Why Royal Enfield is Destroying Harley Davidson
- Thread starter K.Aoi
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I rode for about 18 years or so and sold the last of my bikes in 2013. At one point I had 3 in the garage- Goldwing, Ninja and an old Yamaha 400. I was heavily into long distance riding back in the 2000's and put in thousands of miles. Pretty much rode a bike to work every day if the roads weren't ice/snow covered. Today, unless I'm out in the middle of nowhere I rarely see anyone on a motorcycle. Even during the summer up here in NW Wisconsin the bar parking lots may have a handful of bikes in them whereas 20 years ago it was nothing but bikes.
Your mixing metaphors - one time use plastic and Chinese junk in general is a problem but thats a choice. GM had lots of intake manifold gasket issues in the same era with metal intakes. Ford intake was a poor design, and my first 6 vehicles were Ford and I would not own another likely, so thats on them also.
As a kid we had one of those fancy chrome toasters someone had handed down. It toasted one side way more than the other. Us kids weren't allowed to get near it because it got too hot on the outside. Luckily we ended up throwing it away luckily. Revisionist history.
Reality is that Plastics can work great if there spec'd properly. If they aren't spec'd properly that is on the designer not the material as a whole. We would be much worse off as a society without plastic. Many of the plastic things that are made would be impossible without it, everything from Medical devices to electronics. What we need to rid ourselves of is the one time use plastic packaging.
I'm still riding my '01 Road King, with a carburetor. Bought it new back when you had to get on the list and wait. Dealer would call you when your number came up and said I've got these color ones coming in, which do you want. That's when they were unique like certain import cars. 100th anniversary came and they turned into toasters, walk in and buy one. Yeah I cut my teeth on Hondas, 350 and 750's '70's bikes as they were affordable. The HD slowed me down on the road though, maybe even saved me, to make it into my 7th decade.
HD costume party events have never really been my forte. I don't care what your riding, your a motorcycle enthusiast like me. My wife's on a Spyder so she is comfy being ''in the wind''.
HD costume party events have never really been my forte. I don't care what your riding, your a motorcycle enthusiast like me. My wife's on a Spyder so she is comfy being ''in the wind''.
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That building is about the size of my local Harley Shop from 25 years ago that the owners sold the business and the new owner closed that small shop, moved 6 miles and built a mega store right off the Interstate!
Perhaps Harley did what we see some people do, Buy a house way more than one needs and next thing you know loose that house and back to reality, living in a van down by the river....
HD is a victim of its own success IMO and that is the cruiser segment. They seemingly cannot successfully step out of it.
Someone mentioned dual sport being the fastest growing, well HD did make Pan America dual sport model, which looked pretty good IMO and was a decent value compared to BMW. Guess what? It didn’t sell.
Same thing goes for every other model they try.
Someone mentioned dual sport being the fastest growing, well HD did make Pan America dual sport model, which looked pretty good IMO and was a decent value compared to BMW. Guess what? It didn’t sell.
Same thing goes for every other model they try.
I'd think at some point the design would need a refresh, or else it would become stale. Even the best design can grow passé or out-of-style in the fickle American marketplace. How many times has Ford tweaked the styling of the "retro" 2005+ Mustang? Even if they faithfully reproduced the original 1964-1/2 Mustang, eventually sales would tail off once everyone who ever dreamed of owning one bought one, while meanwhile fans of the Fox Body are kept waiting forever. "Retro" is just another style and when it falls out of fashion, the buying public will abandon it, whether it be cars, motorcycles, architecture, furniture, etc.
Amazingly, in 2026 toasters start at $12 on Walmart's website. I'm sure it's a pretty poor toaster though. Most are in the $30 range.
We just pitched our sorta antique metal toaster. I say antique because we had it forever, and it was stamped "Made in Moberly, Missouri".
That's interesting, as I don't see nearly as many bikes on the road anymore in MN. I know some older guys with HD have had to give the sport up.
2x, I'm seeing this in snowmobiling now also. 15-20k new sleds.
Gee my crescent wrench is just old and stale.
Really I can't think of any old device that is old and stale. Hmm some people? 
I’m a dual sport / adventure bike rider myself and I thought HD did a pretty good job on the PanAm for their first go at an adventure bike.
Two reasons why I think it didn’t sell.
They didn’t give it enough time to “catch on”. Most adventure riders take these bikes on trips through trails that make break downs a really big PITA so reliability is high on people’s list and the PanAm was a big unknown in that department because most of us in the segment are used to Japanese and Euro bikes so they were scared of the unknown. If the PanAm turned out to be a good bike the word would have spread and it would have started to gain popularity. You can’t expect to jump into a new segment and have record sales.
The other reason it didn’t sell IMO is because if someone wants a Harley they want the stereotypical Harley (street glide, dyna, sportster, etc) they don’t want a Adventure bike or a crotch rocket. I would love to have a street or road glide but if I don’t want that style of bike it wouldn’t even cross my mind. The only way out of this hole is time(they don’t have it) or making a bike in another segment that is just so much better than anything else it can’t be ignored but that gets harder and harder with time as the bikes are so good it’s hard to improve. Just look at a 2000s sport bike compared to a 1980s, the 2000s is on an another level. Now the 2000s sport bike compared to a 2020s sport bike, the 2020 is better but not by the same magnitude.
Just my two cents.
I want a dual sport or sport touring bike BAD, but I see enough absolutely oblivious drivers going to and from work that it's an instant turn off.
Not surprised one bit. Same feedback on HD over and over, it's sad. They just don't seem to listen.
Me? I think they are overpriced old tech that are living off their name and heritage. ~2001 I was shopping for my first bike, they basically chased me out because I wanted to stay under $10k. Ducati dealer on the other hand welcomed me with open arms. ~2008 I was shopping for a cruiser, more of the same and ended up with a new top of the line Star (Yamaha). Not riding much these days, but next bike will be a dual sport (Leaning Husqvarana)
Best of luck to them, hope to save an American company
Me? I think they are overpriced old tech that are living off their name and heritage. ~2001 I was shopping for my first bike, they basically chased me out because I wanted to stay under $10k. Ducati dealer on the other hand welcomed me with open arms. ~2008 I was shopping for a cruiser, more of the same and ended up with a new top of the line Star (Yamaha). Not riding much these days, but next bike will be a dual sport (Leaning Husqvarana)
Best of luck to them, hope to save an American company
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I would like to do a no sales pressure Pan Am test ride "IF" the Harley Demo truck comes back around to my area this year. I wonder what I may be missing having never ridden an adventure bike?
I'm noticing my local dealers have not had the demo truck much lately like years past. I recently found out and had no idea the local dealer must pay many thousands of $$ To Harley Corporate for that Harley truck to set up at his dealership and that surprised me Harley does not cover that expense.
I'm noticing my local dealers have not had the demo truck much lately like years past. I recently found out and had no idea the local dealer must pay many thousands of $$ To Harley Corporate for that Harley truck to set up at his dealership and that surprised me Harley does not cover that expense.
I know several people that own BMW dual sport bikes. A few have gone to the performance driving school at BMW in Spartanburg where they teach on and off road skills.
You can't just enter the market with a single model and expect an existing owners to come beg for one at a Harley dealer, especially when you have a legendary global company like BMW offering riding courses and have the entire lineup with decades of history.
I agree with @JWC86, Harley made about a 10% effort at best.
You can't just enter the market with a single model and expect an existing owners to come beg for one at a Harley dealer, especially when you have a legendary global company like BMW offering riding courses and have the entire lineup with decades of history.
I agree with @JWC86, Harley made about a 10% effort at best.
They also should have put more effort into selling Buell motorcycles as well. Hasn't HD had several CEOs over the last few years? I can remember one wanting a more diverse lineup then him getting ousted and the next guy wanting old school bikes again.
I can't remember which youtube channel but one guy mentioned taking a riders class to get certified. It sounded like they were riding HD bikes but they were smaller and nimble. They were built in Thailand for the local market. It's like fiat and Mitsubishi in the USA with very few options how can you possibly stay afloat.