JFC, always amazing how much HD Hatorade gets served on barf. $4-5B profitable company, delivering a good dividend and a product with demand across the world. The 4-5 year trend hasn’t been so positive but are people really so hateful that they want this legendary American motorcycle company to fail? I actually enjoy my Street Glide Special, just as I also enjoy my BMW and Aprilia and KTM and Japanese motorcycles. They all have their place but not everyone will like all their products, so just go buy whatever you like and knock it off with badmouthing the ones you don’t... smh
I actually have a Harley tattoo. The company and their products have been a part of my life since I was born.
As a company, they're contracting. As everyone has noted, the sales and revenue are shrinking yearly. They're frustratingly out of touch, and the marketing wing is to blame.
What's worse is the (in my opinion) shitty mentality the company is perpetuating. Year after year they package a product into a lifestyle that's saturated with toxic masculinity and contrived antisocial behavior. Their business model relies on selling painfully loud exhaust systems and convincing people to ignore objective thinking in order to achieve some kind of identity. The company has a top down mentalty of style above all else that stifles legitimate development and progress. When you confront anyone who believes in the dream they're selling, you get a reply along the lines of "If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand." There's an implied "we're the best, and if you're not one of us, then you're an idiot." Matt Levatich has been a huge driving force in that thinking. His plan to attract new riders revolved around convincing people that they want a Harley, rather than assessing the market and catering to it. That strategy isn't currently working, and I don't think it ever will.
Harley has become something akin to a 50yo guy standing next to a Ferrari 308 wearing a Hawaiian print shirt catcalling girls in their 20's and yelling insults at them when they laugh. It's obnoxious behavior and the world doesn't need shit like that anymore.
As far as the bikes...Meh... They're fine. Par for the course, but not objectively better at anything other than being a Harley. Great if that's your thing, but you need to bring more to the table if you're looking to expand nowadays. My dad used to joke that Harley guys thought that a 3408 Caterpillar engine was high performance. They wanted to be in 3rd gear before finishing a right turn from a stop. That shift started in the early 2000's, and Harley has come around to that, and they've nailed it. Problem is, the only people who ride that way are old enough that they're not buying new bikes. This is sort of a tangent, but big blocks are no longer king. The LS is the hot thing, and even the 7.0 revs to 6k+. The perception of performance has shifted, and Harley keeps building the same thing.
Retro works, for sure. Look at Triumph, and Ducati. Both brands have cashed in on that trend, but the bikes they're selling in that segment are either priced right or technologically advanced with tangible objective performance. The badge on the tank only matters because the bike under the tank does something more than wear a badge well.
If the Corvette still had an Iron Block 502 and the same driver aids/technology as the Cavalier, people would talk the same shit about Corvette as we do about Harley. Unless HD can evolve (I doubt it) I say good riddance.
