Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. Th...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. Th...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Sylvan Beach comes alive with the roar of engines every Tuesday night during the summer! Give your motorcycle some extra action, and bring it down to Main Street. Free parking for bikes on Main Street stretching from 15th Avenue down to the bridge. There’...
Bike Night at Harley-Davidson of Utica
Meet great people. Join in the fun.
Food by Dinosaur BBQ (eat here or take it to go) and musical guest Classified.
Cold beer and soda for sale!
Please Drink Responsibly!
Business Type
Motorcycle Sales, Motorcycle Parts & Accessories, Motorcycle Service, Motorcycle Clothing & Accessories
Owners Name
Carbone Auto Group
Business Location
Street Address
4870 Commercial Drive
City
New York Mills
State
NEW YORK
Zip Code
13417
Phone
315-797-5570
Email
askus@hdutica.com
Business Description
Quick Intro
Central NY's Leading Harley Dealer
About Our Business
Harley-Davidson of Utica started in 1975 in the midst of the AMF years. In the beginning, the franchise was part of Don’s Ford on Route 12 North in Utica. While it may seem an unlikely combination, times being what they were in the mid 1970s, it was a win-win relationship from the beginning.
Harley-Davidson Motor Company had significant pressure from Japanese imports at the time and was looking to increase its dealer ranks to market its line of lightweight (250cc and smaller) motorcycles, made by Aermacchi, Harley-Davidson’s Italian motorcycle subsidiary. With gasoline shortages and price hikes spurred on by the Arab oil embargo of 1973, buyers were looking for fuel efficient vehicles. So, we were pretty successful in selling those little Harley-Davidson® motorcycles.
By 1977, oil prices eased and Harley-Davidson had pretty much given up on the lightweight bike market. The product line basically consisted of the Electra Glide®, Super Glide®, Low Rider® and Sportster® in the lineup. In 1981, AMF sold the Harley-Davidson division to thirteen members of the Harley-Davidson management team.
In those years, we were a very small dealer, selling maybe 50 bikes a year. Like all dealers, the 1980s were very tough years. Interest rates were very high and product quality was poor. But year by year things improved, the new Evolution® engine was unveiled, the Softail® line was introduced and product quality was continuously improved.
By the end of the 1980s, we were beginning to outgrow the little corner of Don’s Ford that we had occupied for fifteen years and discussion began about moving to a separate facility. Finally in the spring of 1993, Harley-Davidson of Utica opened up on North Genesee Street in Utica. With a place of our own, we had room to breathe and were in a facility that we felt we would never outgrow.
Initially, we only occupied a small portion of that building, using about 4,000 square feet. We added to our accessory and clothing lines and the Motor Company shipped more bikes to us, but like all dealers, we could not keep bikes in stock. We added the new Buell® line in the late 1990s. As the other tenants in the building moved out, we kept expanding until 2001 when we finally occupied the building’s entire 14,000 square feet. But soon, we were out of room again.
We searched all over the Utica area, studied land availability and traffic counts and finally settled on a 4 acre site on Commercial Drive in New York Mills, just west of the City of Utica. After months of planning and designing the new store on paper, we broke ground in November, 2002. Work continued throughout the winter and seven months later, we had a new address and one of the largest Harley-Davidson showrooms in Upstate New York.
Today, we are proud of our humble beginnings and also proud that we have current customers who began buying Harley-Davidson® motorcycles from us in those early years. While we have grown with a bigger store and a bigger staff, we stay true to our roots and still prefer to do business on a handshake and fulfill every promise we make.
