The H.O.G. may have finally reached saturation in the US market. While CEO Jim Ziemer remains “optimistic,” the words that really jump out from the Bloomberg report are, in order: falls, slide, fell, slowing, damped, decline, dropped, trailed, slid, reversing, worse, reduced, avoid, waned, tumbled, plunged, difficult, down, cautious, skeptical, fell, decline, slide, overwhelmed, dropped, fewer, discounts, challenging, challenging, declined, fell, dropped, down, declined, write off.>That must hurt. We’re hoping this is the medicine Harley needs to stop relying on aging farting baby-boomers, and start branching out to current and upcoming motorcycling trends. However, making goofy videos with skaters in bowls and bikers riding ape hangers, strapping snowboards to their backs like wings, is not going to cut it. Riding on long boring straight highways is not equal to rocking a halfpipe. And if the following video does anything, it proves our point.
But we’re not nearly as pessimistic as Bloomberg. We just wish Harley would get new blood, and a little fresh perspective beyond the land of beer and cheese. Or maybe just give Eric Buell a bigger R&D budget?