No more factory open house on York Bike Night
 

“A spokesman for Harley Davidson tells us the decision to end the open house is connected to their growth plan designed to help build the next generation of Harley riders.”

https://fox43.com/2019/02/07/harley-...s-planned/amp/

another F.U. directed at the customer by the MOCO

Maybe open houses in Thailand or ?...

So the factory is still doing tours M-F. They are expanding the bike night into bike week (making the Saturday closure a non-issue), but they still aren't doing tours as part of the bike week? I'm confused.

I smell a corporate weasel making this decision, and thus earning his yearly bonus for saving HD money.

Revolution is the only answer.....

:icon_smallest:
With York being named the home of LiveWire production and the overwhelming support of that project by "bike night" types, I'm not sure I understand what everyone is upset about. :icon_denk:

I live about an hour away. I have NO interest in spending money in York since the city shut down one of the best cushion tracks in the east at the York Fairgrounds because of noise complaints. One race a year, a daytime race that was finished up in time for everyone to go to a nice YORK restaurant for dinner. One day - the week following the week-long, day & night York Fair!!! With that in mind, (noise complaints) this whole event is probably on borrowed time in York anyway.

Open house
 

Let's see,if they close open house at York,I wonder how much the local economy will feel it ? Restaurants,hotels, vendors, gas stations,local Harley dealers in the area were folks visit. Another great move. Is it the politicians that are making the call or Harley brain trust ? Sad state of affairs. I wonder if Harley will be at Dayton and Sturgis this year ?

Cost cutting move, more corporate weasel speak for belt tightening. Sad part is they think the general public is dumb enough not to see it for what it really is.

I totally get that and sometimes a business has to do things customers don't like to survive, but why couldn't the day just be shifted to save some face. I mean the people there for "Bike Week" will come do the tour during the M-F anyway. Make it official and schedule a day, offer a discount, etc.

Live near by don't give a shit

So Millennials don't mingle?

York is a shithole anyway. I live less than 30 minutes away and I avoid that city as much as possible. I wont miss the HD tour and if York city rolled up the sidewalk and closed shop I wouldn't miss it either.

Hard to entice them new folks if you've got a bunch of gray haired pot belly old farts hanging around all the time... :)

Another thought is could be things going on in the plant they don't want public right now , be it new stuff coming or the big influx of Chinese packaging for parts.

Open house
 

Yeah, too bad the pot belly gray haired old farts are the one that kept Harley out of bankruptcy .Lets see maybe that can attract minllinals by offering free jobs, food, free collage paid for by the motor company and free live wires for all! Don't forget to take the new high speed rail system across the country because there will be no cars,buses or jets to get you to P. A. Not to be negative but comments about us old farts but it doesn't help with the bottom line at Harley especially when many of us bought many new Harley's and paid for them outright.

What is a "free job?"

Is this one of those socialist programs that lets me work for no incentive other than the betterment of my community and country, all the while allowing everything else (grocery, medical care, living expenses and education) to just be "free"?

Open house
 

Free job to me means the substanable wage, free to everyone who chooses not to work. Part of the new Green Deal proposed by the new national socialist party.. The Democrats That to me equates to a free job, sit on your ass, do nothing and get a pay check. Sorry for any confusion. Don't know how the motor company expects to attract some of these kids to ride when they expect someone else to pay for everything. Just miffed at some of the decisions and stupid comments being made by some of the leadership at the company. Knee jerk reactions in my opinion. Sorry.

Bad move on the MOCO.

Well, that discussion went down the political :icon_toliet: pretty quickly.

I admire those who still put a lot of effort into such events to aid their communities, but face it, "bike night" events have passed their prime... along with their usual attendees. :icon_laugh:
When the hotel buffet is a bigger draw than the wet tee shirt contest, it's time to start calling these events something else. And uh, there ain't many 60 year-old women anybody wants to see in a wet tee shirt anyhow. :icon_hide:
Wipe the red outta your eyes boys. I'm one of ya! Just pointing out the facts.

Here's something else you won't see in York anymore! WFO racing on one of the best cushion tracks in the east. Thanks city of York. :icon_badrazz:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdf...1ffa427d7a.jpg

Don't be sorry. Sounds to me like you just described a Professional American Politician

I didn't take that statement so much as a diss to the current customer base but corporate weasel speak for "we're saving money."

In addition to factory tours, the open house had factory demo rides. Since you have to hand over your life story and a DNA sample to get one of the little cards, they have a shit ton of data from it. Probably looked at the overall expense of that day plus how many of those demo rides turned into actual sales, and decided the return on investment wasn't there to justify it.

Too bad, but life goes on. Like Michael Corleone said: it's not personal, it's strictly business.