortfall of parking tickets alone.* The New York City Comptroller’s Office on Tuesday was not able to provide an updated estimate of how much the city has lost to the slowdown.


While a loss of several million dollarsisn’t a terrible hit for a city with a $77 billion budget for fiscal year 2015, it’s also a not-insignificant amount of money. Police Commissioner William Bratton has countered (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/police-slowdown-cost-new-york-city-an-estimated-5-million-in-lost-fines.html) that New York may in fact be saving money from reduced overtime pay for officers. But it’s really anyone’s guess how the slowdown will appear in the budget when the final tallies are in.

*Correction, Jan. 20, 2015: This post originally misstated the approximate amount of money the city lost a shortfall in parking tickets in the latest week. It is $600,000, not $600 million.

In order for the machine to survive the legislature must keep making criminals out of their citizens through an ever expanding, ever encroaching restrictions on our liberty and freedom. Unfortunately, law enforcement is caught in the middle of that as the enforcer of these restrictions which explains a lot of the tension between the two parties. You've got to have a little sympathy for them, it's not an easy job.

[Steve 0080]

It is a thankless job, but I have to say that when ticket prices went up, ( read, city, county, state lost revenue from property taxes ...WE all tighten our belts and slowed down on spending...these folks did not, so the money had to come from some where ) I and the people I had control over slowed down on moving violations. It seemed almost criminal to stop someone and takes his kids lunch money or rent money for the month with one ticket...I also have to say that the violations did not slow down and eventually had to start writing again to keep a lid on it ! Kinda like being on the highway and seeing the PoPo, it goes to yellow flag racing...when the PoPo is out of site...back to green flag !!!!

[taxfree4]

It is a thankless job, but I have to say that when ticket prices went up, ( read, city, county, state lost revenue from property taxes ...WE all tighten our belts and slowed down on spending...these folks did not, so the money had to come from some where ) I and the people I had control over slowed down on moving violations. It seemed almost criminal to stop someone and takes his kids lunch money or rent money for the month with one ticket...I also have to say that the violations did not slow down and eventually had to start writing again to keep a lid on it ! Kinda like being on the highway and seeing the PoPo, it goes to yellow flag racing...when the PoPo is out of site...back to green flag !!!!


I've always said being it's our money they are confiscating and redistributing why can't the citizens audit the books yearly by an independent forensic accountant, whose given complete immunity. If you take one cent of government money, which is our money, they dictate curriculum, hiring etc. etc. I bet you would find all the money you needed buried in ghost positions, phony charities, shadow organizations, money laundering schemes at the highest level. A ballot initiative, if anything, would scare the BaJesus out of them.

[Old Ryder]

I've always said being it's our money they are confiscating and redistributing why can't the citizens audit the books yearly by an independent forensic accountant, whose given complete immunity. If you take one cent of government money, which is our money, they dictate curriculum, hiring etc. etc. I bet you would find all the money you needed buried in ghost positions, phony charities, shadow organizations, money laundering schemes at the highest level. A ballot initiative, if anything, would scare the BaJesus out of them.

Hence-- your sign on name????? :lolup:

[taxfree4]

Hence-- your sign on name????? :lolup:

Yes, eventually you get tired of paying for the carousel while all the deadbeats not only get on for nothing but go to the front of the line on your dime.

[Old Ryder]

I am a contracted vendor for the state. I can write you a book.

[blackmetoc]

I've seen the undercover decoys walking Main Street a few times and was even approached by them. It was so obvious. It should be entrapment! you take 400,000 bikers, and 20,000 gallons of beer then dangle a hot taco in front of them. Somebody's going to want to buy one.

I offer to sleep with the women if they buy me dinner. I mean, I AM a gentleman!

[terrydj]

I offer to sleep with the women if they buy me dinner. I mean, I AM a gentleman!

I suppose when your old you just sleep???????
Me I have better things to do with women than sleep
I mean I am a man :icon_cool:

[1951vbs]

The Scout is about the fastest thing my fanny has been on in a while--if I were 30 years younger and 80 lbs lighter it would be a consideration.

Your F6B is faster than a Scout in the 1/4 mile. Ring it out!

[terrydj]

A few are saying it has changed well here in the land down under it did as well???
It all changed when Motorcyle ownership not riding became Trendy.
And I blame Harley Davidson:no:

Previous to the Vaughn Beals takeover, those that owned Motorcycles enjoyed and rode them and did so because the bike they rode was Kool
When motorcyclists got together it was to say hello, how they hangin and tell a few lies and have a great time:yes:

Then came the Vaughn Beals Harley operation where they started to market their product to people that wanted to play dress up and pretend they were something they wern't surrounded by people the same.
Hense the formation of the HOG club and the Harley Davidson After-market product attack on the world
Thats when it all changed
The mid 1980's/190. Just so many wankers playing dress up look at me, my bikes shinier and got more aftermarket products on it than yours and cost more money ???????? Fools :icon_cool:

[Old Ryder]

Your F6B is faster than a Scout in the 1/4 mile. Ring it out!

My "Butt Dyno" tells me differently. To be truthful I am backing down about the 80-90 mph mark, anyway.