Sales are down across the board, not just HD. Other motorcycle companies as well. Not just motorcycle companies either. GM, Ford they are all seeing hits. Even the likes of Sears and other major companies shutting doors. Gander Mountain by me just shut down and it shut down lots of stores.

It aint' because people are spreading crap, look around ya... so many people live pay check to pay check. They can't afford $30K toys..!! Younger people coming out of college in thousands of dollars of dept at 10% interest. They have to live with their folks to pay down school dept before they can do anything. Cost of $hit just keeps going up.

What's going on to me is not any kind of surprise. All you have to do is pay attention to what's going on around you.

 

June-July are slow sales months for Harley due to the August new model introduction. Check on HD stock in September-October.

 

I get that HD is talking about it from my own 2 ears, every time I go into a dealership and ask about doing things to my bike I hear the same song and dance, "it will void your warranty" I do not expect HD to cover certain things that people do to their bike, at some point you have to say I'm rolling the dice and it's on me if it goes south, that's fine. I mean when you ride in and the service guys are outside and see custom dynamic lights and LED headlight and they make a point to walk over and start talking about you may have voided your warranty with those lights, true story by the way, that's the kind of stuff that turns people away from the brand.

I'm in no way bashing HD, I absolutely love my bike and hope they are not in trouble. Other brands may be in the same boat but none of them are on CNN, MSNBC, Fox news talking about poor sales and layoffs within the company. This was an actual news story this morning that's why I shared, wasn't trying to start a debate on which companies are also seeing a hit, the news stories was about HD and no one else, thats why I shared.

 

Never took it as you were bashing HD... But yes others are in the news.. GM for example.. CNN Gander Mountain Fox News

As someone else mentioned, HD will be around long after we are gone. Maybe in a different capacity, but they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Guess I should have been more specific, I did not see any other companies in the news during the time I watched this morning, just the story about Harley Davidson. I hope they are around for a long time, I hate to see any company go belly up.

 

Not sure about HOG being down 20% today. As of 3PM EDT they're about even for the session.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/18/investing/harley-davidson/index.html

 

TRUE THIS..... Long after whoever is reading this is gone.

no question the motorcycle industry as a whole is down, Harley gets the attention of the national media because they are the big dog on the block, which makes them the easiest target for the Debby downer news hungry media. If you listen to those jokers you would think everything will be gone tomorrow including the human race.

as far as warranty, I agree that there's too much talk about it. I know what the rule is, but I also know that if I put in an aftermarket seat or a different wheel, my dealer will stand behind me on engine trouble. The only thing that's going to stand in the way of you and a good dealership doing warranty work would be if you did something you shouldn't do to the actual motor, or you have a real Dick for a dealer.

 

You said "the news was out today" which would imply it was a today development. The stock dropping 20% since January is old news. It is however, still trading below the moving average. I think that is more a factor of how well it did in the last twelve months, than a how poorly it is doing now.

 

Its not the end of the world. Its the economy. We laid off 25 people recently. I am lucky to work 40 hours a week. We are just puttering along. Harley makes like 80k touring bikes. In 1990 they made 90k in total. They will course correct, and I think they better suited for this since the 2007 recession. New growth will be emerging markets. Millenials will ride motorcycles as soon as they raise marry, raise kids, begin to drink, divorce...