I have to imagine the bulk of the “Indian eating into Harley share” is based on price-point.

 

A buddy of mine (hayabusa guy) said the whole reason for the decline in sales, is Harley is/was unwilling to listen to it's existing customer base, and instead they took the "go woke, go broke" route. He also said that Harleys attempt to enter the newer rider market was doomed from the start because (once again) they failed to listen or poll the Kawasaki/Triumph/BMW/Royal Enfield base, to ask them what they would like to see in an entry level, fair priced bike

I don't disagree.

One of the basic rules I learned in 20 years in the military.......listen to the front line guys because they know what's going on, and surround yourself with people that are smarter than you.

Obviously, Harley did neither one.....The saga will continue

 

I agree, they've been their worst enemy and when they went woke, they became one of mine. But with the change in leadership, I hope to take them off that list.

 

I'm gonna swim upstream....two things I see.
Harley's biggest challenge is not the product offering or the manufacturer, its the dealers. If there is a great dealer near you, good for you. In general I see the same tired old marketing approach at the dealership level - shuckin' and jivin' hucksterism that has only gotten worse.
Second, notice on that list of bikes referenced in an earlier post, which had relatively steady or increasing sales, that not one was built in the USA. American made products are not successfully competing. America is out of step and it shows up in those Harley sales.

 

I gotta disagree AD. The problem is the demographic that loves the history, brand, style, look, feel, and the sound of H-D is checking out. Gen X and later are generally not craving their granddad's bike. Sure, there are the RevMax bikes, but there are better alternatives in price and quality.

Most any dealer does the shuckin' and jivin' hucksterism. H-D is not nearly as bad as the non-H-D dealers around me and they are selling bikes to Gen X+.

 

He did more damage to Harley-Davison than the EPA!

He should've stuck to sneakers.

What in the heck was that BoD thinking with him????

 

Read the challenge to Harley's board filed by H Partners, one of the largest shareholders and headed by a former member of Harley's board of directors. Zeitz had several directors under his thumb who would do anything he wanted.

The original FreeTheEagle.com site looks like it's down now, so you can read some of the articles from that time to pick up some of the logic. Maybe something like this.

But Zeitz is gone, and Harley is now led by ... Zeitz's hand-picked chosen successor. Don't expect ANYTHING to change.

 

Hey, I think you guys are missing the big bright spot Harley had; LiveWire's results for Q4 2025 showed a a 6% increase over last year and a 61% increase in motorcycle sales over last year(!) They even claimed a huge majority of the market, growing their market share to 70% of all on-road electric motorcycles >50 hp.

But...

Of course, the bad news is that while they did increase sales, they only accomplished that with massive price slashes. So while they didn't lose another $100 million this year, they still did lose another $75 million! Maybe next year they'll only lose $60 million. Seriously, they could have shut it down years ago and saved Harley like $500,000,000.00.

The only upside I can see here is that they've pretty much proven that their product will sell, at the right price, but that right price is way way way lower than they want it to be.

 

The same can be said for the rest of the line.
They will sell more cruisers and tourers if they price them right.

This "we are expensive, hence we are exclusive and excellent" strategy will continue to drive sales down.
Specially if market condition, economy, credit rates, etc, don't allow/help the average Joe to access their "dream bike".

 

I'll speak for myself. I'm a Harley guy, Have a 2020 Road Glide Limited and we tour all over the country. I also had a Switchback with nice mods. I just bought a BMW 1300 GSA Adventure, probably the most technically advanced bike in the world right now. Harley has nothing that interests me. I was seriously looking at a Pan America but it doesn't come close to the advanced features of the GSA, which I don't mind paying a little bit more to have.

I love my Road Glide and have no plans to sell it, in fact, I'm looking forward to comfy touring with my wife. However, I will be riding the BMW to Daytona from Pa. in a couple weeks and plan to make use of the radar adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring and emergency braking in addition to the performance riding modes. ....and it costs less than a Road Glide Limited.

I think Harleys are great, there's nothing like them, but they haven't differentiated themselves enough for the cost. Pound for pound, there are other brands that offer better features for the same cost.