Valheru Rides!

So a few days before writing it was announced that Harley Davidson would replace its departing CEO Zeitz with Artie Starr, formerly of *checks notes* Pizza Hutt and some golfing gig…

It was kinda ironic that the incoming CEO mentioned the “community and rebellious spirit” in his statement, a pretty much sure sign that he must be thinking about a different Harley Davidson, or at least one that possibly hasn’t existed for a long time.

High on the hog.

This is kind of the problem though, as HD sadly forgotten so much of what originally made it so iconic and great in the first place. Gone are the days when the people buying HD were the rebel outcasts that Mr Starr is clearly thinking of from ‘Easy Rider’ Vs a now aged cast of ‘Wild Hogs’. This constant disconnect seems to have echoed through the whole of the company where they seem to have forgotten that to keep a brand alive they have to actually sell motorcycles. Selling your grandfather overpriced polo shirts isn’t exactly going to put numbers on the board or keep the factory going. It’s pretty nuts because you see so many HD’s on the road, (especially in this area where winter is presented in the same way as the 2020 toilet roll war) because they are at least fairly effective as an everyday bike.

Wanting to get into riding Harley Davidson motorcycles, and being able to afford to own one are two very different creatures, I’ve waxed on lyrically before about prices, now made worse with the current deteriorating political situation so that doesn’t really need to be repeated, but as of writing prices in the UK start at £16000… HD then set about isolating themselves from potential future sales to focus on their already diminishing target audience and appease a few eijits who’d been shooting their motorcycles on YouTube, which flatly exacerbated the issue.

We only need to look at the campaigns and target audiences the Asian and European brands have in their sights so see how wrong this approach already is. I kinda wish I’d kept my post from years past on what HD should do as it would be prophetic. Essentially I had suggested they copy Hyosung and build a 500/600 (pre UK emissions changes), which Benda have recently done, and I think they will be very successful in doing. Do I support the idea of a £6000 HD model? Ohh hell yes! Why can’t we have the X series in Europe? I’m pretty sure it would sell, and the X440 looks a great platform to customise, I’d love to see one of those cut down as a cafe racer like what Triumph/Bajaj have recently done. Not that we have any dealers left so no idea where people would see one, let alone try one…..

Ground hog.

So we’re back here again, with HD selecting yet another board room millionaire as a CEO, and not, who they should really have put in charge: An actual rider! I don’t care how successful this chap has been in corporate shilling over the years, this is not an industry he’s versed in, nor has experience of the rider mentality that he needs to understand to make this work. Frankly they’d be better off grabbing some random biker off the street in her 30’s and giving them a financial advisor to aid on that side of the business.

Done hogging.

Make no mistake here, HD isn’t going to be shutting up shop anytime soon, but it will sadly end up as a fringe manufacturer (even more so) flogging a few bikes a year to wealthy domestic customers, unless they decide to change direction over the next decade.