New Generations not buying bikes.
 

I am seeing bikes so cheap on CL these days and not selling. My brother has a 2014 bike he bought Softail Heritage with 600 miles on it. He bought it when his wife passed unexpectedly as an emotion buy. He has it listed for 9500 and no one is really looking. NADA has it at 12500. Anyone else seeing this?

They aren't all that cheap in my neck of the woods. Lots of CL dreamers out there. Most folks have big loans they have to pay off plus they want to get back what the spent on factory upgrades.

First off the younger generation does buy bikes... just not harleys and especially not softails. As a 27 year old i see alot of young guys on dynas, softails dont handle well at all and really is the definition of a slow, poor handling harley. Dont blame us hahaha.

Not true on Softail not handling well. I just rode my brothers 45 miles to the shop for service and back. Handled very well. I was surprised because I have heard this before. My Dyna is not any better. My bike also has more noticeable vibration.

This subject comes up all the time now.

I see a lot of young people on sportbikes, dual sports and metrics. When they get older they'll probably want a Harley... Going by percentage, this generation probably has a significantly lower number of riders than previous generations. This is the generation that grew up indoors playing video games, surfing internet porn and texting. They don't get out much....

A lot of truth in that.

This is similar to what I see here. Lots of 5-8 year old low mileage bikes all farkled up asking near MSRP. It seems like the motorcycling community hasn't quite grasped that you only get a fraction of your modifications back when you sell. Besides I'm not going to pay someone else for upgrades I may not want or would have preferred to go a different way.

yes true. When ridden hard they wallow in turns. Im also comparing its handling to all the bikes ive previosly owned or ridden often. Compared to pretty much anything with 2 wheels it sucks. You understand most young guys come from sportbikes and are used to a certain level of handling. The call them sloptails for a reason. I had a friend try to trade me his bad boy springer for my dyna, it handled so bad i couldnt even think of trading for it. Every turn over 75mph was a grindfest. Young people want bikes that are sporty, dont blame us for not wanting grandpas softail...

The Harley used bike market is in the toilet, and has been for years...the release of the M8 only made it worse.

There are WAY more bikes for sale than there are buyers...very hard to get anywhere close to "book" value in a private sale where you are not providing financing.


Knucks, pans, genny shovels, and certain model springers are an exception to this rule....probably 80% or better of Harleys for sale...don't sale at all.

I would say up here in Maine I see Harley's more than 2-1 over all other bikes combined. With that said......I RARELY see anybody younger than 30 riding HD. Mostly sport bikes or cheaper foreign cruisers. Let's face it.......kids in their 20's are just starting life, getting married and having kids. A vast majority don't have $$8,000-$12,000 to drop on a bike with student loans, kids, car loans and a first mortgage.

As for pricing.......people selling on CL and other on-line marketplaces think that just because this is the 'good time of year to sell' that depreciation get's thrown out the window. It's stupid how much people want to charge for their bikes sometimes. I RARELY see good deals. I got lucky last September when I bought my 2009 RK with 9,000 miles in mint condition for $8200. They are out there up here but people in the North East have no clue how to price it seems......