Harley-Davidson one of 5 of the worst corporate boards

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/5-of-the-worst-corporate-boards.aspx?page=3


check this out HD is on the top 5 of WORST CORPRATE BOARDS..
ON PAGE 3

[firebolt020283]

I still do not get this whole targeting younger people when they killed off the only bikes younger people want from them.

[fwkapaun]

The two phrases that best describe Harley Davidson are: "Sell the sizzle not the steak" and "A day late and a dollar short". The best example of this the their Rocker model, a hideous looking ride if there ever was one. It came two years too late to capitalize on the wide tire chopper craze and looked like well polished turd to boot. My wife personally hates the Street Glide or as she refers to it the Street Turd. She says it looks like it was designed by the team that drew the "Jetsons" cartoon back in the 1960's.

[fwkapaun]

Firebolt020283, Harley markets to younger people the same way they market to older people, " We will help you become a weekend badass. How much money do you have?" Not only will they sell you a "bad ass" Nightster, at three times the cost that you could make it for, but they'll also sell you the flannel shirt, jeans (holes optional), HD T-shirt with an updated skull on it, canvas tennis shoes and throw in an open face helmet too. What a deal! Who wouldn't want to be a part that?

[upthemaiden]

"According to a recent Harley-Davidson study, in 1987 half of all Harley riders were under age 35.[95] Now, only 15% of Harley buyers are under 35,[95] and as of 2005, the median age had risen to 46.7.[96][97][98][99]

The income of the average Harley-Davidson rider has risen, as well. In 1987, the median household income of a Harley-Davidson rider was $38,000. By 1997, the median household income for those riders had more than doubled, to $83,000.[95][clarification needed]"

[Jabaniz]

What's weird is that it seems that at first HD wasn't about the bad ass image, the people who rode HD were bad-ass hardcore riders, and people jumped on the bandwagon. now it seems that many people just have the HD in the garage ride every few Saturdays, or on a fun run, and talk ****. Even when I rode my 79 Yamaha over 3-5k miles a year these freaks had to give me hard time because it wasn't a HD. Meanwhile their 25,000$ bike is sitting in garage with 1200 miles on it and three years old.

[josh909]

sorry guys im still goin to buy my street glide....and i still love harley!!! tell me this if you all hate harley so much, have you all looked at your heads on our buells there is a h-d bar and shield you guys better run down to your local lowes and get some dremmel bits to remove that cause itll look real hypicritical, when your all sportin your f*** h-d stickers and that other garbage youll are puttin on them!!!!! JUST SAYIN.

[Alfatango1]

The younger riders they targeted were never Buell buyers but Sportster buyers. People who buy HD's couldn't give a hoot about Buells. The old school HD's riders particularly can't stand sport bikes let alone ones that take up showroom space next to the skull leather jackets and doo rags.

As a performance enthusiast I wanted something different and if it could be home grown that much the better. I had Japanese and Italian bikes but loved what Buell was doing and thought they were on to something.

[browland]

have you all looked at your heads on our buells there is a h-d bar and shield you guys better run down to your local lowes and get some dremmel bits to remove that cause itll look real hypicritical, when your all sportin your f*** h-d stickers and that other garbage youll are puttin on them!!!!! JUST SAYIN.

I don't hate all Harley motorcycles, I don't hate h-d riders just because they ride them, and I don't completely hate that buell was a part of harley... I do hate harley as a corporation, I hate what they have turned into, I hate that there current rider base has been brainwashed to believe that harley ****s gold and I hope Keith E. Wandell gets put out on his ass and replaced by some one who knows their ass from a hole in the ground

[Jabaniz]

remember this, for years guys that tuned up their sportster used buell motor parts, including heads even if it was an hd logo on it

[Baal]

josh909: I don't think you're going to find a lot of support here. I didn't like H-D before they killed off Buell, and they haven't given me a smidgeon of a reason to change. I'm not a cruiser guy. Period. What this article (probably) points out is that H-D's management failed to use the riches of their success to better position the brand for the future or to significantly improve their product line. Add in the foolishness with their financing arm and they've managed to dig themselves a big ol' hole. Do I want them to dig their way out? Sure. I want to be sure I have warranty coverage. http://s3.amazonaws.com/advrider/lol8.gif

[browland]

LOL nice baal. I gotta add to my previous I have ran into alot of H-d'rs that are pricks that cover themselves with bar and shield tats and think they are bad ass. But I also know people who have harleys do all their own work love their bike and wouldn't touch a gaudy harley davidson logoed out piece of clothing if they were freezing... this is why I decided against getting the f hd sticker even though i really liked it a first. I hate the company but don't want to offend they guys who ride that do it because they love to ride

[BuddhaBuell]

what Baal & Browland said, could not stand the brand and their legion of posers..(you know the ones all decked out from head to toe, the fair weather riders as well)

give me any one of 'their' ****ty products and I would sell it without hesitation [up]
BFHN!
**** H-D

[firebolt020283]

josh we all realize that Harley used to build the engines for buells. They pissed everyone off when A. they made that jack A** wendell CEO and B. sh*t canned the Buell company for no good reason.

I was raised Harley threw and threw before all these over paid weekend "hard core" bikers with a**less chaps popped up all over the place. A lot of my grand father and fathers friends are the type that ride there bikes rain or shine (most only own there bikes) and a good portion are not chromed out garage queens they are usually 15 to 20 year old bikes they ride the piss out of.

I also grew up around dirt track were H-D stood for performance. At one time in history Harley did not stand for a gay image of guys with bandannas and a**less chaps like now they stood for performance but unfortunately that seems to have long since passed.

All that said I DO NOT LIKE the current HARLEY DAVIDSON or what they now stand for NOW. There history is awesome there here and now as well as future is crap.

[wiznut]

At least there seems to be the possibility of reform with the vote on april 24th coming up to dismantle the current board structure.

[Bolt]

Weather you like hd or not, they ain't doing to good. Bottom line. They made bad choices& showed their true colors. The numbers don't lie. Personally I never really hated hd or their riders. Tho you have to admit a fair amount do fall into the all image category.
Eventually it was obvious hd is just another name brand being marketed. Straight up!
I don't have anymore respect for hd corporation.I take the riders case by case like I do ALL riders.
For me this has always been about erik Buell, his inovations, his passion& his great bikes. All of wich is seems HD lacks.They were part of it& then tossed it,I'm sure, becouse some one who majored in economics said to.
I apreciate the fact that most of our bikes have an hd engine-made into a Buell- having an American made bike was always a bonus not becouse of hd,but becouse a man like erik was building these bikes.
And of course if you live hd& ride one-you go with that, I don't really care.If we meet on the street I'm not going to judge you at all, just don't ask me what I think about hd& what they did to the flying Pegasus.

[everyother_time]

just don't ask me what I think about hd& what they did to the flying Pegasus
True That :D I've said it before, I Respect what Harley Use to be. Not what they turned into.

[fwkapaun]

For what it's worth, I've owned Sportsters, a Road King, a Nighttrain and currently own an Electra Glide and Buell Lightning I ride the piss out of both of them. None of my bikes are or ever will be garage jewelery. At one time, my wife worked for an HD dealership. So, they've put more than one bag of groceries on my table. Just hate to see what their current corporate mind set has done to the brand. When I was growing up, the only people that rode Harleys were true badasses and cops. What HD did to Buell was nothing short of criminal. It will be interesting to see what Eric does now that he is free from the corporate shackles of HD. I truly hope HD finds it's way again

[icepop77]

I grew up loving the HD brand. It was pure Americana in my eyes. As American as Red, White, and Blue. I just feel like HD had betrayed us. While the Asian metrics and Euro metrics have developed good motorcycles, I feel like HD has developed a good image. I'm glad there are players like Victory in the mix that allow us to "buy American" and feel like we're getting a well engineered machine for our dollar. When I return to cruisers, I'll look at a Victory first.

Kill the Buell brand was unconscionable. The fact that they mismanaged the marketing of the brand lead to its demise and nothing else. Put that brand in front of young 20-something buyers in a mixed brand dealer and you've got sales galore. It just disgusts me to see the one part of HD that was innovative and pioneering get cut off at the knees while the same song and dance gets to play on. Eventually, the buyers will catch on (hopefully, at least). When people stop paying for the "Experience of Americana" because it's an inferior product, perhaps HD will get it's act together. Will it take another AMF to do so?

[ArmyMP09]

I agree with what everyone is saying. If buell's were sold in a dealership next to a ducati and jap bikes. They would have done much better! HD killed buell for reasons that are questionable at best. HD most like will fail someday unless they seriously change everything they are currently doing. A 20 something year old doesn't want a sportster, HD probably will fail to take the younger buyers money without buell it will only get smaller and smaller segiments of the younger generations until they fail. I hope buell returns and far away from HD and the poison its higher ups spill.

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

Quote:
have you all looked at your heads on our buells there is a h-d bar and shield you guys better run down to your local lowes and get some dremmel bits to remove that cause itll look real hypicritical, when your all sportin your f*** h-d stickers and that other garbage youll are puttin on them!!!!! JUST SAYIN.


I don't hate all Harley motorcycles, I don't hate h-d riders just because they ride them, and I don't completely hate that buell was a part of harley... I do hate harley as a corporation, I hate what they have turned into, I hate that there current rider base has been brainwashed to believe that harley ****s gold and I hope Keith E. Wandell gets put out on his ass and replaced by some one who knows their ass from a hole in the ground
browland thats how i feel for the most part too.
and when i first saw the H-D and barsheild logo on my buells' engine i smiled and said cool good heritage(meaning the hertiage of where it came from not what it(HD) is now.


I knew this thread would start **** and piss some people off but i dont care.. the fact of the matter is harley davidson as a COMPANY/CORPORATION IS OR HAS FAILED to its customers and it stockholders....

it is no longer about the bikes or people but has become a another turd company run by complete IDIOTS that dont understand the concept behind what harley and other companies like it stood for and where they came from or what they wanted to be a classic icon or something that everyone liked or wanted , now it has lost all that and become something that it was never intended to or never wanted to be like.

I for one loved harley bikes before , still do like older harley and have several friends who ride and love harley they probably wont ride anything else (i dont blame them there is just something about an AMERICAN V-TWIN, BE IT HARLEY , INDIAN, orVICTORY ),
(dont care much for the so called newer bikes) i love the harley sound and the harley engine (it is one of the reasons i bought my buell it was american was the first reason, i fell in love with buell motorcyles and the SOUND of them, when i first saw and heard them in 1996)

[DoubleD]

My brother in law works for a Harley dealership in Austin, and you would laugh at the goons that come in decked out in every inch of HD branded gear they can get their hands on. As a younger rider (25) I have always loved Harleys and probably will own one someday alongside my Buell, but I cannot stand the lack of performance associated with HD's current corporate game plan, or the type of rider that the company currently caters to. The only bike that resembles a performance motorcycle is the XR1200, and it is absolutely piss poor compared to my Buell. There are decent people that ride and sell Harleys, but they won't be getting any of my money until they can sell a product that isn't just a distant image of their previous heritage.

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

[up] doubleD [up]

[ArmyMP09]

Well said doubleD I agree with that completely. Harley has totally failed to change with the times, and unless they redo the performance aspect, they will doom themselves.

[dmaxx3500]

well the japs out harleyed harley in 2-4 years,they outdid harley at their own game

[upthemaiden]

I feel like Harley would've been producing bikes like Buell under the Harley name if they would've just kept up with technology since the 80s and kept making better bies. I think the main reason they started producing nothing but cruisers is because it's the one type of motorcycle that they did not have to put any work into. You're standard motorcycle from the 60's is basically the same as a Harley cruiser today only with a lower seat and a larger engine, so I find it dumb that they would blow off something like Buell, when it was basically one guy doing all the work to bring HD into the current century, and all they had to do was smile and toss a little cash at him. Instead they looked at them and said "why would you ever actually put work onto making a motorcycle? It's like you're trying to make people think you have goals and ambitions" and kicked him out.

[EuropaChris]

One aspect of H-D that I actually give them a little credit for is that the prototypical air-cooled V-Twin engine, lots of chrome, etc. IS what makes a H-D a H-D. I look at a V-Rod and think "hmm, it's nice but....". It is NOT a H-D to me.

It's no different than a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul (especially the '57-'59 sunburst models). Just about every other guitar company that makes or made electric guitars has either copied or heavily borrowed from those designs. "New" models brought out by Fender or Gibson usually never became very popular by comparison (Fender Jaguar or Mustang and Gibson Explorer or Firebird) because they were outside of the "accepted" mold already set.

Now, a guitar isn't as technologically involved as a motorcycle, and to credit H-D (again,[mad]), they have improved the engines with fuel injection, more power, and better reliability and no more oil drips. But they have kept as best they can the overall "vibe" of the original, iconic H-D design.

The problem I have with H-D, besides what has already been stated, is that they relied TOO heavily on being an icon and an "image" and forgot about the core group that should be buying their products - MOTORCYCLISTS. They catered to rich balding white-collar midlife crisis badass wanabes who had tons of money to blow on a $20K ride plus $5K in bling and another $1K on doo-rags and leather. REAL bikers don't care about the bling and REALLY don't care about the doo-rags. But it is the real bikers that pass down that passion to the next generation, and so forth. The bald middle-manager just hangs it up and moves on to golf when it's not cool anymore to play badass with your buddies.

So, now that the buy-a-H-D-for-your-midlife-crisis craze is over and this whole fat tired chopper craze is imploding faster than the Teutel family at Thanksgiving dinner, what does H-D have to offer? Not much.

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

very well said Europachris [up][up]

[CBi]

Europachris - [up]

couldn't have said it better myself.

[bardo688]

Let honda sell their gold wings for a mid life crisis they make good cars for the weekend warrior (Yes with a good rider gold wings are nice)
HD should have been catering to the "REAL" motorcyclists
Push buell into the sport group and start stealing from kawa suzu honda kill 2 birds with 1 stone
why is it so simple for everone to see this and what europachris said. Coorperate can only see $$$ nothing else not even the future of their own damn company