After getting my thighs fried in traffic this weekend, a water cooled Electra Glide don't sound all that bad.

 

I am going to disagree with one of my fellow forumites on the 20 somethings migrating to HD Touring models later on...


They are going to migrate to the FJR a great shaft drive, Injected, hard bagged sport tourer that is half the cost of a HD. I have been waiting for the new Kawi C14 to hit the dealers. I got to sit on one finally at Laconia... 13 grand with ABS brakes, hard bags, shaft drive, adjustable windshield AND the ZX14 bottom end which if it isn't fun enough from th factory, with the sport touring cams and head, can certainly be tweaked by pulling the sub throttles, installing an Ivans TRE and a PCIII. Some will migrate to HD, people always do, but I don't think it is going to be in the percentage that HD has grown used to and they depend on for survival.

As we say in the radio business when it comes to the oldies format "it's a dying demographic" Oldies has changed from do-wop,The Beach Boys and "girl groups" to almost classic rock.

HD, with the exception of the VRSCA is still trying to sell Beach Boys when the 40 to 50 year old demographic, where the money is, is looking at FJR's , Concourses, BMW's and Gold Wings. I never owned a Harley till I was 46. I cut my teeth on GPZ'z, KZ's SECA's and CB model hondas. Two weeks before I got my bagger, I was pricing ZZR's.

HD is up to their armpits in trouble with drivability issues because the EPA is slowly regulating the big bore air cooled V Twins into extinction on one side, and on the other a customer base that won't accept anything but potato potato potato as a real HD. Talk about a rock and a hard place they can't win. Seriously thay are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

Look at all the metric cruisers out there that are nearly identical to HD styling.. except with water cooled shaft drive drivelines with FI that works, transmissions that are bulletproof,and a price tag that does not require a 84 month note to pay for it.

If HD thinks the younger generation is going to blindly walk into the HD dealer and spend they need to take a lesson from GM.

What will my next bike be? I'd say a Concours or a FJR. I'll never part with my bagger because it was inherited from my best friend after he died, but unless HD builds a water cooled touring bike with some serious thought to the transmission design I'll keep repairing my 03 bagger till I can no longer ride.

 

my favorite bikes are BMW and harley...it looks like both are currently having problems...BMWs american market is lame and the dealers are disappearing, which is one reason i quit riding one aka lack of dealer support...
in 2002 some real experts said that harley was going belly up forsure and it never happened..i imagine they will survive this round too..my opinion..

 

mighty to mini--HONDA has it all------You meet the nicest people on a HARLEY----times they are a changing

 

Like Don Tilley of Tilley Harley Davidson of Statesville said when somebody would comment about seeing a young guy on a honda,yahama, or suzuki if he tought it was cutting in on the HD sales. He would say " No, just a future Harley Davidson owner". Yeah, I'm one of those also. I now have two. An '03 wideglide and an 04 ultra and I love them both!

 

manipulate, manipulate $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

i'd ride a bicycle before I'd guy a harleyonda.... But just like everything else all the complasant Americans will allow it to happen and some I hear here will be glad it did. damn pity......

maybe i should have dodged the draft years ago.
BUY AMERICAN at least what is left of it

 

Your probably right for the most part but my son who's 19a all his buddys ride metrics but they all want Harleys I told him today about a older road king 4sale cheap and he was pumped but hes been riding seens he was 8 and he got his Mc lisence before his operators

 

Maybe, but when I look at it there is nothing out there short of a Goldwing that compares with a HD bagger in touring stature - 2 up riding and week long trips with the luggage space to match - and 'Wings start at 25k.

And a tuned 110" engine with 100+ hp and 100+ torque (easily obtainable from a 96" all done at the dealer before you take order) gives you all the power you reasonably will ever need for 2 up riding on public streets.

Not to mention, most people by the time they have a solid career and a wife and a couple children aren't out there racing and stunting on the streets, and if they are, the solution isn't to cater to that market, the solution is to get those numbskulls off public streets by simply enforcing our existing laws. So long as being able to do 150 or even 100+ on public roads is seen as a factor in buying decisions, we have some serious law enforcement work to do. And if someone wants to do that while 2 up riding, well let's just hope they die before they reproduce, because I'm not inclined to have my taxes increased to raise their children for them.

And I don't think touring is going anywhere. People want to get out away from it all now more than ever before.

 

These posts are interesting.If only the internet was around when AMF bought HD, imagine those posts.BTW I wasnt around then, Im in my late 20's and have a bagger too. A GW just wouldnt be for me,even with all of its supposed superior this n that.

 

I just turned 35 thirteen days ago. I got my first harley a year ago. I have owned many metrics over my 21 years of riding, but always wanted a Harley. And as far as the YouTube statement goes. I read this forum every night, and listen to music I have stored on YouTube. The best of both worlds.