Hi folks,

New guy here. Wanted to introduce myself and how I got here! Background: Early 40s, owned a few sportbikes and sport tourers/standards (Jap 600s, BMW, Triumph Speed Triple) Got out of riding the last few years and decided to get back into riding with my new wife, who is also new to riding. I've been reading with interest the many recent stories about HDs declining market share, lack of interest from millenials, dying customer base, etc. So I thought I would share how I ended up (to my surprise) being the proud owner of a new 2020 Street Bob.

This all started when my wife mentioned to me she wanted to get into riding. So I went out looking at bikes with her, with the expectation that she would get a small jap starter bike, and I was focused on a sporty naked, something like the Speed Triple I last had. Literally the day after my wife completed her MSF course and got her endorsement we went to the local jap bike dealer. The salesman was fine, but they had a no test rides policy, and we were not too jazzed about spending money on a bike neither of us had ever ridden before. On a whim, we stopped by the local HD dealership just to kick some tires. We had never been to an HD dealership before, and was not expecting that they would actually let a complete newbie ride any of their bikes. To my surprise the first thing the salesman said was "Let's go ride and few and see what you think!". My wife demo'ed a 2019 softail slim and I rode a 2019 street bob and fat bob. I was really impressed by how smooth, stable, and fast each of those bikes were, and my wife really liked the smoothness and balance of the softail slim. They let us ride a few sportster models as well, but compared to the softails they seemed less smooth and my wife didn't like the lumpy engine or shifter.

Over the next few weeks I rode a few other bikes, Indian, Triumph, Ducati. But I just kept going back to all of that low end torque of the HD. For example, The Indian Scout I rode looked fantastic, and was probably just as fast, if not faster, but to me it just didn’t give me the same feels riding it. Same for the others.

I couldn't get over how fun the street bob was, and truth be told I did feel like kind of a badass riding it! And I came to the realization that for the kind of riding I actually do, this bike is perfect. I've had sport bikes, naked streetfighters, sport tourers etc. But we live in Florida, and I'm in my 40s now. The fantasies I held back in my earlier riding days about dragging pegs in a sweeping turn never really came to fruition. We've straightened out all the roads here decades ago, and most of our riding will be along the beach or down a long straight state road from one towns restaurant or bar to the next. And I know I was never a good enough rider to tap even 30% of those bikes potential anyway. Now I just want to enjoy cruising with my wife and experiencing being on two wheels together. Yes, an HD is expensive, but to me it’s much more than what you see on a spec sheet. It’s gorgeous to look at, and the fit and finish is amazing. Every time I get off it I have shit eating grin and am looking over my shoulder back at it!