There will be many other motorcycle companies that fail long before HD drops. Everyone but Honda would go first, and Honda would have a hard time making it too if circumstances that could fell HD took place. Harley is still the target for everyone. Even the government.

AFA as it taking $11k more to make a 'stock' HD rideable, I find that interesting. Seems 'rideable' from the showroom floor to me, and I could redo the engine and put on a blower for that amount of cheddar. The only real $$ spent are personalizing a bike, so maybe if ya did not do that.

 

as long as I'm alive they do....
I buy every 2 years,,,, gonna own 10 before I retire

 

[sm=exactly.gif][sm=goodidea.gif]

 

they made the 03 all the 00 01 and 02s had to get one. they made the 04s and everyone was happy for a year. they made the 08s and people are mad cause they wont trade an 07 in for one. I think they are clever. There are too many loyal followers to the point of it being a cult to ever have to worry about HDs place in the world. No, they are not in trouble, they are on a roll.

 

If worse comes to worse......Harley could always add pedals, instead of a fossil fuel burning engine and a recording of a deep exhaust, for that signiture Harley sound......Just may not be able to make it to Sturgis that year !!!!!!!!!!

 

I hope they continue to keep a "foot in the familiar" while they come out with models that reinvent their image and appeal to a different consumer base. That will give them layers to their business - what they will need to build market share.

I have 3 dealerships within a 20 minute drive. The constants I see when I visit these places are, 1) many customers, 2) a diverse crowd, and 3) many smiling faces. That's a good sign.

 

Does Harley have a chance? No! Not when so many peopleb i t c h and complain about any possibility of water cooled bikes in their future.

 

HD is doing fine. I hear folks say that the dealers are full of leftover '07s. My dealer has 1 Ultra and 4 Sportsters left. That's not many leftovers for 2 weeks into the new model year. The only reason the Ultra is still around is the guy that likes the two tone green hasn't walked through the door yet.

 

Oh no! And what about Charmin? If they don't come out with somthing inovative everyone will just stop wiping their A$$. This just stinks.

 

IMHO, 'tda' touched on the problem all 'one' product companies have; that of unexpected obsolescence of their product caused by some factor not under any control of the company. In H-D's case it is our PC-Liberal-Greenie controlled Congress simply passing a law that makes the present H-D engine design illegal. It is happening by degrees right now. i.e. EPA law can be changed to make mandatory average gas mileage for any engine design to be 100 mpg/150 mpg or any numberone can name. The use of what we call gasoline can be made illegal. EPA can screw down the allowable emissions of an internal combustion engine so far that H-D would not have any chance of meeting with the present TC-88 (A or B).

I am positive that there is a huge working group deep within H-D that is brainstorming and designing answers to every possibilityof whichthey can think might happen. I would hope that this group is working on hydrogen/diesel/natural gas, etc. etc. fueled engines. Of course such engines are possible for H-D to produce. Will the traditional H-D customer buy them? All depends on what the alternativesare at that time. Perhaps magnetic levitation will be commercially possible by then? Or some other unthought of possibility.

My point is, "the only constant is change". H-D to survive as a profit making company has to change too.
People who study the history of major product producing companies all recognize the symptoms of an aging management control group. Business leaders become resistant to change for many reasons. If those leaders are not replaced by leaders who are not resistant to change, the inevitable result is that the company falters and is driven from the market. H-D does have a future only IF the leaders of H-D are willing to make necessary changes AND are able to sell those changes to the buying public. ...... BC