Seems a bit slow, so how about a bit of Harley bashing?

[Dan Filetti]

Sooo...  A friend over on FB wrote, as her status "Like if you Love Harley's" I responded:  "...If by 'love Harley's' you really mean 'love the image of Harleys' -which they sell in spades, then you will likely get more likes. Just sayin."

I knew this would not go unchallenged, and it was not...

An idiot friend of hers asked if 'there was any other kind of motorcycle' and then proceeded to sing the accolades of his Harley...

So I did a bit of digging and, among other zingers, I responded thusly:

Harley made $224M the first quarter of 2013. $184M of it was from accessories sales. That's 82% of their revenue!! What Harley sells, is image -this is certainly evidence of this to me. It they could find a way to simply stop selling the bikes and just sell the cheap t-shirts, and chrome tooth-brushes, they'd do it. Harley had a chance to be about the bikes again with Eric Buell, but they failed miserably, mostly because Eric trusted Harley and their shark attorneys too much...

I was surprised at that 82%, it really is shocking... and telling.  

In any case I thought I'd pass that along...  82%!

en garde!

Dan

[Klavdy]

You want to really do their heads in?
Tell them that the French & the Japanese own controlling interests in H.D.
ALLIANCEBERNSTEIN L.P. & Mitsubishi.

Look it up on NASDAQ.

[Pat Conlon]

It would be interesting to see the size of their R&D budget over the last 5 years. I suspect not much compared to say, Polaris, BMW or the big 4.

82% sales revenue from accessories....amazing, and sad.

[ddlewis]

Why should they spend a bunch of money, they sell em like hotcakes..  On any given ride I'd guess 7/10 bikes I pass are Harleys.   They're everywhere.

I don't get it either, but man they have it locked up.

[rktmanfj]

It would be interesting to see the size of their R&D budget over the last 5 years. I suspect not much compared to say, Polaris, BMW or the big 4.

82% sales revenue from accessories....amazing, and sad.

How much R&D does it take to develop new colors or chrome doodads?   

[Dan Filetti]

It would be interesting to see the size of their R&D budget over the last 5 years.

Except any R&D budget would certainly include R&D of those accessories -someone has to design and build those new chrome baubles, and accordingly, likely the lion-share of a general R&D budget.  The interesting bit would be motorcycle-only R&D budget figures.

Dan  

[Klavdy]

[Klavdy]

[Klavdy]

[Firehawk068]

I wonder if there is a mod that the owners could do to bypass the "SLOW" jet.........................Then maybe their bikes would actually do more than just make a bunch of noise?

[Klavdy]

[oldktmdude]

I wonder if there is a mod that the owners could do to bypass the "SLOW" jet.........................Then maybe their bikes would actually do more than just make a bunch of noise?

The trouble with that remedy is that then you'd actually have to make them get around corners.   

[airheadPete]

The mildly scary part is... Why do you guys have soooo much H-D stuff available to photograph?
(And why do those bastards never wave??? (I've given up on them.))

[Lotsokids]

(And why do those bastards never wave??? (I've given up on them.))

This irritates me also. As a V-Max owner, sometimes when I wave at a Harley rider, he hesitantly waves. One pulled back his wave quickly when he realized it was a Jap bike. Come on, guys. Really?

[ribbert]

(And why do those bastards never wave???

Fear of losing control if they take one hand off the bars.