I think more accurate is it’s a premium brand much like let’s say BMW sells to one market both their automobiles and their motorcycles.
I don’t have any answers, but they must know more than me and maybe a start would be manufacturing overseas
Harley-Davidson Moving More Production Overseas!
- Thread starter EngineWhisperer
- Start date
I don’t have any answers, but they must know more than me and maybe a start would be manufacturing overseas
I bet if you opened a scooter store across the street from a maserati dealer, and placed a random selection of people in a car on the street in front of them, the comments you would hear would be, Look, more people are buying scooters then maserati's these days.,,
BMW - great example. A high rolling guy like yourself can get a M3 to show off, and your wife can get a X7 to fit the whole family, and schlump like me can afford an X1 and park it easily in a Charleston Garage.
BMW sells all kinds of motorcycles - off-road adventure bikes, road bikes. In europe they even sell scooters. https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/models/urban_mobility/c400gt.html
HD only sells to one of those set of customer. The last buggywhip maker if you will.
Yes, mopeds and scooters are the majority of overseas sales for many bike manufacturers, Honda is the biggest in the world.
BMW, another great brand, both Harley Davison and BMW rank at the top of customer satisfaction surveys.
Choices are great
Pretty much two motorcycle brands that are American. Harley Davidson and Polaris Corporation Indian.
Polaris failed with the Victory brand, for a decade it was going to be the Harley killer. Shut it down and bought an autoparts business.
Their new to them Indian brand name that they purchased was going to be the next Harley killer.
Another big fail. After 10 years Indian turned a profit in 2023. However its sales were down a whopping 23% recently all around the world. Polaris is a huge multi product corporation compared to Harley. I wouldnt be surprised if they gave up on motorcycles some day. I dont know.
Bottom line, the industry like many is not what it used to be. However Harly Davidson USA sales were up 8% in 2024
Good luck figuring out Polaris Indian brand, its almost impossible other then they are down big numbers. Polaris includes its 3 wheel Slingshot (car) in its motorcycle sales and Polaris does not reveal USA sales numbers.
https://powersportsbusiness.com/top-stories/2025/01/28/polaris-reports-sales-drop-for-q4-and-fy24/
https://investor.harley-davidson.co...nancial-Results-and-2025-Outlook/default.aspx
Nothing against Indian. Im just trying to lift the veil over the USA motorcycle industry, Indian makes it difficult to do.
Since German BMW was mentioned in this thread. They continue to do well. Nice products for sure.
They sold a record 210,400 motorcycles worldwide in 2024 one must keep in mind the majority are smaller dirt and sport bikes.
Harley if I am correct sold 148,900 Motorcycles which the majority are larger cruisers and hands down clearly on American roads beat BMWs cruiser sales by a massive factor. I wonder if Harley could ever enter the smaller bike market. Maybe with overseas production that will come one day.
One thing for sure. BMW and Polaris have deep pockets.
Polaris failed with the Victory brand, for a decade it was going to be the Harley killer. Shut it down and bought an autoparts business.
Their new to them Indian brand name that they purchased was going to be the next Harley killer.
Another big fail. After 10 years Indian turned a profit in 2023. However its sales were down a whopping 23% recently all around the world. Polaris is a huge multi product corporation compared to Harley. I wouldnt be surprised if they gave up on motorcycles some day. I dont know.
Bottom line, the industry like many is not what it used to be. However Harly Davidson USA sales were up 8% in 2024
Good luck figuring out Polaris Indian brand, its almost impossible other then they are down big numbers. Polaris includes its 3 wheel Slingshot (car) in its motorcycle sales and Polaris does not reveal USA sales numbers.
https://powersportsbusiness.com/top-stories/2025/01/28/polaris-reports-sales-drop-for-q4-and-fy24/
https://investor.harley-davidson.co...nancial-Results-and-2025-Outlook/default.aspx
Nothing against Indian. Im just trying to lift the veil over the USA motorcycle industry, Indian makes it difficult to do.
Since German BMW was mentioned in this thread. They continue to do well. Nice products for sure.
They sold a record 210,400 motorcycles worldwide in 2024 one must keep in mind the majority are smaller dirt and sport bikes.
Harley if I am correct sold 148,900 Motorcycles which the majority are larger cruisers and hands down clearly on American roads beat BMWs cruiser sales by a massive factor. I wonder if Harley could ever enter the smaller bike market. Maybe with overseas production that will come one day.
One thing for sure. BMW and Polaris have deep pockets.
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Harley would have to make some massive changes to make decent small bikes. Their current offers are generally not small or light. Good first step would be getting away from massive, antiquated engines. From what I’m seeing, sport-nakeds are really what people are going for, under 700cc range. Not sure Harley could shrink their style down to those types of bikes.
Well I dont agree with changing their style of their bikes, after all its the only really viable big cruiser lineup in the USA now and sales numbers show they still sell well.
I do think they should be able to come up with some sport bikes that people would want. I think the key here though is, like BMW they are a premium brand. Maybe Americans wont pay the price for it to be profitable, meaning sell them in a large quantity.
I think they had their chance with Buell and blew it big time. I really liked those bikes, more so their biggest sport cruiser.
To be fair, whenever we talk about any brand of bike, one should look up the sales numbers for that company. People love to bash Harley but cant give alternatives.
and they won’t change their style because that is what sells them. I, like you, did find the buells interesting. Had they stuck around longer there may actually be one in my stable. I also thought for sure that victory was really going to push into that big cruiser crowd for the long haul, then they disappeared! The few victory owners I know absolutely love them, same with the BMW guys. The few Harley guys I know just don’t seem terribly enthused when talking about their bikes.
I love my Harley. It’s been the best bike I’ve owned, but I haven’t many. It just fits our cruising style twoup distant locations, all kinds of weather luggage, etc..
The Buells were really cool and again I liked their biggest model which I forgot what it was right now
In 2012 I almost bought a victory crossroads I believe it was at a steep discount and now I know why
Triumph it’s another nice bike
But with all the above, do you know what?
There are Harley Davidson dealers all over the place if you need work done on your bike. That can’t be said about any of the other brands.
One other thing overlooked, which may not bother many people, but it drives me nuts.
For some reason, most of the bikes you have to replace the rear tire every 6 to 8000 miles. That held true for my Yamaha and my Suzuki.
My Harley gets 14,000 miles and I could probably go longer, but I make sure to keep a lot of tread
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