Went to the dealer Sunday with a friend who is looking for an 08 Street Glide and heard an amusing conversation. My friend asks the salesman if they have a black SG in the back and heres where it gets good. Apparently Hd is cutting production soo much that it will be nearly impossible to buy an 08 off the floor. If that salesman was telling me that I think I would have told him to check the net for all the 08's out thereor I would have left imediately. I couldnt even listen to the rest of his nonsense. Maybe they ordered less cause of the 07's they had the floor since Oct 06.Guess thats why I bought used this time.

 

Take this for what it's worth buta saleman at the local HD dealership told me thier phase II shipment was being cut to 30 bikes as opposed to the 100 bikes they got last year in phase 2. Maybe he was full of it, maybe not....that is up to your to decide and others to comment on.

 

I seem to notice less current model bikeson the the floor compared to previous years. The biggestthing I notice though is thatI almostnever see a bike with ABS on the floor.

 

JC - similar to you.... yesterday, a buddy & I went to San Jacinto HD in Pasadena,TX, looking for an '08 Heritage. there must have been at least 35 - 40 NEW bikes on their showroom floor (all models) including 2 Heritages. the saleman took us to their new bike stash (upstairs) there were at least 125 or more new ones there and 3 more Heritages. the one bike they didn't have was an '08 Electra Glide Standard. he said they just didn't order many of those, he called them slow sellers.

OH - can I mention the dealer's name? or is that against the rules?

 

heck I actually got a sales call last week from the local harley dealer...told me they were really dealin, putting top money in trades,great deals on both 07s and 08s...freakin weird....I'm not doing nothin for a couple years...just now got my 05 the way I like it...hope things stay slow....usually means lower prices and more features and improvements to boost sales

 

A sales rep at Ventura Harley told me that sales nation wide have been down so the MoCo is reducing production to create a sort of vacume in the industry. Seems to meI see more Harleys on the road today than ever, but I dont moitor sales.

 

Same story at my local dealer. And, they still have '07s on the floor. I guess H-D has really cut back on production. Not surprising, given the state of the market and the economy.

 

I thought I read somewhere that they were producing maybe 10-12k less this year. Thats not a lot less when total production is still over 300k imo.Im not sure if those figures are accurate or true though, like I said I may have read it on here before.

 

Just my opinion... I think there was a huge bubble in the number of bikes on the road from several factors, HD increasing production to satisfy stockholders, television shows showing how cool bikes are (like OCC, Biker Buildoff, etc.), and an aging baby boomer market with disposable income trying to stay cool and hold on to their youth by buying motorcycles as toys. I think these boomers and others that bought bikes during this 'bubble' will be flooding the used bike market shortly as their interests move on to something else. I also think the softening economy will affect the future sales of new bikesfor the next 1-3 years because they are luxury items.

I think 5 years from now the motorcycle fever will have passed and we will be back to people on the road who want to be riding (and know how to ride).

this is all just my opinion, and worth every penny its costing you...lol.

 

Same thing happened to me in 1999. I waited 6 months for a fatboy.