I refuse to take part in a poll that has no poll.

 

"the biggest problem with owning a jap bike is telling your parents your gay"
lol

 

CNBC February 4/10 has a documentry on Harley Davidson. Should be interesting.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32461059/

 

Harley is still doing a brisk business overseas. It'll be fine.

I wish I got that channel. It would be interesting to watch.

 

Hi Guy's,

An interesting perspective, from over the pond, just thought I'd put my bit in from another country point of view, with a bit of Devils advocate.

Whilst I appreciate that you are all patriotic the issue as I see it is one of HD's survival.
There used to be a time when British bikes ruled the roads, that was until the Japanese produced better bikes. By that I mean they were of a better quality and more afordable. We Brits, smug faced thought that our companys employee's produced far superior parts than the people in the East and refused to think about out sourcing, trade unions insisted in better pay and recesion bit, we refused to listen and eventualy the products became obsolete. We spent money on manufacturing and not design, If we'd out sourcd with good quality control we'd have had money for new ideas and the British bike industry would not have gone down the pan.
Triumph, now back from the dead is owned by a business man with no real interest in motorcycles, but a lust to make money, Bloor has broken with the old tradition and has out sourced from the word go, he's looked and seen what the public want, he see's whats going on in the US and has his sights firmly set. Triumph is going from strength to strength and capitalising on its non existant heritage ( even the name badge is different)

In this day and age of a shrinking world, who cares where a badge or a bolt was made, its about who thought of the idea, One thing the world will never forget is American ingenuity, the design concept is American and guess what were saving money by getting some of our product made outside the US. That say's 'Smart move' to me. I see this a bit like the sea, one minute the tides in, the next its out, you need to move with the times, improvise, adapt, the way things are at the moment will change again but you need to support HD through the hard times as well as the good, dont throw the baby out with the bath water as the saying goes.

I could go on for ever but then thats me. Its a great product, all be it expensive in the Uk, I like the bike for what it is and what I can do with it, I'd buy another in the blink of an eye, it started in 1903 and been going ever since, Victorys are another thing, its what floats your boat.

Reddog Manchester UK.

 

From what the political experts are saying this recession is going to drag on for at least another year,possibly two more.Who knows beyond that.The stats takers are out to lunch,people losing jobs is almost a daily news item, yet the unemployment level is still around 10%.

 

Canned stats from corporate owned News Agency's are at best as Harley's Canned Map's for the 2010's. Weak at best, no serious economist believes the unemployment is at only 10%. If you factor in the people who were laid off at the beginning of the recession back in the spring of 07 and the people from August of 08 who have ran out of unemployment benefits and have quit looking for work, the percent unemployed would be considerably higher.

The part time and the underemployed are hurting Harley sales as much as the people who are unemployed. Bone crunching recession and it will be years before we recover. 3/4 of the jobs we lost in the last two years will not be coming back.

One or two have objected to the statement that outsourcing is the common method for cutting cost for most corporations. They ether have ostrich syndrome or have been living in a cave for the last 20 years. The manufacturing sector of the American Economy has been outsourced and every major brand outsources to some extent and most Iconic American brands are produced in their entirety overseas.

Harly outsources more and more of their parts for assemble every year! The temptation and really the necessity to outsource assembly will be strong for some models to bring down cost.

The question is on a non emotional level is weather Americans will buy Harley's that are not American made. Of course some will but the question is will there be enough buying public that will purchase Harley Davidson's to make the venture profitable!

You can bet this is a major topic around Harley Corporate at this moment in time.

 

no, I wouldn't because it's the main reason to own one. There's something patriotic about owning a HD, just like there is owning a GM, Ford, or Chrysler. But then a lot of you drive japanese cages so you are missing my point entirely

 

Footnote: CNN just announced that the government has been under reporting the unemployment figure's by at least 1,000,000 people.

One could understand why the government would under report the numbers to make the situation not seem as bad as it is. New unemployment figures were just announced also. Over 450,000 and 8000 higher than expected, 5th time in a row that the monthly unemployment figures were higher than expected.

I have lived through several recessions but it's different this time! Something is severely broken!

 

What they don't report is the people that have burned up their unemployment, and are still unemployed. Just because they are out of benefits they are not counted anymore. I know a few guys who have been out for almost two years and are hurting. I have been out for over a year and things don't look good. To put thing in perspective, if I took a job that paid $10 an hour, I would need to work 80 hours to make what unemployment pays after taxes.,,