The Good Life - January/February 2014

and more lucrative Harley-Davidson dealership with
several choice cities to choose from: St. Paul, Sioux
Falls, Albuquerque, Rapid City, Des Moines, Mankato,
Rochester and Fargo.
Familiar with many of the choices, the one he
wanted to see for certain was Fargo. What he saw, he
liked, primarily because of three major and feasible
reasons.
The Fargo/Moorhead area was vast and would
eventually provide a much larger population. While
there were a few manufacturing companies, the
majority were owned and operated locally. None
were tied to major nationally recognized corporations
or companies that, with a downward turn in the
economy, would suddenly close up and move out,
taking many employees with them. There were three
colleges here, and there was a cross between two
interstate highways, one of which was not finished,
but when it was, it would run its course to Mexico.
Fargo was surrounded by dark black, rich
farmland. Agriculture in 1971 was still the number
one economic stability in North Dakota and the Red
River Valley as a whole.
More than anything, that factor appealed to Del
the most. He chose to move and reopen his Harley-
Davidson dealership in Fargo, which he did, 10 years
after he had opened his dealership in Huron, and,
kinky as it seems, almost to the anniversary date of
buying his first Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the
Knucklehead.
NEW BEGINNINGS ARE SOMETIMES HARD
Del Hofer opened his first Harley-Davidson
motorcycle dealership in North Dakota on what is
now known as 36th Street South (a.k.a., the frontage
road off 13th Avenue South), where it remained until
1991.
In 1971 there simply was not an overflow within
the local F/M population standing in line to buy
motorcycles. Del says some of it had to do with an
old Marlon Brando movie about bad bikers called
“The Wild One,” as well as because, unlike in other
areas of the country, primarily where the weather
was warmer, college kids and biker enthusiasts were
from more financially conservative backgrounds.
Harley Davidson motorcycles are not inexpensive.
Spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on
an unnecessary item that can only be used a short
portion of the year was almost a claim against Mother
Nature for some.
The Japanese and other motorcycle manufacturers
jumped into the game by the mid-1970s by bringing
in smaller and less expensive motorcycles. Plus,
Hofer credits the slogan “You meet the nicest people
on a Honda” with appealing to younger and less
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