Ray Drea, senior director of styling at Harley-Davidson, said the following about the Motor Company's line of denim paints, used on their new "Dark Custom" motorcycles...

"One of the paints is called denim. It is designed to be roughed and rubbed off."

The quote appears in tomorrow's edition of the New York Times, where writer Phil Patton attended an unveiling of the new Softail Cross Bones in Manhattan, and was told that the Dark Custom line, which also includes last year's Nightster, are bikes are designed to be dirtied and roughed up, like a pair of jeans.

I guess it never occurred to me that Harley designed this denim series of paints to scuff, scratch, or even chip that easily, just so that customers can get a worn-out looking bike in a much faster time.

Is that what folks want these days? A motorcycle that looks like it has already traveled 100,000 miles? Well, if image is everything, then it stands to reason that you can't look like a "real biker" if your bike looks like a dealer rental.

It's like how you can get a brand new pair of jeans with tears, holes already in them.

Maybe each Harley dealership ought to set up a "beater department", where for an extra grand, they can make your bike look like it's been to Hell and back.

Labels: Harley Davidson Softail Cross Bones, Harley-Davidson