Diana and I were invited to a 2010 product launch party in New York City by Harley-Davidson and given the opportunity to interview Harley-Davidson’s Director of Communications: Paul James. To entice us to stay an extra day and demo ride the new 2010 Harley-Davidson motorcycles they said they could set us up in a hotel. I agreed but wasn’t sure what kind of hotel we would be in. I was excited about the party and the demo rides but having visions of a flea bag hotel in some battle zone with police sirens and gun shots keeping us awake. Soon thereafter we were sent a link to the Hotel Gansavoort. Then we were more excited about staying at the Hotel then going to the party.
We arrived at the hotel Thursday evening around 7:30pm, settled in real quick, bolted downstairs and had the doorman hail us a real New York City cab. The cab took us to the Ainsworth several blocks away. We knew we were there when we came to a club that had eight new 2010 Harley-Davidson motorcycles parked out front. At the door were two men with a clipboard at a sign that read “Private Party”. I said “we are Jay and Diana Green.” The guy with the clipboard was so happy to see us; it was our host Jerry from the public relations firm handling the event. He turned to the other guy and said “this is Jay and Diana Green from Road Captain USA in Delaware. They are here to ride the motorcycles tomorrow.” Then he turned to us and said “this is Paul James from Harley-Davidson.” It was so cool that they knew who we were and were so happy to have us there.
We stepped into the club and there has a 2010 CVO Street Glide on display right in front of the entrance and a large crowd to the right… and from the crowd you could hear the buzz of tattooing. Sure enough they had tattoo artists from Dare Devil Tattoo slinging ink. We spoke to Kevin and Michelle from Dare Devil later on and they were way cool. Check out their website at www.DareDevilTattoo.com. Diana was dig’n the CVO Street Glide and was posing on the bike like she wanted to do a pictorial for East Coast Biker.
We ventured into the club. There was a Fat Bob on display in the middle of the room, DJ’s on a stage in front of a Harley-Davidson back drop and flat screens everywhere showing video’s from the Harley-Davidson You-Tube channel. Sexy waitresses in Harley shirts and tight jeans served drinks and gourmet appetizers. The appetizers were awesome! The bar was mobbed with artsy looking New York City types. We gravitated to the center of the room where a group of people were posing with the Fat Bob. It was the owner and staff from Liberty Harley-Davidson in Rahway, NJ. Click here to see their pictures from the party. We also met our new friend Jose Santiago. It seemed everyone else in the club were fashionable New York City club goers with the exception of this group in the middle of the room wearing HD clothing. The other people were media types from mainstream television, magazine and newspapers.
The idea behind the event was to bring Harley-Davidson closer to the mainstream media and vice versa. Harley has to market to motorcycle enthusiasts, but they also have to market to new riders… and the gateway to new riders is mainstream media. Paul James told me that 25% of their buyers are new to motorcycling. It was amazing how he could rattle off statistics like that. I asked him a lot of questions, but I don’t remember the questions or answers on account of the free lager.
The next morning we ordered room service, packed up, put on our riding gear, checked out and had our bags put into storage. We caught a cab back to the Ainsworth where Paul, Jerry and some of the other great people from Harley-Davidson and Weber Shandwick welcomed us. It was 11:00 am and we were like “where is everyone else?” And they were like “it’s just you guys”. That’s when they gave us our choice of 2010 Harley-Davidson motorcycles and let us loose on the city with only one stipulation: that we be back by 2:00pm.
We test rode the 2010 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Lo and the Nightster for two hours and had a blast! Then we returned to the Ainsworth where they made us lunch even though they weren’t open yet. The food in New York is awesome and the Ainsworth did not disappoint… outstanding sandwiches!
After we ate we thanked everyone and walked back to the Hotel where we retrieved our luggage and our car. I’m glad I don’t wear biker boots anymore as I wouldn’t be able to do that kinda walk’n. I like wearing work boots instead; they are more versatile. We jumped into the car and headed north out of the city to visit Rhode Island. It was 3:00pm on Friday when we escaped from New York. This adventure happened in a period of about 18 hours. It was so fast and out of the ordinary that within a few hours it seemed like a dream. Did that really happen?!
Tags: The way I roll: Stories by Jay Green
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