Elvis has been very good for Harley - look to Memphis for future bike events

 July 14, 2007

Optometrist eyes Elvis-Harley motorcycle market niche

Jane Roberts / Scripps Howard News Service
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070714%2FAUTO03%2F707140303%2F1149

MEMPHIS -- In a few days this spring, Graceland Harley-Davidson sold
25 limited-edition Harleys -- copies of a bike Elvis owned in 1957 --
for $58,815 apiece.

That same April weekend, 400 bikers turned out for the first Elvis
Rock 'n' Roll Ride for Life, raising $100,000 for the American
Diabetes Association.

If you need more help connecting the dots between Memphis, Elvis and
Harley-Davidson, ask Lisa Wade, 47, longtime optometrist who quit a VP
job at the Southern College of Optometry to capitalize on an untapped
market for people passionate about Elvis and Harley-Davidson.

"Elvis owned a number of Harleys and gave away a number of Harleys,"
she said. "Everyone knows he loved Harleys."

Wade, now owner/dealer/principal of Bruce Rossmeyer's Southern Thunder
Harley-Davidson in nearby Horn Lake, Miss., also opened the first-ever
Elvis Presley Enterprises-licensed "boutique" Harley-Davidson store in
January.

Now, she has purchased 5.3 acres of land near a highway interchange
for a "destination dealership" she intends to open by 2010.

"We're going to make sure we have space for outdoor events and
performance space. We expect one or two restaurants will come with
us."

Know this about Wade: She's been driving motorcycles since she was 8,
and her uncle and business partner is Bruce Rossmeyer, legendary in
Harley circles for owning more dealerships than anyone else, including
the 150-acre Destination Daytona, the largest Harley store in the
world.

In 2005 alone, his combined Harley sales exceeded $200 million,
according to his Web site.

That kind of clout and the novelty of Harley's tie to Elvis has given
Wade some weight in Memphis.

Graceland Harley-Davidson, for instance, is a registered EPE trademark
and the first business of its kind on Graceland property.

"It's a great marriage to have the Harley shop on our property. Elvis
loved anything with an engine and especially motorcycles," said Kevin
Kern, EPE spokesman.

EPE, which also licensed the 30th anniversary bikes, exact replicas of
the 1957 Harley Elvis owned, is thrilled that the recipients include
Jay Leno and fans as far away as Australia.

"When we unveiled the bikes, thousands of people were out there just
to see the first bike debut," Kern said.

Even though you can't buy a bike at the Graceland shop or get an oil
change -- there's little showroom space and no service department --
it's turned out to be a magnet for EPE's male customers.

And that's not all. If you drive by the Elvis After Dark plaza, day or
night, you'll see Harley riders in the parking lot.

And that has Wade thinking about the possibility of an annual Elvis
rally here.

"Daytona has the beach, but there's a lot more to do here," she says.
"With the food, the music, the entertainment, we really have a great
opportunity to have a tremendous event in this area."

Philosophically, motorcyclists are more in tune with Memphis than the
beach, she says.

"People who like motorcycles tend to like music. They tend to be a
little rock and roll, a little out there."

She's working with EPE and merchants on Beale Street to develop both
venues as potential rally points for an annual Elvis ride she sees as
so loaded with possibility, she's organizing it herself.

"I'd like to see a whole series of bike-related events built around
the Elvis ride.

"We could have vendors here like they do at (Daytona) Bike Week. It
could become a rally for this part of the country, focused on Elvis
and motorcycles.

"I think we could have a 30,000- to 50,000-bike rally very easily."

It's all keyed on Memphis and what Wade calls a mystique that has a
lot to do with Elvis and giving people an opportunity to "step outside
their day-to-day life and live free and ride hard.

"Despite the fact that we have judge and a doctor in the showroom
right now," she says, looking over the Horn Lake store. "Harley is
still the tough guy, the bad biker. It's all part of the appeal."


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 wrote:


hmmm, I thought the '57 he had was a sporty




 AH 103 SENS BS80 FHBE 8 FLF

Silly NorthWesterner - God Rides a Panhead!

 
That's like $250 each! Well, I guess if you're paying close to $60k
for a sporty......