It may effect the MOCO itself. But not anyone who owns and rides.
Why should it?
Ive said it before. The company has gone through two world wars, numerous wars, the largest depression in history numerous recessions. I think they will continue long after we are dead.

 

There's a big difference between less PROFIT and LOSING BILLIONS.

 

Everyday the papers print another company ousting their employees while the top brass bails with golden parachutes.How many jobs have gone out of this country while these companys ask for federal bailouts? Dont expect HD to do any differently. That MV deal doesnt look as good as it did several months ago,wonder how many US jobs that cost.How many dealerships will go out of business this yr? No company is safe in todays enviroment,even the over 100 yr ones.

 

One serious drawback that could be in the offing is that warranty repairs may be more difficult or at least scutinized to a greater degree as well as not giving as great a latitude to dealer warranty decision making.

 

I agree. HD is in much better shape than a lot of companies, I'd certainly take the chance. There is a lot of talk about HD wanting some of the bailout money, but I honestly believe that is just a "give it to me if I can have it" ploy. Sure they can go to Washington and show that sales are down, that they are laying off people, etc, but these are people that they hired because of the boom in sales over the last 8 years.The real truth is that they were very succesful before the boom, while selling fewer bikes, with less people. Other than building the museum, they haven't exactly spent/wasted a ton of money, except for buying MV Agusta and by take-over standards, they got that for a song. They can simply drop production and be in better shape. The problem that they have to fix is there financing division, they have too many delinquent payments and as was mentioned above, it's harder right now for them to get the backing to give you a loan. But it is fixable. Sure they are down in sales from a couple of years ago, but they are not like GM who has had declining sales for years. HD was steady at about 250,000 units for years, then they took a big jump for about 8 years (during which time they did very little in the way of expansion, etc) and again, I am convinced they will just go back to their old production numbers and stock prices will climb within the next 2 years.