https://www.hdforums.com/articles/ha...rter-earnings/

 

Looks like Polaris is making a dent....

 

Competition is good for everybody! Even for HD Fans! Forces Mommy HD to get up off her lazy ****!

 

I hope Indian & Polaris are wildly successful. Competition is good for us HD riders.

 

Perhaps. There are a lot of factors in play here and it's difficult to determine what effect each had.

 

Shares of Polaris Industries Under Pressure. Down 3.5% http://www.fnno.com/story/market-mov...auto-generated

Also, other articles have said that the HD models that Polaris competes against all sold well in the 1st quarter so it isn't Polaris that's hurting them, but Honda/Suzuki due to the strong dollar http://www.businessinsider.com/r-at-...nt-edge-2015-4.

 

Also some companies are reportedly reducing their prices to move their bikes, the earning report didn't say which companies, but that certainly could impact Harley's sales. That may indicate sales are slowing for everyone. It also impacts the financials of the companies dumping their prices- margins suffer for volume.

Polaris' earning report is due tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how well the Indians are doing. I know someone who works for Polaris' motorcycle marketing division, they want to buy an Indian, but they not available to employees via their purchase plan, they're all going to the dealers and there are not enough to let the employees have at them.

As someone else said, competition is a good thing.

 

Sales may be slowing because the HD demographic has been played out. All the old men who want a Harley already own one.

 

Read the full earnings report. The played out demographic doesn't seem to be the case-

In 2014, Harley-Davidson was the number-one seller of new on-road motorcycles to U.S. young adults ages 18-34, women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Caucasian men ages 35-plus for the seventh straight year. In the 601cc-plus U.S. on-road market, Harley-Davidson sold more than three times as many new motorcycles to young adults ages 18-34, more than seven times as many to women, more than five times as many to Hispanics, more than five times as many to African Americans and more than nine times as many to Caucasian men ages 35-plus as the nearest competitor. Data are based on Harley-Davidson’s analysis of Polk U.S. new motorcycle registration data from IHS Automotive for CY2008-2014.

 

Sounds like the quality of the Chinese parts used have gotten lower to make that happen.