Harley-Davidson one of 5 of the worst corporate boards

[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 ***** 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