Fuckin' hilarious. The company that coasted on it's legacy image for decades but the private equity firms that own them now probably realize that it's primary market of overweight, knuckle dragging, mid-life crisis boomers is dying off and they have to pivot. I mean, just look at those crowd photos of the Sturgis rally.
People don’t even want to be associated with Harley anymore,
That's the effect of your primary boomer market. Nobody wants to associate with those chuds. The brand is damned if they do, damned if they don't. (Even though by the articles own description, they really don't).
A vintage Harley valued at $30,000 just a few years ago is now getting only $4,000.
So those overvalued bikes are now starting to come to earth because of the dying off effect, and the younger generations don't identify with the brand enough to pay those kind of exorbitant prices, but the elder chuds think it's because of woke.
Many folks, chud and otherwise, really don't grasp that when private equity swoops in, your cherished brand is nothing more than intellectual property playthings and the owners don't give a flying fuck about the undeserved loyalty of it's fanbase.
I can't believe that overcharging for an inferior product for multiple decades, to the point where you're charging $100 for a long sleeve cotton shirt, isn't a sustainable business model.
Truly, who could have guessed being able to buy a massively superior alternative for 1/4 of the price isn't a great business strategy.
If you buy a Harley you're paying for the privellage of having to associate with people who think Harleys are cool, so unless you wanna hear a dozen jokes that the punchline is just saying a slur, you can easily save 20 grand.
Their only redeeming quality is it's hard to get them to go fast enough to be deadly and most people tip over at a stoplight rather than tomahawking though the woods for 100 yards when they don't countersteer a gentle curve doing 90 in a 35.
Their only redeeming quality is it's hard to get them to go fast enough to be deadly
I mean, it's a funny sentiment but it's not really true since the Evo motors came out. Also, nobody's not countersteering at speed, even people who claim they don't are all countersteering they just don't understand that it's what they're doing.
All the ones I come across are doing 40 in a 55 because they're spread out over half a mile in a shitty formation to prove they're super tough because if you don't sufficiently venerate them they'll fight you 20 v 1 and half of them are cops.
club riders are going slow on purpose, to be assholes
The Evo was a pretty big deal that harley shirt wearers predictably hated (they don't just leak all the time) but they're reliable and still damn near as simple as the older ones that can't stop seeping oil everywhere.
My overwhelming impression is if you buy a Harley period your intention is to be an asshole.
That's been my experience with pretty much every biker that's on anything other than a touring bike riding by themselves on a dirt road.
But then again I have a massively negative opinion of bikes in general. Literally today a 19 year old at the restaurant my girlfriend works at is dead within 6 months of buying a sports bike. Last weekend was the annual music festival to raise money for a fund set up to support another person in town who paralyzed themselves and died early from crashing a Harley. More than once a month I get passed on a blind double yellow in a 35 before watching the asshole pull into his yard with a "look twice save a life" sign in his yard. For two weeks every summer you can't go out to bars or restaurants or even enjoy being outside within 1/4 mile of a road because it's "Americade" and there's 2 dozen douchebags trying to fight any local who doesn't tell them how cool they look in their shiny new vest and red lining their engines for 18 hours a day.
Fuckin' hilarious. The company that coasted on it's legacy image for decades but the private equity firms that own them now probably realize that it's primary market of overweight, knuckle dragging, mid-life crisis boomers is dying off and they have to pivot. I mean, just look at those crowd photos of the Sturgis rally.
That's the effect of your primary boomer market. Nobody wants to associate with those chuds. The brand is damned if they do, damned if they don't. (Even though by the articles own description, they really don't).
So those overvalued bikes are now starting to come to earth because of the dying off effect, and the younger generations don't identify with the brand enough to pay those kind of exorbitant prices, but the elder chuds think it's because of woke.
Many folks, chud and otherwise, really don't grasp that when private equity swoops in, your cherished brand is nothing more than intellectual property playthings and the owners don't give a flying fuck about the undeserved loyalty of it's fanbase.
I can't believe that overcharging for an inferior product for multiple decades, to the point where you're charging $100 for a long sleeve cotton shirt, isn't a sustainable business model.
Truly, who could have guessed being able to buy a massively superior alternative for 1/4 of the price isn't a great business strategy.
If you buy a Harley you're paying for the privellage of having to associate with people who think Harleys are cool, so unless you wanna hear a dozen jokes that the punchline is just saying a slur, you can easily save 20 grand.
Their only redeeming quality is it's hard to get them to go fast enough to be deadly and most people tip over at a stoplight rather than tomahawking though the woods for 100 yards when they don't countersteer a gentle curve doing 90 in a 35.
I mean, it's a funny sentiment but it's not really true since the Evo motors came out. Also, nobody's not countersteering at speed, even people who claim they don't are all countersteering they just don't understand that it's what they're doing.
All the ones I come across are doing 40 in a 55 because they're spread out over half a mile in a shitty formation to prove they're super tough because if you don't sufficiently venerate them they'll fight you 20 v 1 and half of them are cops.
club riders are going slow on purpose, to be assholes
The Evo was a pretty big deal that harley shirt wearers predictably hated (they don't just leak all the time) but they're reliable and still damn near as simple as the older ones that can't stop seeping oil everywhere.
My overwhelming impression is if you buy a Harley period your intention is to be an asshole.
That's been my experience with pretty much every biker that's on anything other than a touring bike riding by themselves on a dirt road.
But then again I have a massively negative opinion of bikes in general. Literally today a 19 year old at the restaurant my girlfriend works at is dead within 6 months of buying a sports bike. Last weekend was the annual music festival to raise money for a fund set up to support another person in town who paralyzed themselves and died early from crashing a Harley. More than once a month I get passed on a blind double yellow in a 35 before watching the asshole pull into his yard with a "look twice save a life" sign in his yard. For two weeks every summer you can't go out to bars or restaurants or even enjoy being outside within 1/4 mile of a road because it's "Americade" and there's 2 dozen douchebags trying to fight any local who doesn't tell them how cool they look in their shiny new vest and red lining their engines for 18 hours a day.
Sounds like you live somewhere that draws biker tourists, it must be pretty awful.