Harley Davidson in trouble.

octatonic

http://www.irondemons.com/harley-no-longer-king-company-in-trouble/

It is interesting what is happening to HD and given Henry has said he based Gibson's current marketing strategy on what HD were doing 'the lifestyle brand'  I wonder if it is a sign of things to come for Gibson?

Phil_aka_Pip

I do so hope that Henry learns from H-D's mistakes ... and quickly!

chillidoggy

They're an anachronism, albeit an iconic one, bit like Morgan. I hope they keep going.

Reverend

I seem to recall reading that Harleys were bought by biker gang members that couldn't afford British bikes and to be able to keep up they would chop off as much excess metal as they could. - hence choppers.
They then made them more expensive based on the name they had attained.
Sonny Barger said he regretted the decision to ban Japanese bikes from the Angels.

57Deluxe

Harleys are TOO EXPENSIVE - especially if part made in India and China... Anyway - learn to live with it! We had to with the demise of Triumph and Norton, Royal Enfield, BSA... Just imagine, an Indian owned/built Royal Enfield...!

gubble

57Deluxe said:

Just imagine, an Indian owned/built Royal Enfield...!

I'm waiting for someone to say it..................

hywelg

You can tell it was written by an American...

"Once upon a time Harley Davidson use to be the mega force in the motorcycle industry. It was always at the top of the list for any respecting biker to want to own."

No self respecting UK biker would swallow the hype.

Moe_Zambeek

...or write that badly.

TTony

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I do so hope that Henry learns from H-D's mistakes ... and quickly!

You mean so that he can perfect them and make them even bigger & better?

quarky

Our roads have corners. Harleys just don't work so well here.

57Deluxe

This makes me hard...

http://i66.tinypic.com/1z2lk74.jpg

paulnb57

57Deluxe said:

This makes me hard...

http://i66.tinypic.com/1z2lk74.jpg

Me too!

underdog

paulnb57;973956" said:

57Deluxe said:

This makes me hard...



http://i66.tinypic.com/1z2lk74.jpg














Me too!

It gives me a semi on but then I am an overweight smoker approaching 40 so that's about as good as it gets for me.

Guitar_Slinger

hywelg said:

You can tell it was written by an American...

"Once upon a time Harley Davidson use to be the mega force in the motorcycle industry. It was always at the top of the list for any respecting biker to want to own. Hi, I'm Ron Howard."

I'm sure I've heard that on TV somewhere

octatonic

Happy Days.

Panama_Jack666

Harley's are to bikes as tractors are to cars.

Dominic

H-D has been having difficulty in common with all US heavy engineering for the last 8 years due to US economy not the brand per se

 One of the longest nails in the coffin is the engineering difficulty of getting a1690 cc Air Cooled V twin to meet the emission control regs of recent years without resorting to being water cooled and losing the very soul and USP of the brand ( although thats changing )

 I have lived and breathed H-D for 32 years and over 1 million miles - but with prices of £30k for the top models -they don't need to look very far to see why things are tough !

 You cannot compare modern Jap or Italian bikes which are far superior in all engineering respects ........the feel and emotion of riding a Panhead bobber down the road is a holy experience compared to the latest Honda Fireblade ...........BEST GUITAR ANALOGY ;

 Imagine you are about to play a rock gig and are given the choice between using an original '59 Les Paul burst or the latest split -coil 

boost switch ,piezo equipped PRS ............whilst the latter is far more competant and flexible and probably easier to use -the grin factor and overall experience of using the '59 would be incomparable

hywelg

Wow over 30,000 miles a year! On a Harley!

boogieman

57Deluxe;973846" said:

This makes me hard...



http://i66.tinypic.com/1z2lk74.jpg

Is that really a Hyosung? If it is, no wonder HarleyD are in trouble, that looks awesome! Bet it's half the price too.

Myranda

H-D have trouble because this is nicer:

Or this... 

I REALLY like the new Diavel... (though... clearly it should have been named the Diablo... I mean... why Diavel?!)

sinbaadi

HD appear to want to build the same bikes today as they built in the fifties. Which is a bit like Morgan trying to become a mainstream brand but with exactly the same product.

For me they're all show no go. There are lots of bikes of that style that I would choose before a HD. They should have run Buell properly but again they tried to tell the consumer what they want. Maybe with Buell as a stable bike brand moving with the times, HE would have been able to keep bumbling its way along as a "heart over head" choice.