David: I have never had a ninja, although I have owned some sporty standards — the closest would be a GS500, but by the time I had that I could afford some decent gear. Nowadays I ride the kind of cruisers that work reliably — the ones made by Honda. And, I wave at everyone, even the Harley people and the scooter people (both of whom almost never wave back).

Hell, I even hang out and ride with some Harley owners — it is being around their bikes and hearing their stories that had kept me from ever seriosuly considering one. Just by watching them and their experiences (and frustrations) I have learned that even the newest Harleys spend half the riding season in the shop — one of my good friends has an 09 Fat Bob and it spent about three months in the shop this summer addressing two significant issues. The dealership was nice enough to give him a loaner bike (despite their official policy not to), but he wanted to be riding HIS bike, not some trade-in. He was mighty pissed that his expensive ride new had so many problems.

Have you compared their earnings to the rest of the “more innovative” motorcycle companies or divisions? If so, please explain why Harley is doing a LOT better than many of them. Facts, please, and not overwrought posturing, dude.

Compare the technological changes made in the last 21 year to the Harley Sportsters to, say Yamaha FZR1000 – R1 from the same years; on paper, there’s just about the SAME “innovation” on both – fuel injection, and really nothing else substantial. Both have increased in horsepower by around same percentage. Unfortunately, the weight has gone opposite directions.

The sportbike set is just as hogtied (hah!) by fashion as the Harley set. Dunk any of the CBR/YZF/ZX/GSXR/WTFs in a vat of white paint and 99 out of 100 people couldn’t tell them apart. The 1 who could would probably be able to ID any Harley within a year or two of when it was made as well, due to minute changes in brakes, suspension, induction, etc… – the same miniscule changes the sportbike fanboys claim they are the sole beneficiaries of.

The chap story is a fine work of fiction. When do you graduate?

Etc…..

Harley’s Achilles heel is that their nostalgia driven branding and marketing is in many ways better satisfied by buying a used bike than a new one. Its not like the 2010 Harleys look (or perform) a whole lot different than the bikes of 5, 10, 20, or 30 years ago — that’s the whole point — it is a point of pride that they keep on stamping out the same old stuff year after year. In the Harley demographic brand-new-60-something “bikers” buy pre-distressed leathers so as to pretend they have been riding for a long time (I learned this when I sold a pair of ratty beat up old leather chaps on craigslist. My phone blew up with calls from old dudes asking how weathered and faded they were. Once I figured out that beat up old gear had a poser factor I jacked the price up ended up selling them for $200!) For this crowd, owning an older bike is more desirable than a new one. If you look on the Craigslist motorcycle postings in any major city in the US, you will see no shortage of low milage late model Harleys pimped out with absolute gobs of expensive after-market crap for rock bottom prices. The used market is absolutely glutted with people who bought a shiny new Harley when times were good and credit was easy, and proceeded to spend far more time waxing it than riding it. Now that times are tough, they are “sacrificing” their garage queen with less than 5k miles and $20,000 “invested” for $7-8K.

Given all this, it is no wonder that the Motor Company’s earnings dropped 91% for 2nd quarter 2009.