This is just my opinion but I don't think Harley riders are declining. Yes the sale of new bikes is **** right now but the Harley market is full of great bikes that can be had for decent money. I know a hell of a lot more young guys and gals (18-30) that ride Harley's then I do on sport bikes. This is just my thought and maybe someone has real numbers that actually show the number of used Harley's registered to 18-30 year olds.

 

I get 60mpg. Not bad. But as mentioned in my earlier post, I save 40 hours of commuting time per month, i.e. I spend 40 hours more at home with my wife and children instead of being stuck in traffic jam. That time is much more than just gas saving.

Since you commute 120 miles per day, if you don't mind, could you share :

- how much time do you spend in your daily (round-trip) commute on your motorcycle ?

- same question if you were to drive a car ?

 

Can't argue with that kind of logic. You're one of the lucky ones!

 

Luckily, I go very early (330AM) and either come home at 3PM or if I miss that window I work overtime until 7PM and try to avoid commute. However, if I shifted my hours by just one hour, My 60 mile commute would go from 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes. So taking the bike would save me 40 minutes a day each way, 80 minutes a day. 26 hours a month. Plus now that its been warmer, it has been awesome to ride. The reason I chose to commute by bike is I have also seen many many many times, a single big accident brings traffic to a halt. People are stuck in their cars for hours on the freeway and side roads with no where to go. Its miserable. The bike gives me the chance to turn around, split traffic, ride the shoulder etc, to get out of that mess and no ruining my whole evening home or late to work. I will give up comforts to avoid moments like those.

 

Nice bike. Nice chick too!

 

I wanted to go but did something else at the last minute. Overall, how was it? As good as past years? Better? Worse?

 

Because they just designed a new line of bikes that the average guy can't afford

 

Just my .02
Harley has done a great job of building the "Harley Culture", maybe too good. I've seen that concept in itself turn people away.
But think about it. Harley is, and always has been, the "bad boy bike". It's the stuff of Easy Rider, and Hells Angels. But those people don't generally buy new bikes. They have a healthy, perpetual supply of the highly preferred older bikes that they customize to their liking.
So Harley, and the bikers, built the image, but sales rely on the baby boomer generation. And yes, that's most of us on this forum. We have the disposable incomes to afford these over priced machines, and we still buy into the "bad boy" image. But we're starting to "age out" and getting too old to ride. And right there is what's losing Harley market share.

The next generation, the "Millennials" as they call themselves, didn't grow up at the drive in theater watching Biker movies. They grew up sitting in their bedrooms, in front of their laptops, video games, and cell phones whining about how bad life sucks, and trying to figure out what gender they "identify with", all while blaming their parents! (I don't pretend to be politically correct. They can pull up their big boy pants and get the freak over it.) I grew up in a generation where going home crying about being "bullied" would only get your *** whipped by Dad for being such a sissy! But I digress.

But they consider these huge, loud, lumbering machines to be, over rated, over priced, and over valued, and they don't get the idea of bad boy bikers at all. That generation is NOT going to be flocking to the Harley dealer and signing up for payments on a new bike. If they get the riding bug at all, they want crotch rockets, They want the thrill and excitement of twisting the throttle and going 175 mph, all at a fraction of the cost of a high end Harley.

I started riding when I was 10. My dad bought me a mini-bike kit, and he and I set in and built it together. I had a feaking ball riding that thing! When I finally outgrew that, Dad found me an old Honda. He parked it in the garage and said.. you want to ride, get it running, And I did! Tore up the local gravel pit with it. I limped home on many an occasion, and loved every moment of it. But I learned! I picked up Matchless 500 single cylinder for free! A friends brother had left it out in the yard. We pried it out of the muck, took it home, fixed it up, and it was my first street bike. Next I chopped a burned out Sportster that I got for a song.
My point is, that kind of mindset doesn't exist today, Kids today wouldn't go through that. And our society is losing a valuable resource of "can do" attitudes.

In short, Harley, and the Harley Culture have marketed themselves into a corner. The mindset that made Harley great isn't present in the current generation. If Harley is to survive, they need to re-invent themselves "again". And it's going to be tough. Those from our generation won't accept anything less than the ground thumping roar we all know and love as the unmistakable sound of a Harley, but carve out of new niche for the younger generation coming up.

 

my best guess, harley dies with the guys who are in their 40's now

 

Harley made this. They'll make a superbike again because they can. They have the resources to do so and if thats where the market is you can bet they'll cater to it.