Is HARLEY DAVIDSON in financial trouble?

[unsub]

I remember reading an article years ago, that the development of the Yamaha Virago, and subsequent Japanese V twins unwittingly rekindled the Harley brand. It seems the semi retired and the older generation with disposable income and the desire to ride witnessed the introduction of Japanese V twins and that triggered Harley nostalgia. So, when making the decision to buy another motorcycle many decided to buy the brand instead of the knock off. As I understand it Harley capitalized on that nostalgia and created the beginnings of the pseudo bad boy [aka posers] club of riders that exist today. Many of whom are now too old and stiff to throw a leg over the bike and be able to sustain even a 100 miles of the ride without 800mg of naproxen, let alone plunk down 20k for a new one.

Instead of relying on accessorizing the rider maybe they should have focused on building a quality product.
Perhaps that will be HD's saving grace. Drop Motorcycle manufacturing and focus on what they're good at. Accessories and clothing..???

I don't see Victory / Indian / Polaris or whatever iteration of that V motor they make as even being a contender in the void Harley will leave behind....again.

[Retired Army]

Harley only produces motorcycles, Honda produces everything to include luxury jet air planes. Do the math.

[stroguy]

Harley only produces motorcycles, Honda produces everything to include luxury jet air planes. Do the math.

A Harley bi-plane. That'd be cool to see.

[coffee_weasle]

A Harley bi-plane. That'd be cool to see.

not me

[willtill]

A Harley bi-plane. That'd be cool to see.

It would probably drip oil while in flight; just like bird poop

[Bob Penn]

HMMMMM. seems like I've seen this movie before. I think I even participated when AMF bailed out HD. I kind of remember plunking down my hard earned cash to make oil stains on my garage floor (I still haven't fully gotten over that yet)! I must say though it gave me a lot of wrenching experience. But it cured me of any favorable HD image.
Not to worry the company will survive. Have you noticed that walking into most bike show rooms today you see more helmets and other forms of clothing then you see bike parts and accessories. Seems there is a lot of interest in that market. Just ask HD. In fact just the other day here on this very site I almost started a thread commenting on the fact that almost 50% of the threads on the home site were about what are your favorite pants, shoes, and helmets.
Biking is a fad. Like most fads it blossoms for a few years and then it wilts for a few years. Most bikers are riding bikes today that are less than 5 years old with relatively low mileage. So why are they going to buy a new bike especially when they still haven't paid off the loan (with interest adding expense) that was necessary to buy a $30 k bike!
I bought my F6 this past year because my old girl had almost 80k miles on her and when I heard the price I could steel the B for it was a no brainier. I had been looking for a replacement for 2 years but the $30 k price tag on the bike I wanted was ridiculous! As far as I was concerned pound for pound I could buy a Ford 4x4 pick-up for 75% less!
Is HD an American company? I'd like to see a stock holders residence breakdown on that before I comment.

[opas ride]

The great thing about America is if you make a shitty product the public will let you know, in this case - eventually. After years of overpriced under-performing motorcycles, parts, service, merchandise, arrogant dealers, terrible customer service, helpless helpline support - the public, finally, is waking up. It's a healthy thing in commerce and either you trim, improve, perform and conform or you're out. It may be too late or they may look for a bailout from the government, like Chrysler, or if Trump gets in a heavy tariff on imports. Either way, like AMC, if the product sucks it should just go away to the rust pile of history. I can't wait to dump this 1200 for a Scout, except no one is buying.

+1 on this post...Any manufacturer cannot continue forever making obsolete products with inferior quality and survive in todays world...Look what happened to the Domestic car companies until they woke up and feared the Japanese were taking over the market....No bike is perfect, but as long as the "good old boys" continue to believe in the Harley "mystique" the company will live on with its same old stuff......JMHO

[Greg O]

My previous 2 bikes were Harleys and didn't have one bit of problems with them. I do agree that Harley needs to come in to the 21 century. Harley needs to put a true water cooled reliable engine in their bikes,an engine that should be virtually maintenance free for 100,000 miles. If they would have had one out when I bought the 6, I would have bought the Harley.

[3Chief]

I do agree that Harley needs to come in to the 21 century. Harley needs to put a true water cooled reliable engine in their bikes,an engine that should be virtually maintenance free for 100,000 miles. If they would have had one out when I bought the 6, I would have bought the Harley.

Ditto that and I want shaft drive too...When they come out with a reliable water cooled shaft driven bike I'll look at one. They've had the loyalty of their customer's for years regardless of the quality of their product. People are finally tired of paying premium price for an inferior product. When I bought my VTX in 07 I had originally wanted to get an HD...glad I didn't. I put 62K on the bike before I had any issues and the first one was a fork seal...A guy I work with has one of the CVO's? Whatever it is, 20K and the motor grenaded HD denied the warranty. I know several other HD owners that have had to get lawyers involved to get warranty/lemon issues taken care of. Why bother?

[Greg O]

At one time several years back. I heard that Harley was working with Porche to develope a water cooled engine, now I don't know if Porche was evolved in the VROD engine development or not.