We had the recent opportunity of working with Sean Sargent in helping him create his customized 2014 Street Glide. His main focus was a 100% customized paint job that fulfilled a vision he has been waiting to create for some time now. He worked closely with Seth over at Aggressive Designs to create his vision of a cobalt blueish color with ghost flames. It turned out looking amazing.

Sean also decided to upgrade the stereo system and utilize some of the extra space in his saddle bags.

The Finished Product!

Thanks for Inspiring us Sean!

Newest Customized Street Glide at Laidlaw's H-D

So to break the monotony of the same stock Harleys you see at every dealership, we always like to let our creative juices flow from time to time.

The bike you see here is a 2013 Street Glide (FLHX). It started as a vivid black bike (least expensive paint because why paint over anything more expensive). The bike was stripped down and all the painted parts were sent out to Aggressive Designs to get a serious face-lift.

Seth at Aggressive pretty much created a work of art with the paint, as you can see. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves instead of trying to describe it.

After that, we equipped this bagger with chrome front legs with polished rotors to boot. The bars are 14 inch FLH Apes with chrome switch housings to top them off.

The inner fairing is color matched with the chrome FLHX mirrors to finish off that chromed out look.

Sportster and Dyna Highlight!

We are currently have several Iron 883's, Forty-Eights, and Street Bobs in stock. 

The Iron 883 is part of the Dark Custom movement that started with the Nightster in 2007. The Iron was first introduced as the mid-model year bike in 2009. Shipping from the factory with the smaller Sportster motor (883) it also comes with a smaller price tag, starting at $7,999.

The Iron 883 was an instant hit and dealers (including us) who could not keep them on the floor. This was during the time when completely "black-out" bikes were extremely popular (they still are). The Iron really goes for the "greaser" and "bobber" look with a stripped down style to it. It has the gator guards on the front forks to bring out that retro look as well.

 The bike is very popular with the younger riders who want a high quality bike without the huge investment that some of the other Harley-Davidson motorcycles come with. Also very popular with newer riders who want to skip the "junker" learner bike.

The Sportster Forty-Eight was named after the first year the Sportster was suited with the 2 gallon peanut tank (1948). The Forty-Eight comes with the 1200cc motor which is the larger of the two offered to the Sportster chassis bikes. The Forty-Eight is a lowered, bobber stylized bike. It screams custom garage bobber. One of the more notable features is the fat front tire housed on a spoke rim.

Both of these bikes are great for the best possible gas economy and easy to get into with a low price tag. They also have gotten the most attention from Harley-Davidson's design department with keeping up with the young trends in the motorcycle scene.

The Street Bob is the older brother of these two bikes in the Dark Custom family. Like the aforementioned Sportsters this bike really goes for the "black-out" bobber look. Dyna's are considered by many to be the best value in the Harley-Davidson family. Why you ask? Simple, they are the lowest priced Harley motorcycle that has the Big Twin motor (96 Cubic inch) and the 6 speed transmission (Sportsters have 5 speed). What does this mean? You have more power, a slightly larger chassis, and can cruise more comfortably at higher freeway speeds.

Starting at $12,999 the Street Bob is definitely worth the extra cash if you're looking for a little more bike.

We have plenty of these models in-stock now. Come on down and let us sit you on one and see if it's a fit.

Summer is here at Laidlaw's!

Summer to us means riding adventures, festivals, charity rides and fun with family and friends! We love summer and staying cool is key! Through July get 10% off all our tank tops and sleeveless shirts! We have the best selection and styles to choose from to keep you feeling and looking cool this summer!

Customized Iron 883

Hey everyone, in this installment of Laidlaw's H-D blogger I bring you our newest creation. We've taken the ever-popular Iron 883 and slapped a set of upgraded tins on it. The paint you see here is the creative thinking of Seth from Aggressive Designs.







When I first saw it the thought of "Red Baron" came to mind. It has a strong WWI vibe to it, nonetheless. Complete with bullet holes, Iron crosses, and the remains of what might be Manfred von Richthofen.

Currently looking for a co-pilot...... See it today on Laidlaw's H-D Show Room floor.

Our First Breakout has Arrived

We just received our first Breakout in Big Blue Pearl from the H-D factory. Here is a collage of some of the first pictures taken and a video to go with it. To answer some questions: 1. Yes, it's still here to come take a look and 2. Yes, it's still available.

Laidlaw's Harley Harlem Shake

One morning, Bob and the Laidlaw's H-D staff had a bad case of the Harley Harlem Shakes. Watch as the entire dealership goes nuts.

Harley-Davidson's Mid-2013 Model Year Release

The Motor Company likes to keep fresh models rollin' off the assembly line every year. Their ability to create new models and put them into production quickly is a result of a recently updated and re-vamped factory process.

 The new model available at dealerships soon, is the Softail Breakout! Now many of you are probably saying, "Uh, didn't they already announce that at the beginning of the 2013 model year?" Notice I didn't say CVO Softail Breakout. The new breakout is just the normal, 103-cubic inch, non-hard candy custom paint, no-fancy-wheels, bare-bones Breakout. That being said, the bike is awesome.

When the CVO Breakout was introduced, everyone was blown away. There are a lot of barriers to get on the CVO version though. Custom Vehicle Operations (CVO) bikes are very limited in production (we have gotten only one) and come with a premium price. So this "normal version" of the bike will allow more people to throw their leg over a the newest member of the Softail family.

 The Breakout is a unique looking bike that has a lot of characteristics found on custom choppers. It has chopped fenders all the way around the bike. You got plenty of rear-rubber on the road coming from a 240mm rear tire. A "raked-out" front end gives it that custom chopper appeal. The bike has a chrome/black contrast theme about it. It's a great new look that is really popular in the motorcycle industry right now. The wheels have this finish and it makes them look very custom. They are similar to the Iron 883 wheels. This bike really delivers the main purpose of the softail chassis - a clean, raw, custom look with all the modern comforts. Over all it's just a stripped down, eye-catching bike.Click HERE for more pictures and detailed information on the bike.

Stay tuned here on our blog or check out our facebook page for future updates on the bike. I'll let everyone know when we get our first one so you can come down and check it out!

Need Tires

Who needs new tires? This month at Laidlaw's buy a Tube Tire or Tires and the rim strips and the tupes are on us! This is a $35.99 value! Or Buy any set of wheels and we'll throw in the tires and a free hour of labor on us! Savings of $700 or more! Contact our service department today for an appointment! 

Check out the Virtual Tour of the Dealership!

We have a new feature on our Google+ page that everyone needs to check out! It's a virtual tour around the dealership. If you have ever used "street View" on Google Maps than you get the idea of what it's like. It's just like street view except it's inside the dealership. "Google" us at Laidlaw's Harley-Davidson and click "see inside."

Take Your Picture with Santa Claus!

The Holidays are upon us and Laidlaw's has the best gift giving ideas of the season!

We love the Holidays and on December 21st - 24th Biker Claus will be here!
Take a picture with Santa and while you're here check out all the cool shiny new toys!

 



Decked out Road Glide Custom - New & Untitled

I’d like to introduce everyone to the latest customized bike at Laidlaw’s Harley-Davidson. We took a Brand-New, zero miles Road Glide Custom fresh out of the package and dressed it up a bit. The factory color we chose is a candy orange accented with chrome. Yes, it's available for a new owner.

Mounted at the front of the bike are the Paul Yaffe Monkey bars for your steering enjoyment. At the top of these bars, you’ll find that the switch housings and brake master cylinder have all been chromed out. The stock grips have been replaced with Harley-Davidson “Get-a-Grip hand grips (chrome) and the brake and clutch levers have been replaced with their chrome counterparts. The actual switches were left stock black.

To make this chariot roll, it’s got Harley-Davidson agitator wheels in the front and back. 19 inches of mirror chrome in the front and 18 inches in the back. To hold the front wheel in place, you have to have chromed out lower legs. The upper fork sliders are performance machine’s Merc chrome to give it some style and accent.

Why ride a bagger with mediocre tunes? Our thoughts exactly! On this rolling stereo, you got the Hog Tunes tweeter pod wrapped around the tachometer. Then Harley-Davidson’s Boom Audio speakers occupy the fairing wings. For the rear range of sound, the saddle bag lids have been utilized to house the H-D Boom Audio Saddlebag Speaker kit. All-in-all – quite the kickin’ system!

To channel some of that pesky wind off yer face, a smoked H-D wind splitter shield has been installed. This wind shield kicks more of the wind up around your head and doesn’t take away the style of your bike. After all – why ride a Harley if you can’t look good and sound good while doin’ it.

Blacked Out Friday Shopping Event!

Laidlaw's Harley-Davidson is geared up and ready for this Holiday season!
To kick off the Holidays we invite you to attend our "Blacked-Out Friday" event on November 23rd! Avoid the busy shopping centers and come to Laidlaw's where the customer service is outstanding and there won't be the big headache of the crowds.

We have an exciting Holiday season planned and we hope to see you soon!

November Service Specials at Laidlaw's!

Check out our November Service specials and this month is "Check Your Tire Month in Service" at Laidlaw's. Come in for a FREE tire check! Winter is coming - be safe on the road with the proper tires, Ride On, and Nitrogen!

Click here for our service special details and we hope to see you soon!

Blacked-Out Friday Inspiration

Every now-and-then I like to do a spot light on a customer’s bike that I feel looks extra good and demands a second look. Phil Loverso picked up his 2011 Street Glide from us and immediately went to work fulfilling a vision he had. He got a Black Denim FLHX and decided to go ahead and black that thing out! The forks, all the trim around the lights, the turn signals, the hand controls, the brake/clutch levers, the saddle bag latches and guards, the pipe, all the covers on the engine, the bars, the wheels, etc, etc. The list goes on. 

The wheels are Harley-Davidson’s 18 inch (front and back) Agitators. Of course you have to have the brake rotors to match the wheels too. The FLHX gets air through the H-D heavy breather intake (which of course is black.) Then the air is spit out through the Vance and Hines Pro-Pipe (also black), all controlled by the Screamin’ Eagle Super Tuner. The bars are Paul Yaffe’s 12 inch Monkey bars (need I say they are black denim as well.)

As a nice little accent, some of the emblems around the bike have been hand painted red. You’ll see this nice accent on the tank emblem, passenger floor boards, and multiple covers on the motor.

Now what is a bagger without the tunes? This rollin’ black hole is equipped with Harley’s Boom Audio and Hog Tunes extra speaker pods. The stereo sounds great might I add.  To keep things techie - the iPod interface and mounting hardware is used to keep Apple in our lives.

The finished product is a wicked lookin’ bagger with red accents throughout. The Black Denim gives it the greaser, bobber look with all the modern comforts of a touring model. Well done Phil and thanks for letting me post your ride!

2013 Harley-Davidson Models have Arrived!

So this is a long over-due post that needed postin'! I first laid my eyes on the new bikes August 20th, 2012, so a month and a half later I'm finally getting to this.

 
Most everything that I predicted in a previous post came into fruition. The biggest stars of the show were the CVO Softail Breakout, CVO Road King, and the 110th Anniversay stylized bikes. I was wrong about the color of the 110th bikes (I guessed platinum and they are actually a copper color with a nice tank emblem).

 

First we'll talk about the new CVO Breakout. This bike probably received the most attention of any bike at the dealer show in Milwaukee this year. It's built on the Softail chassis and has all the CVO standard amenities such as the 110 CI motor and custom paint/chrome. I posted a video that gives a walk-around of each of the colors. Without going into the technical name of each of the colors, (they are a paragraph long) there are 3 unique colors, red, yellow, and silver. The yellow one (gold dust and liquid sun) has had the Hard Candy Custom treatment. This "treatment" basically is a multi-step process that gives the bike a large, deep, metal flake look to it. It's the same paint process that we saw introduced on the new Seventy-Two back in February. Later we will get more into the "Hard Candy Custom" empire that Harley built up this year. So the paint on all three bikes is completely off-the-charts-awesome to be said quite frankly. They also have some filthy wheels (that only fit on the Breakout BTW) which are another one of the main signifying characteristics. Another cool feature that I feel is over looked by some is are the braided cables coming out of the top of the tank to act as vent ports. They resemble something you'd see coming out of the Dark Knight Rises, Bain's neck. The stage introduction was quite memorable this year too, as there was a little accident! All-in-all, amazing bike. Definitely a show-stopper from all angles. Too bad most of us will probably never see one driving down the road. They are very limited and carry a price tag starting at $26,499. The best part of this bike was that it bumped off the CVO Convertible which stayed in the CVO line-up for way too long.

 
After a several year hiatus the Road King was reintroduced into the CVO elitists. Just as I expected it shares the same bag/rear facia as the CVO Street Glide and Road Glide Custom. It has the Harley extended bags without the traditional rear fender tail lights but instead the light strips between the fenders and bags. In those bags we find the oh-so-useful speakers on the saddlebags lids and iPod pouch that were introduced last year on the Street Glide. It also has lower leg fairings on the front highway bars. These were put there, of course, to house the two additional speakers. My immediate question was, "Without a fairing how do you operate the radio and iPod?" Everything is operated through two thumb switches on either side of the handle bars. The controls are very rudimentary. One changes the track up and down and the other increases and decreases the volume. Oh, and there is no Radio, who listens to radio nowadays anyways? The King of the Road comes in three different color schemes one of which is the 110th anniversary edition (all CVO bikes except the breakout come in an anniversary edition besides the Breakout which is appealing on its own merits alone). The king rolls on Harley's large, 19 inch, agitator chrome wheels. The seat is new and unique to the bike which comes with a matching backrest to boot. The last new innovative feature on the bike keeps the wind off yer face. The new windshield has a venting system on the front that can be adjusted to help reduce the buffeting of the wind. It has a fin inserted into a cut-out in the middle of the windshield that can be angled up or down to place the wind just right according to rider height etc. The windshield has undergone a lot of R&D and can also be found in the P&A catalog. I have yet to test it out but when I do I'll post a review. Right now, I can say, I'm still undecided if I hate or like the look of it all. I'm a little sad they did away with the passing lamps and lolli-pop turn signals. They replaced them with the sleeker looking, handle bar mounted, bullet turn rignals.

 

The 105th anniversary color scheme got a lot of criticism and sold very poorly in California. I personally liked the color even though it did look like a Duracell battery. This year I can say I like the color, seat, emblem, etc of the 110th ann. bikes. Harley announced that they will be making far fewer of the anniversary edition models than in past years. I think this is a smart move, the bikes fit a very particular taste and not everyone will like them.

 

Overall it's basically copper and black but the copper has a lot deeper, darker tone to it. The badge is nicely done (its super high quality and requires a long process to make, I forget the details). The bikes all have the 2-tone seats that look great and tie in nicely with the rest of the theme. The derby covers, cam timer cover, and air cleaner covers all have 110th insignias.  The list of models that come in the anniversary color include: Sportster 1200 Custom, Super Glide Custom, Heritage, FatBoy Lo, Road King, Electra Glide Ultra Limited, and Tri-Glide. Also you have the option of 3 of the 4 CVO Bikes. The coloring is completely different on the CVOs though.

 

The CVO Road Glide custom is back this year. Harley made two very enticing upgrades this year. They developed a new LED headlamp for the Road Glide which is stock on the CVO Road Glide. This head lamp can also be found in the P&A catalog. Might I add that this light kicks ass and looks amazing. The Harley LED lights perform great and look even better. The price tag is up there though. Also the Glider of Roads comes with the saddle bags pre-filled. The famous lid speakers have been utilized for yet another CVO bagger from the factory.

 
Harley is really putting a lot of their developmental eggs in the Hard Candy Custom basket this year. They have a total of 4 colors under the Hard Candy Custom umbrella this year, 3 of which are on normal models and 1 that is on the Breakout. You got Coloma Gold, Lucky Green, and Big Red Flake that we saw earlier this year. The colors were dispersed around the different models. Some of the cool, notable combinations are the Black Line in Coloma Gold, and the Deluxe in Lucky Green. The Sportsters all come in a bunch of different combinations and the customizable Street Bob comes in all 3, I think. Along with these bike colors the P&A catalog has a bunch of new, swanky Hard Candy accessories that are fairly sick. You got some seats, grips, helmets, etc.       

 
The H-D1 house customizable  Sportsters was getting very lonely so Harley decided to welcome in the Street Bob. There are a lot of very nice, unique parts to bolt onto your customized Street Bob this year. To catch everyone up who didn't hear, you can create your own Street Bob online on Harley's website. You can choose from all sorts of wheels (some really cool red ones BTW), handle bars, seats, engine finishes, exhaust covers, and the list goes on. The Street Bob also had some nice overall changes like the center console mounted ignition (much like the Fat Bob) instead of on the neck of the frame. The engine finish is all black the way everyone wants but Harley had to tease everyone off and on for a few years there. Also the tail light that resembled someone's man-hood was finally removed and you just got the two bullet lights with the brake light and turn signals integrated into one. If you're looking for a custom Bobber at a good price there really is no better place or bike in the world than this Street Bob customizer.

 
I think that about sums of the most impressive stuff without getting into the small insignificant details. If anyone has something to add please do so in the comments. There is a new engine cover set called the Burst collection that is like that black and chrome contrast kinda like the edge cut stuff. Anyways its extremely tight and I'm tempted to put it all over my bike. The collection is available early next year. Thanks for reading and keep riding!     

Bob Laidlaw and Carburetor Carl Rematch!

        Amongst the muscle cars, tuned-imports, and drag bikes Bob Laidlaw and Carburetor Carl rolled their antique motorcycles up to the line at Irwindale Drag Strip last night. This would mark the 3^rd time these two rivals have squared off in a head-to-head battle of 100-year-old-motorcycle dominance.

There was no burn-out needed (the tires were already plenty warm). The two blasts from the past rolled up to the starting line, Bob riding his 1911 Harley-Davidson and Carl riding his 1912 Pierce. The light hit green and the two squealed from the line. With white knuckles and the wind in their face they both hit the finish line. Bob finished about 4 seconds ahead of Carl hitting 30 MPH and Carl hitting a top speed of 23 MPH. The final winning time for the 8^th mile was 24.044 seconds. Second place Carl ran it in 28.250 seconds.

This marks the third straight win for Bob Laidlaw and the 1911 Harley-Davidson. Ironically after the race Carl mentioned that his bike didn’t run right because of a problem with the carburetor. Bob jokingly recommended he get someone to look at it, preferably someone who knew a thing or two about Carburetors.  

-Matt Laidlaw