in Kansas CitySad to hear HD is closing plant..
I am sorry to hear that there will be Americans in the heartland who are losing their jobs. I think Harley needs to eventually figure out a newer, fresher way to meld both the iconic look and attitude and a brighter less off-putting, dare I say "quieter" image.
I have to say that Harley, in general, evokes a feeling of antipathy in me. The loudness and "f-you, if you don't like it" attitude plus the crazy pricing putting the bikes into the hands of wanna-bee tough guys driving on the weekends when they are not at the mid-upper corporate/professional job; really generates some dislike.
While I think that putting bright lights and colors on the motorcycles might evoke a feeling of Philippines Jitneys, way-out lowrider south-of-the-border, or mega-weird transformer/manga/whatever Asian look; something has to be done to appeal to the future riders.
?????????????????????A rather misleading thread title; when I clicked on it, I initially assumed that Harley-Davidson were shutting their operations as neither the thread title, nor the initial post, made clear just what was happening.
I had to click on the links to find out; before clicking on any link, I like to know a little about what I am about to see, or read.
Anyway, while it is regrettable, it is also an inevitable consequence of falling sales. Such are the rules of the market.
They have been working on a pure electric bike for several years, due to release LiveWire bike next year.I don't know diddly about bikes. All I know about Harley is my cousin recently started work for them as a project manager. He's not allowed to talk about what he's doing there, but he's an engineer whose specialty is batteries. Feel free to speculate.
I think part of their sales problem is an image problem. Whenever I think of Harley Davidson. I think old man bike or scrungy meth dealer bike. Neither of which appeals to me.
Prices also don't make too much sense. They have far fewer parts than cars. Yet many of the models cost more than a low end car.
Personally, I also find them to be too large. I much prefer the slimmer and lighter designs of the mid to early 20th century.
This sums it up. HD's core buyer is getting older. Young people are not buying motorcycle's and if they are, they are buying sport bikes. HD just doesn't have enough appeal to the 18-25 group.I think part of their sales problem is an image problem.
Years ago I was told by a Harley rider that part of the reason for the noise is for safety.