Has Big Dog gone bankrupty? or came back? 

Don't really know much about them but given they have an S&S motor I would be confident of their reliability. At US$36,000 I would say it's not a viable bike for a commuter but each to their own...

Supercycles here in Perth WA have a showroom fulla these kinda things. All "brand new" but been there a wee while. ( YEARS !)

Sorry I don't know if they are 'Big Dogs" but they are something of that nature.

Just checked they are "Pro-one" and "Saxon"

No Effing way they are $36,000 USD neither !

$45,000 Australian , NO WAY worth that , I think a lowball offer may just get accepted

Bikecraft in Mordialloc has one for sale, or some other similarly built pointy, cheese ball thing. No idea what it’s priced at.

Bike Sales is full o choppers.

Shop I work at occasionally has them

Following that comment , it is no real surprise the Supercycles have them on the floor for so long.

They do "look good" , but can't handle like a Dyna or factory built Softail.

Not all folks want or need that of course and just want a flash looking cruiser for short trips. (They sure are all that!)

IF they were priced right then maybe give one a shot.

I do a fair bit of tuning for a local Indy shop , ( for cams , 110 kits etc etc) and he has them ("chopper types") in all the time for work.

Nothing drastic that I have seen mechanically , but the resale here in Perth is woeful.

When first being sold back in our WA boomtime , there were a coupla joints ( long gone) selling Big Dog etc,but at CVO money !

NO WAY were they ever worth that. I reckoned it was CRAZY at the time , but it took an 18 month wait for any new Harley especially CVO

You see so many Chopper ads that say, spent $80k, selling for $30k, (some even spend $120k+) sure it's better to pay 30k than spend 80k, but it would still be more trouble than it's worth, generally, the only person in the whole world that likes said Chopper is the guy who built it, so if your prepared to throw $30k away go for it, because if you went out and bought a new CVO today, in a couple of years you will have thrown 30k away also, but be warned there's more chance of dying on a Chopper than on a Regular bike,  it's the cost of being cool,

We even had a OCC franchise here on the coast....they went broke as did the American master franchise

Only chop worth the bucks is the Paughco Captain America replica. 

Wouldn't touch one with a barge pole, for the reasons you give.