Well, you guys say what you want. All I know is that I never got a "thumbs
up" when I rode a Honda many years ago. No one said "cool bike". I have
had young women asking for a ride that I am sure would never have it had
been a metric cruiser wannabe. There is a reason there are so many Harley
lookalike cruisers out there. Imitation is the highest form of flattery...
They just don't say Harley Davidson on them, so they can never have that
mystique. You don't see very many tattoos that say "Honda" or "Yamaha till
I die!" It's more than a motorcycle, it's a culture. You are part of
something bigger than yourself when you ride one. I encounter very similar
experiences with my Healeys. You have something in common with other
owners. It does not matter your background, income, age, what you look
like, etc. I had a very nice conversation about springer front ends the
other day at the local Harley dealership where I bought my bike. At the end
the other guy introduced himself as the San Bernardino head District
Attorney. Not exactly circles I travel in, but we had a common interest. I
find a lot of parallels with LBC ownership. Probably why I am drawn to
both. Derf, your full of crap. There is room for people that just want a
cool looking bike and those that enjoy the esoteric biker lifestyle. Buell
was innovative, yes, but they did not sell. For that kind of bike the
crotch rockets outsold Buell 3 to 1. That's why Harley dumped them. When
times are tough you dump the liabilities. You cannot sustain the sales that
Harley has enjoyed since the employees took over without superior marketing
of an American icon, as you say unless you have a superior product. The
free market would be the death of Harley Davidson if they did not sell a
great product that people wanted. As far as the motion picture industry,
they are a "for profit" enterprise, thus they could only survive if they
sold what the public wanted. As long as people won't go to see a "quality"
film, Hollywood will churn out the crap that people *will* pay for. For
what it's worth, my 2 cents.
Mike MacLean
Proud owner of an American Icon, so sue me.
On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Kirk Hargreaves <khargreaves2@gmail.com>wrote:
> Well said. . .
>
> Kirk
>
> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:52 PM, derf <derf247@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Harley lacks in several areas.
> > They closed the closest thing they had to a R&D branch, Buell.
> > Their tremendous success did not come from superior products, but
> > rather from superior marketing of an American Icon.
> > Harley Davidson and the Motion Picture Industry traded quality for
> > quantity and marketing, IMHO, and we're all suffering in the
> > aftermath.
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