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......

Sorry I don't agree. I like my Dyna and don't plan on trading it. But the ST was a good ride. No issues. Very smooth. Less vibration. As far as sport bikes I hate them and think they are crap. Anyone who wants one good for them but for me I would rather ride a peddle bike. 9 out of 10 shit riders are on sport bikes thinking they are in mission impossible. Much more likely to die on a bike.

actually most shit riders i see are on softails... dragging feet on the road until 4th gear... slowing to 35 under the speed limit to go around a turn almost getting hit from behind. Decades ago harley riders were the best but now things have changed. Too many midlife crises on harleys today. And a smooth riding bike doesnt mean it handles good. I agree they are good rides but good handling, nope.

I don't agree with anything you said.

For my riding preferences and style, I'd rather be on a sportbike. For my age, I really don't want to be seeing a chiropractor after every ride.

Shopping for a new bike now. Coming from a FB Lo, I'm not all that certain I want to go with a HD again. The old argument was resale value is crap for anything but an HD. Well, used HD's aren't really flying off the lots either. If I'm going to be stuck with it I may as well be stuck with something that has power, rides smooth, can turn a corner, and has all the bells and whistles.

Like him or not, and many don't, he's right about this. And shit riders aren't limited to Softails.

Are you even arguing about the same bike? You do realize the new softail is a completely different animal than the one introduced in 84.

"decades ago"??? Didn't you say you were 28? Any other awesome knowledge you can pass on with your decades upon decades of HD know-how??

I wouldn't buy a Harley Davidson when I was in my 20s or 30s either. I liked sport bikes then. Now I like cruisers. HDs fit my riding style. Now if their quality goes down hill plus their resale value, I have no problem going to another brand. The 3 I have owned have been very good.

The Vrod was my transition bike.

I see alot of harleys around here in oregon but they are almost all baggers with thier brand new harley T shirts on, regulation harley jacket and perfectly shined up harley half helmets.

its rare that i see another FXSTC, springer ect when i do we both give each other the wave big time.

Im old now (50) and couldnt afford a harley in my 20s or i would have had one. I think thats the main reason why you dont see kids riding them. Thats the reason why i feel harley failed bigtime with thier new lineup, they should have catered to the old people. Marketing fail

If you want to see how younger folks feel about Harley Davidson, read the comments section of this article. I don't know if HD will ever bring in the ones with negative comments.

https://jalopnik.com/harley-davidson...der-1826040324

So, when a guy who doesn't like Harley Davidson writes an article for people who don't like Harley Davidson, this is what you get. Nothing to see here.

Wait, let me go publish an anti-Android article on an Apple supported site and see how that goes.

To each their own. Millennials arent into bikes because they cant take a selfie while riding,it doesnt have an iPad attached ....(Yet) also a lot of them do not possess driving licenses.My neighbors wife takes Lyft or Uber to work.They (hubbie & wife ) think they can save money by not owning 2 cars no insurance , no gas or maintenance and another reason I hear is they do not know how to drive manual gear boxes as well.She told me she couldnt pass a driving license practical and failed 2x and said screw it !!

Not all but a good majority do not care for the 2 wheel wonders most of us drooled over when we were kids !! My neighbors husband says my bike sounds so VIOLENT LMAO snowflakes big time !! The mkt started to go to s hit in 2010 and for us boomers its a great time to buy a used bike. Low mileage beauties,most seem to get desperate after 2-4 mos of no one calling or just tire kickers showing up and pissing you off. When a legit offer comes by they usually let it go. TC's are a dime a dozen in south FL and good deals to be had every day if one decides to buy but dont rely on the millennial to buy anything that may require labor to fix and work on!! They consume more electronic gadgetry than any other age group .Its all they know and for the most part care about. Again NOT ALL but larger %'s of any other age group polled.

Cruiser riding is enjoyable but I don't see it as fun. Most are heavy sleds that really don't handle well. We like them for our style of riding but younger people find them pretty boring. I didn't want a cruiser till I was in my 50's but I also didn't want a station wagon until I was 50 either.

I'm pretty sure most of the old riders like myself started on fast bikes. I love my "softail" Deuce. I be willing to bet I've put more miles on it than most of the youngsters put on their sport bikes.

Here we go beating the same dead horse again. I am 31 and bought my first bike (a Harley) when I was financially prepared to do so (house purchased, comfortable paying student loans, my car and wifes car paid off, etc.). I ride with a group of friends and brother who are all millennials. Millennial riders are out there just not as many as the boomers as a large majority of us went to overpriced universities and have other more important (in my opinion) financial obligations. As time goes on, you will see more and more 30-40 year old riding millennials.

As for the "don't go outside, snowflake, video game playing" kids. Most of this era is still in middle/ high school so its no wonder you don't see them on Harleys.

Few things
A) My 25 year old daughter rides a deluxe, most of the folks she rides with are on Softails - they are all 20-somethings
B) Softails dont handle compared to my old CBR or my Trophy but the bike is a cruiser - nothing more and doesnt pretend to be anything else
C) Slow poor handling HD - seriously?

As a 27 year old, most guys around here consider you a young guy.... What bracket are you considering?

The end of the day the answer to the question is very easy
A) Young folks cant afford them
B) The dont have the hands needed to own one - too busy playing Nintendo instead of understanding a tool kit

Im in SoCal and I see every type of bike when I am out. I would say its 50/50 between harleys and harley type bikes and sport bike type bikes

I'm seeing the same thing on Craig's List. I'm selling my other Sportster on CL and it's the lowest priced in it's category. I'm not getting any interest. Almost zero.

Take a ride on a few different naked sport bikes. Most of the power and handling capability of the race replicas with upright bars and more relaxed foot pegs. If I was closer to 6' tall my aprilia would be all day comfortable but as I'm taller than that my knees start to feel it after 2 hours or so of nonstop riding.

I really enjoy those in the younger generation who are riding sport bikes or hopping up their Mitsu, but I think both of these passions are not as big with today's 18-25 year old's as they were 30-40 years ago. So Harley or whoever can try to build a motorcycle that appeals to younger riders, but the market is small and maybe even shrinking. Whether the younger generation wants to ride Harley's or Yamaha's is barely the issue when the vast majority will ride neither. Harley might be better off to focus trying to build market share and expand the market for 40+ women or non-Caucasian riders.

The new generation isn't getting their drivers license either--at least as much as past generations.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...icense/425169/

My experience has been just the opposite. While the sport riders may be more reckless, the ratio of Harley riders being incompetent seems to be higher.

Each to their own about which family of Harley's suits them the best. I'm a 67 year old man and I've been riding my 05 Springer for over 13 years and I don't have any issues with the handling of my Softail. There will always be debates about which bike handles the best and I'm sure that will never change. By the way, I also like some of the older Dyna models too.

I'm not buying it. I started riding in the late 70's and the vast majority of folks riding Harleys were in their 20s and 30s. Relatively speaking, they weren't any cheaper then than now. Matter of fact, comparing average salaries then to now, I think they're cheaper now.
The fact is, nearly every kind of activity is showing lower participation from this latest generation. They seem to be content to muck around on their phone.

You're absolutely right about the cruiser. I don't think I'll ever want a station wagon.

In my humble opinion I think the younger generation doesn't want to ride motorcycles or even drive cars for that matter because they have no need. When I was young I couldn't wait to get a car to get out of my house to go see my friends and hang out. Because riding my bicycle half way across town sucked. Kids nowadays don't care about that because they socialize with their friends in video games and social media. I'm technically at the higher end of millennial 34. And I've been riding motorcycles since I was 19 and got my first Harley at I think 24.

The SUV is the modern day station wagon, following a stint with the mini-van.