I read an article in the WSJ recently about the slowdown of Harley sales and their attempts to appeal to the younger generation and women. Apparently the majority of HD buyers are still us aging baby boomers and the challenge is to make a bike and products to appeal to new young buyers. The article was critical of Harley's marketing of the new Street models. One potential female buyer was also put off by Harley promotions featuring skimpily clad women



This graph shows Harley sales by quarter. I read on another thread that the MoCo has sold 200,000 Rushmores so its' pretty obvious that these bikes are the major sellers.

 

Yah and their stock's not looking so hot either....well, no stock really is right now.

 

This is where the Japanese bikes have had a big advantage for years. They made the smaller, cheaper bikes that many of us started on. I rode my first bike at 12, it was a Honda SL 90, I beat that bike to death and sold it for $50 when I got my first real road bike, a Honda CB360T. I finally worked my way up to a Harley (I did take a look at the Goldwing and BMW, but didn't care for either.) My grandson started on Honda XR50 and is on a Yamaha TTR125 now. I'm looking at picking up the Honda Grom for him next, a sweet little 125CC bike for around $3,000. He will be a Harley rider in another 20 years.

Harley has to figure out how to get more people started on bikes, the younger the better. Come up with some starter bikes and build the brand like Honda did with the smaller bikes. Very few people start out riding 500cc bikes.

 

Well,I have done my part over the last 55 years of riding by trying to keep Harley in business.

 

I think they need to offer up a full line of motorcycles from little 50 cc kids bikes up to the big bikes we all know and love. Get people interested and loving their products from early on in life and they will keep coming back for more! Harley did build a wide assortment of products before maybe time to revisit the past!

 

Doing our part to help out HD. New again in 2016.

 

Those numbers reflect them giving killer deals at the end of the year on new bikes. They actually told me that there was no way they could give me even close to the deal on anything used they had. I never had any sales person tell me that we are not going to let price keep us from writing a deal.

 

Articles like that pop up whenever the earnings reports are not great. Usually, the writer is just quoting the HD press release. I like your chart, I noticed it shows unit sales, which I like better than dollar volume. With the prices of the bikes, HD should be making more $$ profit per bike. The stock has never done great, but HD doesn't seem like a company that puts the shareholder return as a top priority, either.

 

I am seeing more guys/gals in their late 20's to mid 30's buying more touring bikes than before. The Rushmore's are not just baby boomers anymore I am mid 40s and been riding touring since late 30's. IMO the 28+ year old riders are settling into their careers and passing on the smaller bikes because well most HD riders say "the sportster is a girls bike and the street is not a true harley" so they either pony up for a softail or a touring bike or just leave HD and go metric. I rode metric for most of my riding days because of this very reason.

 

I've been reading the same younger generation, female, diversity blah, blah, blah article for the past 15 years. All the editors do is change the date.


Bwana