May 14, 2023 • 53 mins
This episode features Annette Chambers of the Southside Harley Davidson family in Indianapolis, IN. She shares the amazing story of her family’s love affair with motorcycles.
She is the fourth of five generations who have made this great dealership so successful. Annette comes from a long line of strong women who love to ride. From her childhood sharing a sidecar with her sister while her parents travelled the country, to her current beloved Buell, she has lots of fun stories and great advice and encouragement to share with us.
She is the fourth of five generations who have made this great dealership so successful. Annette comes from a long line of strong women who love to ride. From her childhood sharing a sidecar with her sister while her parents travelled the country, to her current beloved Buell, she has lots of fun stories and great advice and encouragement to share with us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to sport by Girls, thepodcast for women who are obsessed with sport,
bikes, and all things motorcycle.Come join the ride. Hello,
sport by Girls, I am back. Welcome to this Mother's Day episode.
(00:23):
It's only May, but it hasbeen a very long year. Maybe you
are feeling the same way too.Lots happening here am I end some good,
some not so great, but Iam moving forward. Nonetheless, my
health is in a really good placefor the first time in several years.
I've lost close to thirty five poundssince and last year, which is only
(00:44):
going to make riding a motorcycle forme that much more enjoyable. I think
maybe safer too, because I'm alsojust stronger. I have better endurance since
I'm lifting weights again, which I'dlove to do. But the biggest news
is I am just is away fromtaking the MSF course here in Connecticut.
The MSF course is now mandated herein the state so in order to get
(01:07):
your moto endorsement, which I thinkis a great thing, but that has
led to some really long wait listsfor people who are scrambling now to find
classes. Luckily, I had signedup right at the beginning of the season,
so I got a spot early inthe season. In May. I
just completed the online E course,so now it's onto the road class.
(01:29):
Fingers crossed for passing on my firsttry, aiming for a hundred. You
know I'll be sharing all the detailswith you about that, and I cannot
wait. I am incredibly proud tohave been able to be interviewed. My
next guest for today's episode a Netof the Southside Harley Davidson family in Indianapolis,
Indiana. She shares the amazing storyof her family's love affair with motorcycles.
(01:56):
She is the fourth of five generationswho have made this great dealership so
successful. A Net comes from along line of strong women who love to
ride. From her childhood sharing asidecar with your sister while her parents travel
the country to her current beloved mule. She has lots of fun stories,
great advice, and encouragement to sharewith all of us. If you're a
(02:21):
Harley fan, you know that thisyear marks Harley Davidson's one twentieth anniversary.
Southside will play a big part inthis massive celebration this summer, hosting a
stop on the Southeast Route in July. This commemorative ride starts in Florida.
It goes through Georgia the Smoky Mountainsto Indiana, Chicago, and then ending
(02:44):
in Milwaukee, where the big partywill be bands like Green Day, Foo
Fighters, and a Net's all timefavorite bands Social Distortion will be performing.
You have to be a part ofit. Be sure to follow Southside Harley
Davidson on Instagram for all the updateson what they have planned. Hang out
(03:05):
for a few moments, and thenstay tuned for my talk with a Net.
I've been so looking forward to talkingto today's guest for quite a while,
and finally we're here together tonight.Thank you and Nette. Hi,
how are you? Hi? I'mdoing great. Thank you for having meus
so absolutely my pleasure. And Nethas some incredible stories to share with us.
(03:30):
She is part of five generation familythat owns Southside Harley in Indianapolis,
Indiana, and I did talk alittle bit more about her in the introduction,
but she is going to share herstory and that of her family with
us here tonight. Just such incrediblestories, notes, and so much great
(03:53):
information to share with all my listeners. So let's just get started. I'm
just so excited. We had sucha great phone call a month or so
ago, a net so really excited, So thank you. So let's just
dig in and I love this firstquestion is going to be even more incredible
(04:13):
because everyone's going to expect that it'sa Harley. But tell us, right,
go ahead and tell us what yourcurrent ride is. So my current
bike now, it's a two thousandand four Bule. It's an XB twelve
R and it's a Firebolt. Ijust love this bike. It is a
sport bike that was made by HarleyDavidson. I bought the bike new in
(04:39):
two thousand and four and I justI love it. I'm super comfortable on
it. I love the leaning overin the corners and the bules. This
model of the Bull, it's theFirebolt. It was really ahead of its
time, like technology wise, it'ssuper well balanced. The fuel is in
(05:00):
the frame of the bike, theoil is in the swing arm and that
really helps to have with it havinga low center of gravity. And bules
were just made to own the corners. M it's a beautiful bike. Of
seeing you on it and some photos. I'm going to post some more photos
of you on it. Buell andHarley have a kind of interesting relationship for
(05:23):
a few years. Who want togive it a slight backstory to what that
was all about. Yeah, so, um Buell was founded in nineteen eighty
three by Eric Buell, and hewas an ex Harley Davidson engineer, and
he built his first bule in nineteeneighty four and they he was building them
(05:46):
for m Grand Prix like Formula oneracing. Wow. And so he started
out, you know, building racespikes. It was in ninety three Harley
David's and bought like my minority interestsin his company and that's when started building
them with Harley. When he didthat, Harley invested in his company and
(06:09):
they actually used this house as security. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yes,
and Bill, they built bules withHarley until two thousand and two thousand
and nine. So the last actualbule made in the Harley factory was October
thirtieth, two thousand and nine.Oh my okay, yeah, yeah,
(06:29):
So that's interesting, like people,it gives people a better understanding of how
you came about riding a bule yourselfexactly. Yeah, yeah, why you're
so familiar with it. We soldthem at our dealership until I believe it
was in nineteen eighty nine when Harleybought the majority of the stock from Buell
or from Eric Fuell, and soeventually Hardy ended up owning Buell And I
(06:54):
believe they're still using some of thetechnology that Eric Bull they got from Eric
Bule still today for sure. Let'syeah, let's let's take a step back,
and let's let's start with your personalstory. How you started riding,
Why you started riding, Share alittle bit about that and what inspired you.
(07:15):
Okay, I am. I grewup around motorcycles. Um. I
actually learned to ride my own motorcyclewhen I was twelve years old, so
that I believe that was nineteen ninetyone. I learned to ride on a
nineteen seventy three Harley Davidson X ninetydown in our family farm. My two
(07:36):
cousins, myself and my sister allgot to learn on the same the same
bike. And I learned to ridejust my family taught me. I believe
it was my uncle, another gentlemanthat worked at our Harley shop back then,
and basically they taught me how towork the controls and I took off
across the farm. That is justso great. I just I just so
(07:57):
wish that I had that kind ofupbringing where motorcycles were just so part of
our our family's story, our lore. It's just it's just so amazing to
me, just so special what youshare with your family, this passion,
and and how how it all cameabout, and even your your mom rides,
and yes, did your grandma ridetoo. My grandmother rode as a
(08:22):
passenger. Um, even my greatgrandmother rode as a passenger. I'm not
sure either one of them ever learnedto ride their own bikes. Um,
it's just a different, different worldback then. Not clearly as many women
were driving bikes. For sure.Once my mother's generation came around, definitely,
(08:43):
my mom and my aunt got theirown bikes, and it was at
that point it was women to thefront. I love that so much.
I'm guessing that your first bike waspurchased its outside correct, Yes, for
sure, my first bike was ina two thousand and two sports ter.
I bought a new Um at thedealership and uh, I mean that was
(09:05):
an amazing day for me to beable to finance that and buy it,
you know, just because I workedthere and was a part of the family
they didn't just give me a motorcycle. I had to buy it. Wow.
Southside just celebrated their seventy fifth anniversaryback in September, is that right?
(09:26):
Yes? Yeah. And also Ijust want to point out that I
am so thankful to a Nette toreaching out for reaching out to me,
because she just messaged me on Instagramand said, you know, I would
love to share my family's story withyou. And I'm so grateful to her
for doing that because it you know, I saw her the post, but
(09:48):
it probably would have, you know, kind of slipped by me. And
so thank you for reaching out tome, because you know, five generations
of a family owning and running thisincredible landmark dealership, really a hallmark of
the Midwest, one of the biggestones out there, and certainly one of
(10:09):
the most storied families in Harley outthere right now. So I thank though,
thank you again for sharing that.Let's let's talk about the celebration,
Like what, I know, youhad all these great events planned and so
many fun things happened. Yeah,so give us a little recap of the
big celebration seventy five years. Yes, first of all, you're welcome and
(10:33):
thank you so much for including meon your podcast. I'm really excited to
share our story. A lot ofpeople in the Midwest and in Indiana know
about us in our history, butthis is super fun to me to get
this out to everyone else, soI really want everyone to hear. Yeah.
(10:54):
We did celebrate our seventy fifth anniversaryin September, and it was an
amazing day. Just like anything else, it went by way too fast.
I feel like I didn't get toenjoy everything at our party that I wanted
to. But we did do quitea few events leading up to it.
We had some booths at some bikeshows. There was a Fountain Square moto
(11:16):
show here in Indiana that really cool. We got to take am I got
to take a demo bike and Irode it into this historic Fountain Square Theater
in Indianapolis, and I rode itthrough the back door down this tiny little
hallway, and of course, youknow, there's all these men running up
like, oh, we're gonna helpyou, and I've backed up, boys,
I got this, and so Irode the bike down to the Fountain
(11:41):
Square theater floor. And then atthe end of the night, when it
was time to leave, I rodethe bikes right out. I rode the
bike right out the front door ofthe theater, hopped to the curb,
and off I went. So itwas such a I've had so many really
cool things that I've been able todo because of my family, and I
(12:03):
do realize how how lucky I am. What's one of your best memories of
the day besides that cool story?Okay, So at our anniversary party,
we um, I mean the coolestpart of the day was so we gave
away a brand new twenty twenty twosoft Tail Standard And so the whole day
led up to this big event.We had right around two thousand people there
(12:28):
waiting anticipating whose name was going tobe drawn. And it's so there's the
excitement in the crowd was amazing.I can't imagine my um great grandparents,
they would have could have never imaginedwhere we are now. And a thousand
people. It was amazing. Andum, you had to be present to
(12:52):
win. The first name we drew. This gentleman wasn't It wasn't present.
We gave them amount a certain amountof time to claim the bike. He
wasn't there. So we drew asecond name, and this gentleman it's a
long time customer, a Vietnam veteran, and I mean there couldn't have been
anyone more deserving to have won thisbike. Oh fantastic. Yes, so
(13:15):
not his first Harley, but buta very very special one for him.
Sure. And the cool thing isis he's um So we had a custom
paint job done for this bike,so it's one of a kind, and
he's keeping the bike like it is. And so since our event, his
wife or partner has taken our ridingAcademy class there at the dealership, and
(13:39):
so she wants to buy a trikein the future. And he keeps us
up to date on when he ridesthe bike. And so it's real neat
that it stayed local. Two thatis fantastic. South Side is now fifth
generation employees owners. Let's are atthe beginning. This is one of the
(14:01):
greatest stories I've ever heard of howyour great grandparents, before they even started
the dealership, how they met.Please share this story of how your great
grandparents met. Yes, so,my great grandparents at some point both of
their families immigrated here from Germany orAustria, and they lived up in Wisconsin
(14:28):
and the probably the Milwaukee area.And so my great grandmother and her mother
made butter at home and would goaround to the neighbors and sell their butter,
you know, for money. Andso my great grandmother's story and this
is how she met her future husband. My great grandmother is Anne, my
(14:48):
great grandfather is George. So Anneand her mother went to the neighbors to
sell their butter, and they knockedon the door and this cute young boy
answered the door, and they askedhim to go get his mother because they
had some butter to sell. Andhe went running and got his mother.
And that's the first time that mygreat grandparents met. He's just the sweetest
(15:15):
story toward the door selling butter.Yes, I was like in tears when
you told me that the first time. I just it's amazing. Yeah,
you do not hear love stories likethat anymore. Selling that is just so
precious. Okay, So how didthey become Harley Dealership owners? Okay?
(15:41):
So, um, my great grandfather, George, he had a Harley bicycle
and this was he was probably undersixteen years old at this point, and
George needed a part for his Harleybicycle, and so he went to the
Harley Davidson factory in Milwaukee and talkedto the gentleman at the gate and said,
(16:03):
I need to buy parts for mybike. And you know, even
back then, they didn't just sellHarley parts from the factory, and so
he must have been there discussing thiswith the man at the gate, and
one of the founding fathers of Harleyheard George out at the gate and came
out and told George, when you'reold enough, come back and we'll give
(16:25):
you a job here at the factory. And so yes, around the time
he was sixteen, he came backand they hired him and he started out
there sweeping the floors in the factory. He worked there at the Harley Davidson
factory for twenty five years and soreally our family history with Harley Davidson goes
back a hundred years, which isamazinglievable, right, I mean, there
(16:51):
Harley will be three. They're celebratingwhat one hundred and twenty years this year
I believe, or next year.Yeah. So George he started out sweeping
the floors in the factory and thenhe eventually he worked his way up into
the research and development department, andpart of his job was to ride Harley's
(17:15):
back and forth across the country tryingbasically trying to break them to see what
parts needed to be made better forthe bike, so where the weak points
were, and so he rode Imean thousands and thousands of miles on these
old Harley's And during World War twohe also taught the servicemen how to work
(17:37):
on their motorcycles out in the field. He worked there at the factory during
towards the end there of World WarTwo, and Harley made a lot of
motorcycles for the war at that point. And then so nineteen forty seven,
the Motor Company came to George andasked him to start a dealership, and
(17:59):
I believe they their choices were Indianapolisand Kansas, I think was the other
option, and they chose Indianapolis.And that's when HD Sales and Service was
born. We were down there.We were downtown Indianapolis. The address there
was seven oh one South Meridian Streetin a really cool old building. We
(18:22):
had the dealership downstairs and there wereapartment apartments up above it. My great
grandparents lived in those apartments up abovethe building and ran the dealership down beneath.
We start old. That's all right, we called that the Old Shop.
Okay, so that's kind of howthe name south Side came about.
Yeah, so we were and wewere on the south side of Indianapolis at
(18:45):
that point. We were in thatbuilding for fifty years, and then when
we had to move to a differentlocation. M Hardy had specifications of where
they want their dealerships at and weneeded to be closer to an inner state,
and so we ended up moving towhere we are now, which is
on the south side of Indianapolish andthat's when it became Indianapolis south Side.
(19:10):
Harley Davidson. Nice. Yes,your great grandma was quite the savvy businesswoman.
She kept the books and she hadsome pretty great marketing strategies. Um,
there was a time with the leatherjacket, right, you had this
surplus and she came up with avery clever way of moving them out.
(19:32):
Right, there's a story where sheordered I can't remember the specific numbers now,
but we were supposed to get liketwelve they were almost like letterman jackets
from Harley Davidson, and we endedup getting like a hundred of them,
or like a ridiculous amount. Backthen, and at that point it was
it was unfathomable to her how wewould ever sell this mini jackets, And
(19:56):
so her solution was she sent themout with the guys too. I believe
it was Daytona and some races inDaytona, and they sold the jackets out
there. So that year out atDaytona, everyone was walking around with Southside
Harley Davidson jackets. Nice. Yeah, nice, You're already going nationwide at
that point, correct, So,yes, so great. My great grandmother
(20:21):
was the businesswoman, she kept thebooks, and my great grandfather, George,
he would give you, He wouldgive anyone the shirt off his back.
He was just super nice, verygenerous, giving man. That is
so so nice. What it?Yes, just I still want to meet
your family. It's incredible people.So then let's let's continue with how it
(20:45):
how did it move on to Obviouslythen now it moved through the generations.
This really became a truly family effortand then passed on to their son who
they carried on. Yeah. Sothere they had one son. His name
is Bob Schulteddy. So he's asecond generation, yes, my grandpa,
(21:07):
and he is the owner of thedealership now and he's been the owner for
quite a while I'm not sure whenthat happened before when I was a kid.
And um, so I'm a fourthgeneration family member and my aunt,
my mom, my cousins, myuncle, my cousin's son at one point,
(21:30):
my sister, we all have workedat the dealership. So we are
definitely family run. My cousin's son, he's the fifth generation family member that
we have working there now, whichis amazing. Not not many family businesses
make it seventy five years, letalone have five, well technically four generations
(21:51):
working in them. Okay, yeah, it is. It is quite a
monumental accomplishment, There's no question aboutthat. That's it's a very difficult thing
to accomplish, not only just tokeep a successful business going that long,
but you know, family dynamics andso forth, that can be a challenge,
there's no question, yes, andwe've had our challenges. Just this
(22:15):
year. My aunt has been thegeneral manager for quite a few years,
and just this year the title ofgeneral manager got handed to my cousin,
Lorie, And so my generation isreally starting to play to run the business.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that'strue. Sure that there has to
be a transition of power soon atsome point. Yes, yeah, to
(22:37):
keep it, to keep it goingstrong. Before you became a motorcycle rider
yourself, you were riding in yourparents' sidecar. Yes. So my dad
has a He had a bike witha sidecar, and so at first my
(22:57):
mother would ride behind him on thebike, and my sister and I would
ride in the sidecar and we rodeback and forth across the country. We
went out west to Colorado and umlike four corners area out there in the
sidecar. We also went out northto the east coast, like North Carolina,
(23:18):
I mean east and m Yeah,my sister and I would ride in
that sidecar. She would basically sitbetween my legs and the sidecar and we'd
just travel the country that way.So cool. I mean, I'm sure
there are times and you graded oneach other just a little bit. That's
a pretty tight squeeze in a littlesidecar. Yes, So, like I
said, she would ride between mylegs, and you know, we would
(23:41):
get to arguing in there, soI would I would squeeze as hard as
I could with my legs and justsqueeze her and her she used to try
to, you know, bash myface shield of my helmet with hers.
You know, this is how werode across the country. Wow, So
your parents, your mom's Pilly onthe motorcycle with your dad and you and
(24:02):
your sister in the sidecard next toyou, yes, next to the I'm
sorry and I'm trying to visualize that, right. And so then we had
to pack all four of us ontothat motorcycle. So we had to have
enough clothes to make it from Indianato North Carolina and back, which I
think, in and of itself,was a big challenge. Yeah, that's
(24:22):
a lot of stuff and snacks andbathroom breaks. Oh my god, the
logistics of that. But on theother hand, it just sounds so freaking
fun. I mean, incredible childhoodmemories you must have from doing that.
What an amazing way to see thecountry, you know, I tear,
(24:44):
Yeah for sure. Oh my gosh. So when you walk into work every
day, like, oh what isthat? Like? Who are you seeing
your parents? It's like Thanksgiving dinner? Your parents are there? Your Grandpa's
there? Answer there, it's likeevery day. Yeah. So, um,
my grandfather Bob, he is Ibelieve he's eighty nine years old and
(25:08):
he still comes into work. Um, he's not coming in as often as
he was, but he used tocome in five days a week and he
still has a desk in the officeand you know, can do whatever he
wants to do there. But ofcourse Hill shows up and super cool to
(25:29):
go in there. So my grandfatherworking there, My like, I said,
my cousins the general manager. Ihave my other cousin works in the
marketing department. I have a cousin'sson who works does like our media and
social media stuff. My parents mymother does the She's like a maintenance woman,
(25:49):
so she's not there every day,but she's there three to four times
a week. Yeah, so you'reright, it's like a family reunion every
day at work, and every I'mplaying a different but critical role, I
mean exactly. Yeah. Yeah,I can't even imagine the logistics of running
a dealership of that size. Yeahyeah, yeah, and like practising,
(26:11):
who's like, is that a thinglike um, like working with Harley deciding
on inventory and stock and so forth. That that's got to be a monumental
task right there. Oh yes,I mean we have managers for each department,
and luckily quite a few of ourmanagers have been around for a few
years. And yeah, do alot of the ordering of the inventory and
(26:36):
keeping track of everything. It's um, yeah, it's a it's a lot.
You have worn a lot of differenthats at that dealership. UM tell
us where you started, what yourfavorite role was, and what you're doing
now. Yes. So, um, when I first started working at the
dealership, I came in and Iwas answering the phones. So I mean
(26:56):
I literally feel like I kind ofstarted at the bottom that you know,
that was the position that was openwhen I was looking for a job.
So I started out answering the phones. Then a position opened up in the
motor closed department, so I movedover to motor clothes and I really enjoyed
that selling the clothing and all thegear and just um, you know,
(27:21):
dealing with biker's day to day isit's fun in itself. And so I
worked in the motor closed department andthen I eventually did motor clothes receiving.
When my son was born, Itook quite a few years off from the
dealership, kind of was a stayat home mother, And once he got
(27:41):
a little older and went started goingto school, I came back to the
dealership and again I started in themotor closed department. And then a position
opened up at the parts counter,and I just really wanted to take on
that challenge of working at the partscounter, and so I moved over to
parts. Of all the positions I'veheld at the dealership, that is the
(28:03):
position I am the most proud of. It was so challenging and um,
when I first started working at thatparts counter, Um, there would be
men would walk up to the counterand step into the other lines next to
mine because they didn't want a womanto help them. And the longer I
worked at the parts counter, themore I proved to myself and the more
(28:26):
that these men would see that Icould sell them the correct parts. And
eventually I had customers who specifically wouldcome in to me and want me to
help them and would specifically wait inmy line. And that's why I'm most
proud of that that position I hadthere, I really had to come myself.
(28:49):
Yeah, I'll bet that that.I'm sure that was a little bit
of a wall to to have toclimb to get these men on board,
to prove to them, proved tothem easily. You know, your knowledge
and experience that you were more thanqualified to help them with whatever they needed.
So that must have been a reallygreat feeling. Yes, I love
(29:11):
that there's, um, you know, the growing trend of more women wrenches
mechanics people, women who really understandthe mechanics of a bike or a car
or whatever, and you know,kind of breaking down the one of those
last gender barriers. You know thatthere should not be any kind of gender
(29:33):
coding as to who is qualified toto do that sort of work and have
that knowledge. So kudos to youthat that is so impressive. Yeah,
and since then you've now moved onto becoming the riding Academy Liaizone, and
I love how you you really emphasizegetting women out there riding. You're really
(29:55):
encouraging them and helping them put themon the path to to get their their
motorcycle endorsement or their license. Andtell us what that's like with what you
do. I know you're not anactual instructor, but you run that program
and you are just so supportive ofnew women riders and helping them advance their
skills and just get out there onthe road. And I mean, I'm
(30:18):
all for women who want to ridebilling in and are happy with that because
I've done it and I love it. And you know when you have a
great rider that you're enjoying that with, it's it's fantastic. But for the
women who want to do it ontheir own, to have someone like you
really encourage them and back them upis you know, and set an example
for them, you and the womenand your family who ride. It's yes,
(30:41):
so tremendous. Yeah, so tellus about what that works, like
what you're doing with Harley with thatwith their writing academy. So my job
with the writing Academy, I've hadthe most fun with this job there.
It is like I said, Ilearned to ride when I was twelve.
I took an abait course when Iwas fifteen, And I mean back then,
(31:03):
with these courses, you know,you just have coaches out there yelling
at you, and I mean,I'm sure there was probably cussing going around
on the course and you either youeither rode or failed. I mean.
And so I really like working withthe Riding Academy now. Just times have
changed. Nothing against debate because theyrun a great um. Sure they teach,
(31:27):
They've taught a lot of people toride. So what with our writing
academy, I m one of myjobs is to run what we call the
jump Start bike, and it isa stable motorcycle on rollers and you can
get up there and practice clutch andthrottle control and shift through all the gears
(31:47):
on a real Harley Davidson motorcycle andthere's no risk of falling over or dropping
the bike. And I really encourageanyone who's never ridden before, or who
hasn't in a long time to getup there and see what it feels like
to shift through the gears on areal Harley Davidson. Like a great place
to start help building your confidence beforeyou get out there on the range.
(32:10):
And I feel like that's part ofthat's part of the fun for me.
So I learned to ride a longtime ago, and it's so fun to
go through this excitement, I meanalmost daily with people as they learned to
ride and start their motorcycle journey.So cool. And Annette, since you
mentioned that to me when we talkedabout it last time, I found a
(32:32):
dealership here in sdicate Mike's famous.It's in New London and I'm going to
be doing the jump Start sometime thismonth. Yes, and Anna Harley and
I am so freaking excited way andit's such a clever way to get people
on. I mean, you're literallythere inside the dealership, you're not even
(32:52):
outside, and you're, like yousaid, you're on this stable bike that's
not going to move or tip over, You're not going to drop in it,
and you can, you know,work and practice with the clutch.
And I'm so freaking excited. Ithink it's such a brilliant idea. Thank
you. I think it's so brilliantthat Harley's doing that, and then you're
introducing people to Harley's through that way. So really, I encourage anyone wherever
(33:15):
you're living, google wherever your yourlocal Harley dealerships are and see if they
offer this jumpstart program, because someI think it's just brilliant. I truly
do. I agree, And Iknow at our dealership you do not have
to be taking our riding academy tocome in and do the jump start,
so I hope other dealerships are thesame way. And yeah, we offer
(33:37):
the jump start to anyone. Sohonestly, the more safe, well trained
widers we have on the road,it's better for all of us than ride.
So that's that's what it's about.Yeah, I completely agree with you.
There you can never have enough education, training experience. Yeah, it's
(34:00):
an MSF course is only going toget you your endorsement. It's really not
gonna you know, or any youknow base, any basic two day two
day class that you take, Um, that's not going to make you a
fully formed rider. It takes monthsand months, years and years of experience.
So yeah, I like to saythat once you complete our course or
(34:20):
any writing course to get your endorsement, you've met like the state minimum requirements
to get your endorsement, but youneed to continue practicing. Basically, you
never stop practicing and you never stoplearning riding a motorcycle. Yeah. No,
that's definitely a great mindset. Um, what do you see in percentage
wise women in your classes? Now? Do you see most? Two questions?
(34:44):
So, are you seeing an increasein women who are taking advantage of
your Harley course and getting their licensesince you started? Yeah, there's definitely
an increase of women. I willsay there's still a lot more men in
the class. Is every once ina while we'll have usually there's at least
(35:04):
two women in a class. Sometimesit's all men. Rarely sometimes there's also
just one woman in a class.I'm looking into maybe this next year also
holding an all women's class, andwhich I think would be exciting taking some
of that pressure off of women.Yeah, yeah, so I'm excited to
get that going this year too.I think that's a terrific idea because I
(35:28):
think a lot of women who dotake these courses, they're there with a
boyfriend or a husband, and butmaybe if they can view it as you
know, something to like enjoy withtheir girlfriends or other family members, I
think that's really positive. I lovethat idea. I hope I hope that
that pants out. Yeah, that'sreally great. Thank you. And what
(35:51):
about like actual ownership, are youseeing increase in women buying their own motorcycles?
Like what changes have you seen overthe years. Event Yes, definitely
more women choosing to ride their ownbikes and moved to the front of the
bike. Just this last year,I had a woman student who she came
and took our three wheel class andshe's never been the driver of the bike
(36:16):
before, She's always been the passenger. And she said these last few years
her husband, she just didn't feelas comfortable behind him. There were times
where she felt like he made baddecisions driving and had scared her and that's
what motivated her to get her ownbike. And yeah and uh, and
(36:37):
now that she's done it, shesaid, honestly, she should have done
this years ago. And that's whatI hear a lot from the women that
come take the course. A lotof them say, you know, I
should have done this years ago.So if you're thinking about learning to ride,
don't wait, go go go today. You should have went yesterday.
Oh I should have went thirty yearsago. So fully concur with that statement,
(37:01):
there's no question. Oh my gosh, Um, and I love the
hashtag that you use, women tothe Front. I think that's so cool
and so empowering. I really Ilove that a lot. Thank you.
I actually um started for me.So I'm forty three and I was really
into the riot girl movement in thenineties and as this band called Bikini Kill,
(37:25):
and they would get up on stageand always yelled girls to the front,
and they'd want all the girls tocome up to the in front of
the stage where it was like asafe space for the girls and you wouldn't,
you know, get stuck in amosh pit with all the guys and
right, So that's where I gotit's girls to the Front was that,
but I think we're women now,so it's women to the Front. That
(37:46):
is so fantastic. And I absolutelyremember that band too. Wow. Yes,
that that brought back a great memory. Oh my goodness. Wow.
Yeah, it's kind of and andI have to say it's kind of where
the g r r ls in SportBike Girls came from as well. So
yeah, I wondered about that.I noticed that. That's so awesome.
(38:07):
That is amazing. Oh my gosh, good such good memories. Yes,
Um, what tell us about someof the other women writers in your in
your family and what they're riding andwhat they're doing. How do they enjoy
riding? Do you guys take familytrips together, go moto camping, anything
like that? So, um,we used to ride more as a family.
(38:30):
Um. Actually, one of myfavorite UM rides that I've done with
the family was we rode up toMilwaukee for Harley Davidson's hundredth anniversary in two
thousand and three. Yes, soI wrote My and My Sportster then it
was I mean basically all of themajority of the writers in my family,
my aunts, my cousins, myuncle anny, husbands or boyfriends, my
(38:52):
mom my dad and my sister,her boyfriend. We all rode up there
together, rode through Chicago up toMilwaukee, and gosh that that event up
there was I mean, honestly aonce in a lifetime event. Um,
as far as you know, Harley'shundredth anniversary. The there was a big
(39:14):
parade up there, and I waslike, amazing. There was miles and
miles and miles of motorcycles that rodethrough the parade. I am, I
do not enjoy driving a motorcycle inparades. Your clutch hand gets really worn
out. So um, I rodebehind my uncle in the parade, and
(39:35):
um we so this is for myuncle Alan shalteddi we uh. Decided to
sneak up into the front of theparade and we actually got to ride up
there with like the Harley executives.Nice nice, Yes, we went like
some dealth mode and snuck up tothe front. It was amazing. So
(39:58):
es uh. And so then let'ssee, I'm my cousins both at one
point we're racing, um like dirtbike racing and us and they were both
you know, both women, Sothey got into that. So my Lorie,
my cousin, her son COI sprinkle. He got into um like dirt
(40:21):
back rate flat track racing too,and he's actually went in road done some
ice racing. Whoa, yeah,it's really neat. He They basically put
nails through their tires and go outthere and ride around on the ice.
That's amazing. Wow. Yeah.Um, So my one cousin, Sherry,
(40:44):
she rides a she had a lowrider. She may have a sport
glide. Now, um, mymother has probably more motorcycles than I even
know. She has a big dresserlike an electric glide, she has a
low rider. Or my aunt sherides a trikenal So, um, you
know we're we're still out there riding. Still, women riders out there riding.
(41:08):
So has Harley created a three wheeler? Yes? So actually they have
two. Now there's a tri glideand there's a tril Yeah yeah, a
big tour pack on it. Andthere's more of a sporty um trike too.
So yes, I mean some peoplehave customers come in like, oh,
(41:29):
I'll never ride one of those.Those are for old guys. And
I'll tell you this now, trikesare not for just the old guys.
These trikes are so cool now thatalso it can help people like my aunt
has hips and knees replaced, soshe can't as easily hold up a motorcycle,
but she can get on her trikeand she's a she's a motor maid
(41:49):
and she rides all over the countrywith them. That is fantastic. Yeah,
it's so wonderful to have that option. Not right, everyone is comfortable
on a motorcycle to ride a motorcycle, or for health reasons, simply cannot
safely. So it's fantastic to havethat option. So definitely trying to compete
with the KNAM Polaris kind of offerings. Yeah, I think that's a brilliant
(42:15):
idea. I mean it's exploding worldwide. It's not just here in the States,
it is worldwide. So I thinkthat's pretty brilliant on Harley's part to
do that. What do you thinkof the new What do you think of
the new Nightster? I think it'spretty beautiful. I love the Nightsters.
So one of the benefits of workingat the dealership and for my family,
(42:35):
so I got to bring a twentytwenty two nights their home for the weekend
and basically just demo the bike.And I've wanted to ride the Nightster because
it's like working with the Riding Academy. That's the bike that we will be
selling are the new riders if theywant to start out on it, an
affordable, smaller Harley. So Ibrought the Nightster home. By the time
(42:58):
I brought it back, I putin three hundred miles on it, so
I definitely rode it enough to likereally get a good feel of the bike.
I had a blast on it.So it's a nine hundred and seventy
five cc engine, so it's it'sa little bit smaller than my Bule.
My Bule has a it's a twelvehundred. And I mean really the two
bikes, you can't compare them becauseone's a Harley and one's the sport bike.
(43:22):
But I could definitely see myself parkingthe Nightster in my garage and next
to the Bule. Ooh okay,that's a ringing endorsement for sure. Else
Yeah, and so you consider ita good starter bike, Oh yes,
definitely. So the cool thing withthe new Harley's that have them do I
(43:43):
think it's the Revmax engine. Theyhave mode, so there's sport mode,
street mode, rainmode, and soI when I rode the bike. Well,
I tried out all the different modes, but sport mode is the you
have the most control over everything inthe bike. So rainmode, it really
lowers your amount of when you twistthe throttle, it just gives the bike
(44:04):
less power. So when you're ridingin the rain, it helps. It
helps you stay in control of thebike. It's brilliant, Okay. Yeah,
and so you can put the bikein m street mode and it takes
away some of the power. Sothat's really good for someone to start out
with in the street mode and thenyou can move it up to sport mode
once you get a little more comfortable. That's good to know. Yeah,
(44:27):
Yeah, I think it's a reallyI think it's a really beautiful bike.
I think it's a great design.I really impressed with that. Yeah,
I would love to try. Iliked it. They're they're a little bit
shorter bike, so I was ableto touch completely fat flat footed, which
I think makes a huge difference,especially as a woman, just as far
as being comfortable on the bike andbeing able to um control the bike and
(44:51):
push it around. And yeah,being comfortable is really important for sure,
and safety wise too. I meanI I that's not something I will struggle
with. I'm five nine, butI know that you know, I'm way
above average height for for most women. And I see you know, videos
all the time of very short womenon sport bikes or any cruisers who are
(45:14):
just tippy toeing, and that wouldthat would really set me in a panic.
I mean, I know there's techniquesto do it safely, but that
that's just an added element of stress, I think, correct. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, so most womencan can seat pretty comfortably on a on
a Harley even without lowering the seator is that even a possibility lowering the
(45:35):
seat? Yeah, A lot ofthe Harley models they do, you can
some of them have adjustable suspension,so you would adjust the suspension a little
bit to your weight, which couldhelp you on touch a little better than
a lot of them. Um,you could either change out shocks and forks,
or some of them do make shorterseats that you can put on them
(45:59):
also just to get you more comfortableon the bike. Oh good, oh
good. Okay, that's good forwomen to know who are considering but might
be concerned about, you know,height issues and stuff. So that's right,
it's for sure. Yeah, definitely, Look into the accessories that you
can change on your bike to getyou more comfortable beautiful. So, if
you have a weekend free to rideby yourself, where where do you go?
(46:21):
Where would you like to go?Like locally? Where where's your enjoyment?
Just kind of chill out, kindof wind therapy ride. Yes,
I like to get out on theroad, And a lot of times I'll
end up riding to some of ourIndiana state parks and I like, I
really enjoy riding through the state parks. And like, for me getting out
and riding, it's almost like aform of meditation. My phone's put away,
(46:45):
everything just melts away and it's meand the bike and the road and
you don't have to worry about anyof the stress in your life. You
just have to worry about driving thatmotorcycle. And that's that's why I like
to ride. Yeah, I amso looking forward to that. Yeah,
dream rides anywhere in the United Statesor around the world that you would love
(47:07):
to have your bike and just justexplore and take off. Oh yes,
so, um one of the ralliesor that I have not done, something
like Babes Ride Out. I've neverbeen to any of their events. And
I honestly I would love to go. And they've probably been having these events
for I don't know ten years anhour or so and m but so that's
(47:27):
kind of like a bucket list goalthing is to get out to one of
the the Babes ride out events.And I also would love to ride a
bike up and down the East Coast. Oh, come visit me if you
yes, that would be amazing.That would be amazing. Oh my gosh,
yeah, I would love to.I'm in Connecticut. I would love
(47:47):
to, um U go out LongIsland. Um, yes, so you
know, to like Montauk Point,the lighthouse there, but also go further
north, like up into Maine likea Kadia National Park And oh how spectacular
would that be? Yeah? Soyes, yeah, and then numerous places
(48:08):
around the world too, like Icelandand Scotland. Oh for sure, right,
wouldn't that be? Yeah? God, just to ride the mountains out
there would be amazing. Have youbeen to Sturgis? You or your family?
Um? I have not been outto Sturgis. I mean I think
(48:28):
I would enjoy going to Sturgis.Uh. I grew up going to a
lot of like hog rallys, whichis hardly owner group, and that's that's
a lot of writing with my parents. Those were the events we were going
to and so we never made itto like Sturgis or I've never been to
Daytona Bike Weeks, So those,I mean are definitely places I would love
to go check out. And youknow a lot of the people that go
(48:52):
to those events enjoy Like you goto Sturgis, like the week before Sturgis
and you can really enjoy the sceneryand everything before the boards of people get
out there. That's a great tipfor sure, yes, or stay after,
stay after everybody's left. But it'salso real fun to be there at
those events and just people watch it. Oh my gosh, all those loyalists.
(49:19):
Yeah, yes, that would beamazing. What's your vision for the
future of Southside Harley. Where wouldyou like to see it or hoping it
will evolve into ten years, twentyyears from now or do you just want
it to kind of stay the wayit is? I good question. I
I mean, I hope we're aroundfor another ten to twenty years. Um,
(49:42):
I hope you know the future generationlike my cousin son maybe my son,
you know, were to possibly getinvolved in the dealership I really hope
we can continue doing the writing academyand continue teaching people to ride U you
know, that's the future of motorcyclingand Harley Davidson and just the sport in
(50:05):
general is sharing the knowledge that wehave, um yes, and passing that
onto the new writers. And Imean it would be cool if we could,
um, you know, have anotherdealership or have like a little satellite
dealership. Also Oh okay, youknow that would that might be something neat
to do. Uh yeah, Ihope, who knows, hopefully we can
(50:29):
make it another seventy five years.Oh my goodness, how many square feet
is the dealership right now? Likea folk it's big. I mean,
yeah, it's true massive. Yeah, I'm not real sure of all the
square feet there. So when webuilt the building twenty five years ago,
we thought, oh, we'll neveroutgrow this, and then within a couple
(50:50):
of years we were adding on.In a few years, a year we
were adding on more. I meanfrom the old old shop where we came
from to the new dealership. Justseems so massive at the time, and
I mean yeah, just very quicklyoutgrew it and have added on and added
on this next year we'll be doingsome more renovations and remodeling and I'm excited
(51:10):
to see what the future brings forthat. Oh we all are too.
I mean, what a terrific story, such a success story, but it's
it's come with a lot of blood, sweat and tears and hard work and
so impressive. Continue to grow andgrow and succeed. So thank you so
(51:30):
much for sharing the story with us, and I hope everyone will follow you
on Instagram and your website at SouthsideHarley Harley Davidson Dealership. They are in
Indianapolis, Indiana. And what agreat family, such a great story.
Thank you and Nette for sharing yourstory with us. I just if you
(51:52):
want to learn to ride, gotake a course, an MSF course,
a Harley Davidson course, and aBay course or whatever course your state has
learned a ride and then never stoplearning there once you take a beginner course.
I know here in Indiana we haveskilled writer courses or advanced writer courses,
(52:15):
and just continue to learn and havefun. That's what it's really all
about, is having fun. Oh, I so agree with you. Yes,
thank you, pleasure, Thank youso much, and Nat please follow
her Punk and Ettie Instagram, Vanettiso great, such a great feed,
(52:37):
and Southside Harley Davidson Dealership. Thankyou for sharing your family's story. Yes,
thank you so much. Excellent.Thank you and Nett appreciate it so
much. Have a great night.Okay you too. That's all for today.
Thank you so much for being here. Please follow me on Instagram and
(52:58):
Twitter at Sport Fight Girls for acomplete schedule of all upcoming episodes, as
well as more information about all ofmy amazing guests. Have a great day.
Welcome to sport by Girls, thepodcast for women who are obsessed with sport,
bikes, and all things motorcycle.Come join the ride. Hello,
sport by Girls, I am back. Welcome to this Mother's Day episode.
(00:23):
It's only May, but it hasbeen a very long year. Maybe you
are feeling the same way too.Lots happening here am I end some good,
some not so great, but Iam moving forward. Nonetheless, my
health is in a really good placefor the first time in several years.
I've lost close to thirty five poundssince and last year, which is only
(00:44):
going to make riding a motorcycle forme that much more enjoyable. I think
maybe safer too, because I'm alsojust stronger. I have better endurance since
I'm lifting weights again, which I'dlove to do. But the biggest news
is I am just is away fromtaking the MSF course here in Connecticut.
The MSF course is now mandated herein the state so in order to get
(01:07):
your moto endorsement, which I thinkis a great thing, but that has
led to some really long wait listsfor people who are scrambling now to find
classes. Luckily, I had signedup right at the beginning of the season,
so I got a spot early inthe season. In May. I
just completed the online E course,so now it's onto the road class.
(01:29):
Fingers crossed for passing on my firsttry, aiming for a hundred. You
know I'll be sharing all the detailswith you about that, and I cannot
wait. I am incredibly proud tohave been able to be interviewed. My
next guest for today's episode a Netof the Southside Harley Davidson family in Indianapolis,
Indiana. She shares the amazing storyof her family's love affair with motorcycles.
(01:56):
She is the fourth of five generationswho have made this great dealership so
successful. A Net comes from along line of strong women who love to
ride. From her childhood sharing asidecar with your sister while her parents travel
the country to her current beloved mule. She has lots of fun stories,
great advice, and encouragement to sharewith all of us. If you're a
(02:21):
Harley fan, you know that thisyear marks Harley Davidson's one twentieth anniversary.
Southside will play a big part inthis massive celebration this summer, hosting a
stop on the Southeast Route in July. This commemorative ride starts in Florida.
It goes through Georgia the Smoky Mountainsto Indiana, Chicago, and then ending
(02:44):
in Milwaukee, where the big partywill be bands like Green Day, Foo
Fighters, and a Net's all timefavorite bands Social Distortion will be performing.
You have to be a part ofit. Be sure to follow Southside Harley
Davidson on Instagram for all the updateson what they have planned. Hang out
(03:05):
for a few moments, and thenstay tuned for my talk with a Net.
I've been so looking forward to talkingto today's guest for quite a while,
and finally we're here together tonight.Thank you and Nette. Hi,
how are you? Hi? I'mdoing great. Thank you for having meus
so absolutely my pleasure. And Nethas some incredible stories to share with us.
(03:30):
She is part of five generation familythat owns Southside Harley in Indianapolis,
Indiana, and I did talk alittle bit more about her in the introduction,
but she is going to share herstory and that of her family with
us here tonight. Just such incrediblestories, notes, and so much great
(03:53):
information to share with all my listeners. So let's just get started. I'm
just so excited. We had sucha great phone call a month or so
ago, a net so really excited, So thank you. So let's just
dig in and I love this firstquestion is going to be even more incredible
(04:13):
because everyone's going to expect that it'sa Harley. But tell us, right,
go ahead and tell us what yourcurrent ride is. So my current
bike now, it's a two thousandand four Bule. It's an XB twelve
R and it's a Firebolt. Ijust love this bike. It is a
sport bike that was made by HarleyDavidson. I bought the bike new in
(04:39):
two thousand and four and I justI love it. I'm super comfortable on
it. I love the leaning overin the corners and the bules. This
model of the Bull, it's theFirebolt. It was really ahead of its
time, like technology wise, it'ssuper well balanced. The fuel is in
(05:00):
the frame of the bike, theoil is in the swing arm and that
really helps to have with it havinga low center of gravity. And bules
were just made to own the corners. M it's a beautiful bike. Of
seeing you on it and some photos. I'm going to post some more photos
of you on it. Buell andHarley have a kind of interesting relationship for
(05:23):
a few years. Who want togive it a slight backstory to what that
was all about. Yeah, so, um Buell was founded in nineteen eighty
three by Eric Buell, and hewas an ex Harley Davidson engineer, and
he built his first bule in nineteeneighty four and they he was building them
(05:46):
for m Grand Prix like Formula oneracing. Wow. And so he started
out, you know, building racespikes. It was in ninety three Harley
David's and bought like my minority interestsin his company and that's when started building
them with Harley. When he didthat, Harley invested in his company and
(06:09):
they actually used this house as security. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yes,
and Bill, they built bules withHarley until two thousand and two thousand
and nine. So the last actualbule made in the Harley factory was October
thirtieth, two thousand and nine.Oh my okay, yeah, yeah,
(06:29):
So that's interesting, like people,it gives people a better understanding of how
you came about riding a bule yourselfexactly. Yeah, yeah, why you're
so familiar with it. We soldthem at our dealership until I believe it
was in nineteen eighty nine when Harleybought the majority of the stock from Buell
or from Eric Fuell, and soeventually Hardy ended up owning Buell And I
(06:54):
believe they're still using some of thetechnology that Eric Bull they got from Eric
Bule still today for sure. Let'syeah, let's let's take a step back,
and let's let's start with your personalstory. How you started riding,
Why you started riding, Share alittle bit about that and what inspired you.
(07:15):
Okay, I am. I grewup around motorcycles. Um. I
actually learned to ride my own motorcyclewhen I was twelve years old, so
that I believe that was nineteen ninetyone. I learned to ride on a
nineteen seventy three Harley Davidson X ninetydown in our family farm. My two
(07:36):
cousins, myself and my sister allgot to learn on the same the same
bike. And I learned to ridejust my family taught me. I believe
it was my uncle, another gentlemanthat worked at our Harley shop back then,
and basically they taught me how towork the controls and I took off
across the farm. That is justso great. I just I just so
(07:57):
wish that I had that kind ofupbringing where motorcycles were just so part of
our our family's story, our lore. It's just it's just so amazing to
me, just so special what youshare with your family, this passion,
and and how how it all cameabout, and even your your mom rides,
and yes, did your grandma ridetoo. My grandmother rode as a
(08:22):
passenger. Um, even my greatgrandmother rode as a passenger. I'm not
sure either one of them ever learnedto ride their own bikes. Um,
it's just a different, different worldback then. Not clearly as many women
were driving bikes. For sure.Once my mother's generation came around, definitely,
(08:43):
my mom and my aunt got theirown bikes, and it was at
that point it was women to thefront. I love that so much.
I'm guessing that your first bike waspurchased its outside correct, Yes, for
sure, my first bike was ina two thousand and two sports ter.
I bought a new Um at thedealership and uh, I mean that was
(09:05):
an amazing day for me to beable to finance that and buy it,
you know, just because I workedthere and was a part of the family
they didn't just give me a motorcycle. I had to buy it. Wow.
Southside just celebrated their seventy fifth anniversaryback in September, is that right?
(09:26):
Yes? Yeah. And also Ijust want to point out that I
am so thankful to a Nette toreaching out for reaching out to me,
because she just messaged me on Instagramand said, you know, I would
love to share my family's story withyou. And I'm so grateful to her
for doing that because it you know, I saw her the post, but
(09:48):
it probably would have, you know, kind of slipped by me. And
so thank you for reaching out tome, because you know, five generations
of a family owning and running thisincredible landmark dealership, really a hallmark of
the Midwest, one of the biggestones out there, and certainly one of
(10:09):
the most storied families in Harley outthere right now. So I thank though,
thank you again for sharing that.Let's let's talk about the celebration,
Like what, I know, youhad all these great events planned and so
many fun things happened. Yeah,so give us a little recap of the
big celebration seventy five years. Yes, first of all, you're welcome and
(10:33):
thank you so much for including meon your podcast. I'm really excited to
share our story. A lot ofpeople in the Midwest and in Indiana know
about us in our history, butthis is super fun to me to get
this out to everyone else, soI really want everyone to hear. Yeah.
(10:54):
We did celebrate our seventy fifth anniversaryin September, and it was an
amazing day. Just like anything else, it went by way too fast.
I feel like I didn't get toenjoy everything at our party that I wanted
to. But we did do quitea few events leading up to it.
We had some booths at some bikeshows. There was a Fountain Square moto
(11:16):
show here in Indiana that really cool. We got to take am I got
to take a demo bike and Irode it into this historic Fountain Square Theater
in Indianapolis, and I rode itthrough the back door down this tiny little
hallway, and of course, youknow, there's all these men running up
like, oh, we're gonna helpyou, and I've backed up, boys,
I got this, and so Irode the bike down to the Fountain
(11:41):
Square theater floor. And then atthe end of the night, when it
was time to leave, I rodethe bikes right out. I rode the
bike right out the front door ofthe theater, hopped to the curb,
and off I went. So itwas such a I've had so many really
cool things that I've been able todo because of my family, and I
(12:03):
do realize how how lucky I am. What's one of your best memories of
the day besides that cool story?Okay, So at our anniversary party,
we um, I mean the coolestpart of the day was so we gave
away a brand new twenty twenty twosoft Tail Standard And so the whole day
led up to this big event.We had right around two thousand people there
(12:28):
waiting anticipating whose name was going tobe drawn. And it's so there's the
excitement in the crowd was amazing.I can't imagine my um great grandparents,
they would have could have never imaginedwhere we are now. And a thousand
people. It was amazing. Andum, you had to be present to
(12:52):
win. The first name we drew. This gentleman wasn't It wasn't present.
We gave them amount a certain amountof time to claim the bike. He
wasn't there. So we drew asecond name, and this gentleman it's a
long time customer, a Vietnam veteran, and I mean there couldn't have been
anyone more deserving to have won thisbike. Oh fantastic. Yes, so
(13:15):
not his first Harley, but buta very very special one for him.
Sure. And the cool thing isis he's um So we had a custom
paint job done for this bike,so it's one of a kind, and
he's keeping the bike like it is. And so since our event, his
wife or partner has taken our ridingAcademy class there at the dealership, and
(13:39):
so she wants to buy a trikein the future. And he keeps us
up to date on when he ridesthe bike. And so it's real neat
that it stayed local. Two thatis fantastic. South Side is now fifth
generation employees owners. Let's are atthe beginning. This is one of the
(14:01):
greatest stories I've ever heard of howyour great grandparents, before they even started
the dealership, how they met.Please share this story of how your great
grandparents met. Yes, so,my great grandparents at some point both of
their families immigrated here from Germany orAustria, and they lived up in Wisconsin
(14:28):
and the probably the Milwaukee area.And so my great grandmother and her mother
made butter at home and would goaround to the neighbors and sell their butter,
you know, for money. Andso my great grandmother's story and this
is how she met her future husband. My great grandmother is Anne, my
(14:48):
great grandfather is George. So Anneand her mother went to the neighbors to
sell their butter, and they knockedon the door and this cute young boy
answered the door, and they askedhim to go get his mother because they
had some butter to sell. Andhe went running and got his mother.
And that's the first time that mygreat grandparents met. He's just the sweetest
(15:15):
story toward the door selling butter.Yes, I was like in tears when
you told me that the first time. I just it's amazing. Yeah,
you do not hear love stories likethat anymore. Selling that is just so
precious. Okay, So how didthey become Harley Dealership owners? Okay?
(15:41):
So, um, my great grandfather, George, he had a Harley bicycle
and this was he was probably undersixteen years old at this point, and
George needed a part for his Harleybicycle, and so he went to the
Harley Davidson factory in Milwaukee and talkedto the gentleman at the gate and said,
(16:03):
I need to buy parts for mybike. And you know, even
back then, they didn't just sellHarley parts from the factory, and so
he must have been there discussing thiswith the man at the gate, and
one of the founding fathers of Harleyheard George out at the gate and came
out and told George, when you'reold enough, come back and we'll give
(16:25):
you a job here at the factory. And so yes, around the time
he was sixteen, he came backand they hired him and he started out
there sweeping the floors in the factory. He worked there at the Harley Davidson
factory for twenty five years and soreally our family history with Harley Davidson goes
back a hundred years, which isamazinglievable, right, I mean, there
(16:51):
Harley will be three. They're celebratingwhat one hundred and twenty years this year
I believe, or next year.Yeah. So George he started out sweeping
the floors in the factory and thenhe eventually he worked his way up into
the research and development department, andpart of his job was to ride Harley's
(17:15):
back and forth across the country tryingbasically trying to break them to see what
parts needed to be made better forthe bike, so where the weak points
were, and so he rode Imean thousands and thousands of miles on these
old Harley's And during World War twohe also taught the servicemen how to work
(17:37):
on their motorcycles out in the field. He worked there at the factory during
towards the end there of World WarTwo, and Harley made a lot of
motorcycles for the war at that point. And then so nineteen forty seven,
the Motor Company came to George andasked him to start a dealership, and
(17:59):
I believe they their choices were Indianapolisand Kansas, I think was the other
option, and they chose Indianapolis.And that's when HD Sales and Service was
born. We were down there.We were downtown Indianapolis. The address there
was seven oh one South Meridian Streetin a really cool old building. We
(18:22):
had the dealership downstairs and there wereapartment apartments up above it. My great
grandparents lived in those apartments up abovethe building and ran the dealership down beneath.
We start old. That's all right, we called that the Old Shop.
Okay, so that's kind of howthe name south Side came about.
Yeah, so we were and wewere on the south side of Indianapolis at
(18:45):
that point. We were in thatbuilding for fifty years, and then when
we had to move to a differentlocation. M Hardy had specifications of where
they want their dealerships at and weneeded to be closer to an inner state,
and so we ended up moving towhere we are now, which is
on the south side of Indianapolish andthat's when it became Indianapolis south Side.
(19:10):
Harley Davidson. Nice. Yes,your great grandma was quite the savvy businesswoman.
She kept the books and she hadsome pretty great marketing strategies. Um,
there was a time with the leatherjacket, right, you had this
surplus and she came up with avery clever way of moving them out.
(19:32):
Right, there's a story where sheordered I can't remember the specific numbers now,
but we were supposed to get liketwelve they were almost like letterman jackets
from Harley Davidson, and we endedup getting like a hundred of them,
or like a ridiculous amount. Backthen, and at that point it was
it was unfathomable to her how wewould ever sell this mini jackets, And
(19:56):
so her solution was she sent themout with the guys too. I believe
it was Daytona and some races inDaytona, and they sold the jackets out
there. So that year out atDaytona, everyone was walking around with Southside
Harley Davidson jackets. Nice. Yeah, nice, You're already going nationwide at
that point, correct, So,yes, so great. My great grandmother
(20:21):
was the businesswoman, she kept thebooks, and my great grandfather, George,
he would give you, He wouldgive anyone the shirt off his back.
He was just super nice, verygenerous, giving man. That is
so so nice. What it?Yes, just I still want to meet
your family. It's incredible people.So then let's let's continue with how it
(20:45):
how did it move on to Obviouslythen now it moved through the generations.
This really became a truly family effortand then passed on to their son who
they carried on. Yeah. Sothere they had one son. His name
is Bob Schulteddy. So he's asecond generation, yes, my grandpa,
(21:07):
and he is the owner of thedealership now and he's been the owner for
quite a while I'm not sure whenthat happened before when I was a kid.
And um, so I'm a fourthgeneration family member and my aunt,
my mom, my cousins, myuncle, my cousin's son at one point,
(21:30):
my sister, we all have workedat the dealership. So we are
definitely family run. My cousin's son, he's the fifth generation family member that
we have working there now, whichis amazing. Not not many family businesses
make it seventy five years, letalone have five, well technically four generations
(21:51):
working in them. Okay, yeah, it is. It is quite a
monumental accomplishment, There's no question aboutthat. That's it's a very difficult thing
to accomplish, not only just tokeep a successful business going that long,
but you know, family dynamics andso forth, that can be a challenge,
there's no question, yes, andwe've had our challenges. Just this
(22:15):
year. My aunt has been thegeneral manager for quite a few years,
and just this year the title ofgeneral manager got handed to my cousin,
Lorie, And so my generation isreally starting to play to run the business.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that'strue. Sure that there has to
be a transition of power soon atsome point. Yes, yeah, to
(22:37):
keep it, to keep it goingstrong. Before you became a motorcycle rider
yourself, you were riding in yourparents' sidecar. Yes. So my dad
has a He had a bike witha sidecar, and so at first my
(22:57):
mother would ride behind him on thebike, and my sister and I would
ride in the sidecar and we rodeback and forth across the country. We
went out west to Colorado and umlike four corners area out there in the
sidecar. We also went out northto the east coast, like North Carolina,
(23:18):
I mean east and m Yeah,my sister and I would ride in
that sidecar. She would basically sitbetween my legs and the sidecar and we'd
just travel the country that way.So cool. I mean, I'm sure
there are times and you graded oneach other just a little bit. That's
a pretty tight squeeze in a littlesidecar. Yes, So, like I
said, she would ride between mylegs, and you know, we would
(23:41):
get to arguing in there, soI would I would squeeze as hard as
I could with my legs and justsqueeze her and her she used to try
to, you know, bash myface shield of my helmet with hers.
You know, this is how werode across the country. Wow, So
your parents, your mom's Pilly onthe motorcycle with your dad and you and
(24:02):
your sister in the sidecard next toyou, yes, next to the I'm
sorry and I'm trying to visualize that, right. And so then we had
to pack all four of us ontothat motorcycle. So we had to have
enough clothes to make it from Indianato North Carolina and back, which I
think, in and of itself,was a big challenge. Yeah, that's
(24:22):
a lot of stuff and snacks andbathroom breaks. Oh my god, the
logistics of that. But on theother hand, it just sounds so freaking
fun. I mean, incredible childhoodmemories you must have from doing that.
What an amazing way to see thecountry, you know, I tear,
(24:44):
Yeah for sure. Oh my gosh. So when you walk into work every
day, like, oh what isthat? Like? Who are you seeing
your parents? It's like Thanksgiving dinner? Your parents are there? Your Grandpa's
there? Answer there, it's likeevery day. Yeah. So, um,
my grandfather Bob, he is Ibelieve he's eighty nine years old and
(25:08):
he still comes into work. Um, he's not coming in as often as
he was, but he used tocome in five days a week and he
still has a desk in the officeand you know, can do whatever he
wants to do there. But ofcourse Hill shows up and super cool to
(25:29):
go in there. So my grandfatherworking there, My like, I said,
my cousins the general manager. Ihave my other cousin works in the
marketing department. I have a cousin'sson who works does like our media and
social media stuff. My parents mymother does the She's like a maintenance woman,
(25:49):
so she's not there every day,but she's there three to four times
a week. Yeah, so you'reright, it's like a family reunion every
day at work, and every I'mplaying a different but critical role, I
mean exactly. Yeah. Yeah,I can't even imagine the logistics of running
a dealership of that size. Yeahyeah, yeah, and like practising,
(26:11):
who's like, is that a thinglike um, like working with Harley deciding
on inventory and stock and so forth. That that's got to be a monumental
task right there. Oh yes,I mean we have managers for each department,
and luckily quite a few of ourmanagers have been around for a few
years. And yeah, do alot of the ordering of the inventory and
(26:36):
keeping track of everything. It's um, yeah, it's a it's a lot.
You have worn a lot of differenthats at that dealership. UM tell
us where you started, what yourfavorite role was, and what you're doing
now. Yes. So, um, when I first started working at the
dealership, I came in and Iwas answering the phones. So I mean
(26:56):
I literally feel like I kind ofstarted at the bottom that you know,
that was the position that was openwhen I was looking for a job.
So I started out answering the phones. Then a position opened up in the
motor closed department, so I movedover to motor clothes and I really enjoyed
that selling the clothing and all thegear and just um, you know,
(27:21):
dealing with biker's day to day isit's fun in itself. And so I
worked in the motor closed department andthen I eventually did motor clothes receiving.
When my son was born, Itook quite a few years off from the
dealership, kind of was a stayat home mother, And once he got
(27:41):
a little older and went started goingto school, I came back to the
dealership and again I started in themotor closed department. And then a position
opened up at the parts counter,and I just really wanted to take on
that challenge of working at the partscounter, and so I moved over to
parts. Of all the positions I'veheld at the dealership, that is the
(28:03):
position I am the most proud of. It was so challenging and um,
when I first started working at thatparts counter, Um, there would be
men would walk up to the counterand step into the other lines next to
mine because they didn't want a womanto help them. And the longer I
worked at the parts counter, themore I proved to myself and the more
(28:26):
that these men would see that Icould sell them the correct parts. And
eventually I had customers who specifically wouldcome in to me and want me to
help them and would specifically wait inmy line. And that's why I'm most
proud of that that position I hadthere, I really had to come myself.
(28:49):
Yeah, I'll bet that that.I'm sure that was a little bit
of a wall to to have toclimb to get these men on board,
to prove to them, proved tothem easily. You know, your knowledge
and experience that you were more thanqualified to help them with whatever they needed.
So that must have been a reallygreat feeling. Yes, I love
(29:11):
that there's, um, you know, the growing trend of more women wrenches
mechanics people, women who really understandthe mechanics of a bike or a car
or whatever, and you know,kind of breaking down the one of those
last gender barriers. You know thatthere should not be any kind of gender
(29:33):
coding as to who is qualified toto do that sort of work and have
that knowledge. So kudos to youthat that is so impressive. Yeah,
and since then you've now moved onto becoming the riding Academy Liaizone, and
I love how you you really emphasizegetting women out there riding. You're really
(29:55):
encouraging them and helping them put themon the path to to get their their
motorcycle endorsement or their license. Andtell us what that's like with what you
do. I know you're not anactual instructor, but you run that program
and you are just so supportive ofnew women riders and helping them advance their
skills and just get out there onthe road. And I mean, I'm
(30:18):
all for women who want to ridebilling in and are happy with that because
I've done it and I love it. And you know when you have a
great rider that you're enjoying that with, it's it's fantastic. But for the
women who want to do it ontheir own, to have someone like you
really encourage them and back them upis you know, and set an example
for them, you and the womenand your family who ride. It's yes,
(30:41):
so tremendous. Yeah, so tellus about what that works, like
what you're doing with Harley with thatwith their writing academy. So my job
with the writing Academy, I've hadthe most fun with this job there.
It is like I said, Ilearned to ride when I was twelve.
I took an abait course when Iwas fifteen, And I mean back then,
(31:03):
with these courses, you know,you just have coaches out there yelling
at you, and I mean,I'm sure there was probably cussing going around
on the course and you either youeither rode or failed. I mean.
And so I really like working withthe Riding Academy now. Just times have
changed. Nothing against debate because theyrun a great um. Sure they teach,
(31:27):
They've taught a lot of people toride. So what with our writing
academy, I m one of myjobs is to run what we call the
jump Start bike, and it isa stable motorcycle on rollers and you can
get up there and practice clutch andthrottle control and shift through all the gears
(31:47):
on a real Harley Davidson motorcycle andthere's no risk of falling over or dropping
the bike. And I really encourageanyone who's never ridden before, or who
hasn't in a long time to getup there and see what it feels like
to shift through the gears on areal Harley Davidson. Like a great place
to start help building your confidence beforeyou get out there on the range.
(32:10):
And I feel like that's part ofthat's part of the fun for me.
So I learned to ride a longtime ago, and it's so fun to
go through this excitement, I meanalmost daily with people as they learned to
ride and start their motorcycle journey.So cool. And Annette, since you
mentioned that to me when we talkedabout it last time, I found a
(32:32):
dealership here in sdicate Mike's famous.It's in New London and I'm going to
be doing the jump Start sometime thismonth. Yes, and Anna Harley and
I am so freaking excited way andit's such a clever way to get people
on. I mean, you're literallythere inside the dealership, you're not even
(32:52):
outside, and you're, like yousaid, you're on this stable bike that's
not going to move or tip over, You're not going to drop in it,
and you can, you know,work and practice with the clutch.
And I'm so freaking excited. Ithink it's such a brilliant idea. Thank
you. I think it's so brilliantthat Harley's doing that, and then you're
introducing people to Harley's through that way. So really, I encourage anyone wherever
(33:15):
you're living, google wherever your yourlocal Harley dealerships are and see if they
offer this jumpstart program, because someI think it's just brilliant. I truly
do. I agree, And Iknow at our dealership you do not have
to be taking our riding academy tocome in and do the jump start,
so I hope other dealerships are thesame way. And yeah, we offer
(33:37):
the jump start to anyone. Sohonestly, the more safe, well trained
widers we have on the road,it's better for all of us than ride.
So that's that's what it's about.Yeah, I completely agree with you.
There you can never have enough education, training experience. Yeah, it's
(34:00):
an MSF course is only going toget you your endorsement. It's really not
gonna you know, or any youknow base, any basic two day two
day class that you take, Um, that's not going to make you a
fully formed rider. It takes monthsand months, years and years of experience.
So yeah, I like to saythat once you complete our course or
(34:20):
any writing course to get your endorsement, you've met like the state minimum requirements
to get your endorsement, but youneed to continue practicing. Basically, you
never stop practicing and you never stoplearning riding a motorcycle. Yeah. No,
that's definitely a great mindset. Um, what do you see in percentage
wise women in your classes? Now? Do you see most? Two questions?
(34:44):
So, are you seeing an increasein women who are taking advantage of
your Harley course and getting their licensesince you started? Yeah, there's definitely
an increase of women. I willsay there's still a lot more men in
the class. Is every once ina while we'll have usually there's at least
(35:04):
two women in a class. Sometimesit's all men. Rarely sometimes there's also
just one woman in a class.I'm looking into maybe this next year also
holding an all women's class, andwhich I think would be exciting taking some
of that pressure off of women.Yeah, yeah, so I'm excited to
get that going this year too.I think that's a terrific idea because I
(35:28):
think a lot of women who dotake these courses, they're there with a
boyfriend or a husband, and butmaybe if they can view it as you
know, something to like enjoy withtheir girlfriends or other family members, I
think that's really positive. I lovethat idea. I hope I hope that
that pants out. Yeah, that'sreally great. Thank you. And what
(35:51):
about like actual ownership, are youseeing increase in women buying their own motorcycles?
Like what changes have you seen overthe years. Event Yes, definitely
more women choosing to ride their ownbikes and moved to the front of the
bike. Just this last year,I had a woman student who she came
and took our three wheel class andshe's never been the driver of the bike
(36:16):
before, She's always been the passenger. And she said these last few years
her husband, she just didn't feelas comfortable behind him. There were times
where she felt like he made baddecisions driving and had scared her and that's
what motivated her to get her ownbike. And yeah and uh, and
(36:37):
now that she's done it, shesaid, honestly, she should have done
this years ago. And that's whatI hear a lot from the women that
come take the course. A lotof them say, you know, I
should have done this years ago.So if you're thinking about learning to ride,
don't wait, go go go today. You should have went yesterday.
Oh I should have went thirty yearsago. So fully concur with that statement,
(37:01):
there's no question. Oh my gosh, Um, and I love the
hashtag that you use, women tothe Front. I think that's so cool
and so empowering. I really Ilove that a lot. Thank you.
I actually um started for me.So I'm forty three and I was really
into the riot girl movement in thenineties and as this band called Bikini Kill,
(37:25):
and they would get up on stageand always yelled girls to the front,
and they'd want all the girls tocome up to the in front of
the stage where it was like asafe space for the girls and you wouldn't,
you know, get stuck in amosh pit with all the guys and
right, So that's where I gotit's girls to the Front was that,
but I think we're women now,so it's women to the Front. That
(37:46):
is so fantastic. And I absolutelyremember that band too. Wow. Yes,
that that brought back a great memory. Oh my goodness. Wow.
Yeah, it's kind of and andI have to say it's kind of where
the g r r ls in SportBike Girls came from as well. So
yeah, I wondered about that.I noticed that. That's so awesome.
(38:07):
That is amazing. Oh my gosh, good such good memories. Yes,
Um, what tell us about someof the other women writers in your in
your family and what they're riding andwhat they're doing. How do they enjoy
riding? Do you guys take familytrips together, go moto camping, anything
like that? So, um,we used to ride more as a family.
(38:30):
Um. Actually, one of myfavorite UM rides that I've done with
the family was we rode up toMilwaukee for Harley Davidson's hundredth anniversary in two
thousand and three. Yes, soI wrote My and My Sportster then it
was I mean basically all of themajority of the writers in my family,
my aunts, my cousins, myuncle anny, husbands or boyfriends, my
(38:52):
mom my dad and my sister,her boyfriend. We all rode up there
together, rode through Chicago up toMilwaukee, and gosh that that event up
there was I mean, honestly aonce in a lifetime event. Um,
as far as you know, Harley'shundredth anniversary. The there was a big
(39:14):
parade up there, and I waslike, amazing. There was miles and
miles and miles of motorcycles that rodethrough the parade. I am, I
do not enjoy driving a motorcycle inparades. Your clutch hand gets really worn
out. So um, I rodebehind my uncle in the parade, and
(39:35):
um we so this is for myuncle Alan shalteddi we uh. Decided to
sneak up into the front of theparade and we actually got to ride up
there with like the Harley executives.Nice nice, Yes, we went like
some dealth mode and snuck up tothe front. It was amazing. So
(39:58):
es uh. And so then let'ssee, I'm my cousins both at one
point we're racing, um like dirtbike racing and us and they were both
you know, both women, Sothey got into that. So my Lorie,
my cousin, her son COI sprinkle. He got into um like dirt
(40:21):
back rate flat track racing too,and he's actually went in road done some
ice racing. Whoa, yeah,it's really neat. He They basically put
nails through their tires and go outthere and ride around on the ice.
That's amazing. Wow. Yeah.Um, So my one cousin, Sherry,
(40:44):
she rides a she had a lowrider. She may have a sport
glide. Now, um, mymother has probably more motorcycles than I even
know. She has a big dresserlike an electric glide, she has a
low rider. Or my aunt sherides a trikenal So, um, you
know we're we're still out there riding. Still, women riders out there riding.
(41:08):
So has Harley created a three wheeler? Yes? So actually they have
two. Now there's a tri glideand there's a tril Yeah yeah, a
big tour pack on it. Andthere's more of a sporty um trike too.
So yes, I mean some peoplehave customers come in like, oh,
(41:29):
I'll never ride one of those.Those are for old guys. And
I'll tell you this now, trikesare not for just the old guys.
These trikes are so cool now thatalso it can help people like my aunt
has hips and knees replaced, soshe can't as easily hold up a motorcycle,
but she can get on her trikeand she's a she's a motor maid
(41:49):
and she rides all over the countrywith them. That is fantastic. Yeah,
it's so wonderful to have that option. Not right, everyone is comfortable
on a motorcycle to ride a motorcycle, or for health reasons, simply cannot
safely. So it's fantastic to havethat option. So definitely trying to compete
with the KNAM Polaris kind of offerings. Yeah, I think that's a brilliant
(42:15):
idea. I mean it's exploding worldwide. It's not just here in the States,
it is worldwide. So I thinkthat's pretty brilliant on Harley's part to
do that. What do you thinkof the new What do you think of
the new Nightster? I think it'spretty beautiful. I love the Nightsters.
So one of the benefits of workingat the dealership and for my family,
(42:35):
so I got to bring a twentytwenty two nights their home for the weekend
and basically just demo the bike.And I've wanted to ride the Nightster because
it's like working with the Riding Academy. That's the bike that we will be
selling are the new riders if theywant to start out on it, an
affordable, smaller Harley. So Ibrought the Nightster home. By the time
(42:58):
I brought it back, I putin three hundred miles on it, so
I definitely rode it enough to likereally get a good feel of the bike.
I had a blast on it.So it's a nine hundred and seventy
five cc engine, so it's it'sa little bit smaller than my Bule.
My Bule has a it's a twelvehundred. And I mean really the two
bikes, you can't compare them becauseone's a Harley and one's the sport bike.
(43:22):
But I could definitely see myself parkingthe Nightster in my garage and next
to the Bule. Ooh okay,that's a ringing endorsement for sure. Else
Yeah, and so you consider ita good starter bike, Oh yes,
definitely. So the cool thing withthe new Harley's that have them do I
(43:43):
think it's the Revmax engine. Theyhave mode, so there's sport mode,
street mode, rainmode, and soI when I rode the bike. Well,
I tried out all the different modes, but sport mode is the you
have the most control over everything inthe bike. So rainmode, it really
lowers your amount of when you twistthe throttle, it just gives the bike
(44:04):
less power. So when you're ridingin the rain, it helps. It
helps you stay in control of thebike. It's brilliant, Okay. Yeah,
and so you can put the bikein m street mode and it takes
away some of the power. Sothat's really good for someone to start out
with in the street mode and thenyou can move it up to sport mode
once you get a little more comfortable. That's good to know. Yeah,
(44:27):
Yeah, I think it's a reallyI think it's a really beautiful bike.
I think it's a great design.I really impressed with that. Yeah,
I would love to try. Iliked it. They're they're a little bit
shorter bike, so I was ableto touch completely fat flat footed, which
I think makes a huge difference,especially as a woman, just as far
as being comfortable on the bike andbeing able to um control the bike and
(44:51):
push it around. And yeah,being comfortable is really important for sure,
and safety wise too. I meanI I that's not something I will struggle
with. I'm five nine, butI know that you know, I'm way
above average height for for most women. And I see you know, videos
all the time of very short womenon sport bikes or any cruisers who are
(45:14):
just tippy toeing, and that wouldthat would really set me in a panic.
I mean, I know there's techniquesto do it safely, but that
that's just an added element of stress, I think, correct. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, so most womencan can seat pretty comfortably on a on
a Harley even without lowering the seator is that even a possibility lowering the
(45:35):
seat? Yeah, A lot ofthe Harley models they do, you can
some of them have adjustable suspension,so you would adjust the suspension a little
bit to your weight, which couldhelp you on touch a little better than
a lot of them. Um,you could either change out shocks and forks,
or some of them do make shorterseats that you can put on them
(45:59):
also just to get you more comfortableon the bike. Oh good, oh
good. Okay, that's good forwomen to know who are considering but might
be concerned about, you know,height issues and stuff. So that's right,
it's for sure. Yeah, definitely, Look into the accessories that you
can change on your bike to getyou more comfortable beautiful. So, if
you have a weekend free to rideby yourself, where where do you go?
(46:21):
Where would you like to go?Like locally? Where where's your enjoyment?
Just kind of chill out, kindof wind therapy ride. Yes,
I like to get out on theroad, And a lot of times I'll
end up riding to some of ourIndiana state parks and I like, I
really enjoy riding through the state parks. And like, for me getting out
and riding, it's almost like aform of meditation. My phone's put away,
(46:45):
everything just melts away and it's meand the bike and the road and
you don't have to worry about anyof the stress in your life. You
just have to worry about driving thatmotorcycle. And that's that's why I like
to ride. Yeah, I amso looking forward to that. Yeah,
dream rides anywhere in the United Statesor around the world that you would love
(47:07):
to have your bike and just justexplore and take off. Oh yes,
so, um one of the ralliesor that I have not done, something
like Babes Ride Out. I've neverbeen to any of their events. And
I honestly I would love to go. And they've probably been having these events
for I don't know ten years anhour or so and m but so that's
(47:27):
kind of like a bucket list goalthing is to get out to one of
the the Babes ride out events.And I also would love to ride a
bike up and down the East Coast. Oh, come visit me if you
yes, that would be amazing.That would be amazing. Oh my gosh,
yeah, I would love to.I'm in Connecticut. I would love
(47:47):
to, um U go out LongIsland. Um, yes, so you
know, to like Montauk Point,the lighthouse there, but also go further
north, like up into Maine likea Kadia National Park And oh how spectacular
would that be? Yeah? Soyes, yeah, and then numerous places
(48:08):
around the world too, like Icelandand Scotland. Oh for sure, right,
wouldn't that be? Yeah? God, just to ride the mountains out
there would be amazing. Have youbeen to Sturgis? You or your family?
Um? I have not been outto Sturgis. I mean I think
(48:28):
I would enjoy going to Sturgis.Uh. I grew up going to a
lot of like hog rallys, whichis hardly owner group, and that's that's
a lot of writing with my parents. Those were the events we were going
to and so we never made itto like Sturgis or I've never been to
Daytona Bike Weeks, So those,I mean are definitely places I would love
to go check out. And youknow a lot of the people that go
(48:52):
to those events enjoy Like you goto Sturgis, like the week before Sturgis
and you can really enjoy the sceneryand everything before the boards of people get
out there. That's a great tipfor sure, yes, or stay after,
stay after everybody's left. But it'salso real fun to be there at
those events and just people watch it. Oh my gosh, all those loyalists.
(49:19):
Yeah, yes, that would beamazing. What's your vision for the
future of Southside Harley. Where wouldyou like to see it or hoping it
will evolve into ten years, twentyyears from now or do you just want
it to kind of stay the wayit is? I good question. I
I mean, I hope we're aroundfor another ten to twenty years. Um,
(49:42):
I hope you know the future generationlike my cousin son maybe my son,
you know, were to possibly getinvolved in the dealership I really hope
we can continue doing the writing academyand continue teaching people to ride U you
know, that's the future of motorcyclingand Harley Davidson and just the sport in
(50:05):
general is sharing the knowledge that wehave, um yes, and passing that
onto the new writers. And Imean it would be cool if we could,
um, you know, have anotherdealership or have like a little satellite
dealership. Also Oh okay, youknow that would that might be something neat
to do. Uh yeah, Ihope, who knows, hopefully we can
(50:29):
make it another seventy five years.Oh my goodness, how many square feet
is the dealership right now? Likea folk it's big. I mean,
yeah, it's true massive. Yeah, I'm not real sure of all the
square feet there. So when webuilt the building twenty five years ago,
we thought, oh, we'll neveroutgrow this, and then within a couple
(50:50):
of years we were adding on.In a few years, a year we
were adding on more. I meanfrom the old old shop where we came
from to the new dealership. Justseems so massive at the time, and
I mean yeah, just very quicklyoutgrew it and have added on and added
on this next year we'll be doingsome more renovations and remodeling and I'm excited
(51:10):
to see what the future brings forthat. Oh we all are too.
I mean, what a terrific story, such a success story, but it's
it's come with a lot of blood, sweat and tears and hard work and
so impressive. Continue to grow andgrow and succeed. So thank you so
(51:30):
much for sharing the story with us, and I hope everyone will follow you
on Instagram and your website at SouthsideHarley Harley Davidson Dealership. They are in
Indianapolis, Indiana. And what agreat family, such a great story.
Thank you and Nette for sharing yourstory with us. I just if you
(51:52):
want to learn to ride, gotake a course, an MSF course,
a Harley Davidson course, and aBay course or whatever course your state has
learned a ride and then never stoplearning there once you take a beginner course.
I know here in Indiana we haveskilled writer courses or advanced writer courses,
(52:15):
and just continue to learn and havefun. That's what it's really all
about, is having fun. Oh, I so agree with you. Yes,
thank you, pleasure, Thank youso much, and Nat please follow
her Punk and Ettie Instagram, Vanettiso great, such a great feed,
(52:37):
and Southside Harley Davidson Dealership. Thankyou for sharing your family's story. Yes,
thank you so much. Excellent.Thank you and Nett appreciate it so
much. Have a great night.Okay you too. That's all for today.
Thank you so much for being here. Please follow me on Instagram and
(52:58):
Twitter at Sport Fight Girls for acomplete schedule of all upcoming episodes, as
well as more information about all ofmy amazing guests. Have a great day.
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