Well Harley has set a record this year. One I believe the factory isn’t all that proud of. 312,000 recalls up from 94,000 in the past years. I do believe Harley Davidson has reached it’s bubble and it’s about to burst. The talk on the streets lately has been the poor quality of bike Harley has been putting together the past few years. And you know what? Everyone is right in bitching about the brand. What most don’t realize is Harley is no longer an American Made bike. Yea you will hear the arguments that the money stays within the country for American workers, but what wont be said along those lines is Harley has slashed 12000 factory worker jobs down to 3000 and outsourced those jobs overseas. So is Harley Davidson still a truly American product?
Harley has mostly been saved by the image of the Outlaw Biker. In the early 90’s middle age wannabees got a bug up their ass to try and copy what they thought an Outlaw Biker was. Well thus the term weekend warrior came into play. The demand for the Harley’s started to sky rocket, the prices started shooting up because of the demand. The demand created an atmosphere at Harley that started putting up sub quality scoots. After all Harley wanted to see it’s stock rise and investors taking care of so like any other company in that position they started screwing their customers.
Harley had a good run of fortunes taking in some of the worlds market share from the mid 90’s to mid 00’s. Well guess what ? Those wannabees started looking for other toys since they were getting older and the lifestyle was just a faze for them. Well now Harley is stock trying to find people to fill that void in loss of customer base. Being a biker was starting to get old and of course since Sons of Anarchy went off air last year the fad is finally starting to die off. This is why Harley is starting to go after the younger generation with the 750cc models. See the younger generation is far enough removed from the idea that it takes a Harley to become a biker.
Yamaha, Honda,Suzuki,Triumph,Indian and Polaris started to put some wicked bikes on the market. The bikes being put out now far out do’s Harley’s reliability and power. Some of the bikes being put out there go all the way into the 2000 cc range. Most important you don’t see baggage racks falling off down the rode or having them sit in the shop half of riding season like most Harley’s are now a days with recalls. Let’s face it the competition is making Harley look like a joke now. Look at products like the Midnight star. Power, looks and reliability doubles anything Harley has put out.
Yea yea I know rice burners. Well it’s better to be riding down the road on a rice burner then sitting on the side of the road with your Harley. Yea I know the money goes to a foreign country. Well guess what at least they are hiring American workers and not outsourcing to India. Harley made a terrible mistake getting away from its core base in the mid 90s. My prediction is with all the recalls and shitty work being put out now the company could be looking at a crises in the very near future. That was evident in going into the 750 cc market.
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