Background. David Zien is a well known former member of the Wisconsin State Senate famous for riding more than one million miles on a 1991 Harley-Davidson now on display at the Sturgis Hall Of Fame from which he is a member since 2000. He always ride his bikes flying the American and others. In 2011 he was critically injured in a highway crash in Florida in which he lost a leg, and now continues to ride, this time on a Harley-Davidson trike equipped with a custom hand operated shifter. Zien continues to fly flags when he rides.

On a recent riding trip to Dallas, Texas his trike had a clutch and transmission failure and Zien claims that he was told by a Harley dealer that his warranty claim was denied because he flies too many flags on his motorcycle. The largest is an American flag ‘3 x 5”.

“The issue isn’t that the flags are heavy, but that they provide terrific drag on the engine and the transmission, especially when the bike is at highway speeds,” said Harley spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim. Zien adds that he was told that his flag mounts are not Harley-Davidson products, and being non compliant, impact Zien’s ability to make a warranty claim.

“We recognize that it’s a very cool thing to (mount flags) on your bike, and we want our customers to be able to personalize their bikes in that way. But because of what was done to (this) motorcycle, and how it impacts the motorcycle’s performance, we just didn’t cover the warranty claim,” said Maripat Blankenheim. The million mile motorcycle man is ready for a fight to defend the right of all to fly a flag on a motorcycle without voiding the warranty.