Harley-Davidson President resigns

[crankcall]

Forum Sponsor

Do we really want them to fail, yeah some of you do. But if they did, wouldn't that impact the motorcycle industry as a whole in a negative way?

completely and totally, if anybody was connected to the marine business in the late 1980's, an absolute whale bankrupted and operating lines of credit were pulled on dozens of other manufaturers and the ripple killed dozens of subcontractors , suppliers and fabricators. It would be very bad for everybody in a "recreation market"

 

[El_Destructo]

The Harley demographic has changed B4 & will change again. When my friends & I rode them in the late '70s to early '80s we were mostly factory workers & trades guys. That changed to doctors, dentists, lawyers, business owners & such. We got the RUBS, Hamsters, & a lot of coke dealers. I see lot's of 30 somethings in the burbs with HDs in their driveways. SOA has attracted some of the younger crowd. Then there's the hipsters.

I left the HD thing behind in the 80's & never looked back. They didn't miss me & vice versa. They'll find someone else again. "There's an arse for every seat" as they say.

I disagree with someones earlier remark concerning Royal Enfield. Since the introduction of the Interceptor 650 their sales grew 23% in short order. I would bet that most of them where sold outside their home market. UK, Australia, & Europe have taken to them. Not bad for low tech.

 

[TK4]

completely and totally, if anybody was connected to the marine business in the late 1980's, an absolute whale bankrupted and operating lines of credit were pulled on dozens of other manufaturers and the ripple killed dozens of subcontractors , suppliers and fabricators. It would be very bad for everybody in a "recreation market"

During the economic meltdown of 2008/2009 the marine business took another huge hit. While Yamaha and Mercury stayed intact, Suzuki tried to dump off its North American operations to Johnson (which were rebadged Suzukis anyway). Then BRP bought Johnson/Evinrude and killed off Johnson leaving Suzuki dangling.
Much like GM and Suzuki did in the car business, but this time instead of folding their tents they kept the marine division going.
Owning a boat is like standing in a very cold shower ripping up thousand dollar bills...

Forum Sponsor