I think this may be related to this thread.....sort of.

Yesterday I took a long ride up toward Dayton, OH.  On the way home it was rush hour so I stayed off the interstate and stayed on Route 4.  It was a nice weather and a Friday evening.....I saw a lot of motorcycles.  One older Honda Goldwing that was weathered and looked like a commuter, about 5 sport bikes (2 in downtown Cincinnati that had swing arms 3 feet longer than stock and another one in Fairfield that had a back tire 2 feet wide), a Yamaha FJR, a couple of other bikes that were sport touring bikes but too far away to identify. and one helmetless jerk on a ratty sport bike going 80mph on a downtown Cincinnati street --------and about 50 Harleys!  I was amazed how many Harleys were on this road - some were guys going home from work, several were guys riding in pairs, and about a dozen were guys/girls out on their Friday night date, and one factory had 4 in the employee parking lot.  All the Harleys were shiny, loud, and the riders all had the "I am bad" riding gear on (no helmet, dew rag, sunglasses, etc.).

I do believe that Harley sales are down - but it doesn't appear the riders on Route 4 have stopped riding their bikes!

Well this may be the shape of things to come for the Millennial commuters when they want something bigger than their Grom.  The BMW GS was the best selling bike in the UK - but in Italy this now the best selling model.

https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/range/adventure/x-adv/overview.html

https://www.rideapart.com/articles/265193/honda-sales-beat-bmw-in-italy/

The X ADV is an interesting bike. Expensive though,  9600 pounds in the UK, which is around  12000 US dollars.  

I don't think the X ADV is available in the US at this time though.

This place opened up in my town at the beginning of this summer.

https://www.cortesecyclesales.com/

Take a look at the late model low mileage HDs in their inventory. I think part of Harley's problem with new bike sales right now it the glut of really mint almost new  HDs out there at really attractive prices compared to new. And this place is less than a half a mile from Cycle Stop, one of the biggest HD dealers in the region.

John Cortese, who opened this store, has been in the new automobile business in Rochester for as long as I've lived here, with multiple successful dealerships. Chrysler, Jeep, Ford, Mitsubishi. I don't think Cortese would have made the investment to open this place unless he was pretty sure he was going to sell a bunch of bikes.

I stopped by not long ago and looked around and I was impressed. All the bikes that I looked at appeared pretty much flawless. Sort of like the low mileage used cars you would expect to see in a high end new car dealer's inventory.

They even had a few of what the salesman I chatted with called "Cortese Customs" Nearly new Harleys with custom paint jobs done in one of the auto dealership's paint shops. Not my taste particularly, but very professionally done. Flawless paint.

It's going to be interesting to see how this venture works out.

Dave,

I think you are missing the point.  You are posting bikes you would ride. (Well, maybe that's part of the point, they aren't Harley's either.)  If a millennial were willing to ride a bike, they wouldn't be caught dead on that interceptor and they wouldn't drop $12k on something they won't understand until they become an enthusiast.   The motorcycle industry is so far out of touch with the younger generation it's not even funny.  

If I had to guess, they would be smart building small bikes and scooters that appeal to women and market the crap out of them.  Young women are fiercely independent and progressive.  Once the young, "wuss bag" male sees a girl riding a motorcycle he'll follow her lead.  That's what young males do these days, they follow the female lead (as they should because girls aren't the wuss bags.)

But, if you can get them started, the ADV would be right up their alley.

That said, I'm still not sure they are buying.  Motorcycling is not a very social sport.  You ride around for hours NOT talking, NOT texting, NOT instagraming, NOT tweating, NOT reading your friends posts...NOT communicating.

That's why I think it has to be seen as a viable means of transportation.

ohiomoto wrote on 09/14/18 at 05:45:23:


Yeah.....I got distracted by the link that oldNslow posted and did get a bit off the Harley topic.  And you are correct - the Interceptor is the only one of the used bikes at Cortese that I would buy.

Evidently....sales in the UK are increasing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-24/harley-is-winning-in-europ...

Here is something HD did that is actually really smart: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/harley-davidson-funded-study-proves-motor...

And even though they funded the study, I think the results could be legitimate.

I'm not sure how much this will help them market to the menials, buy it will help greybeards justify their riding habits to their "old ladies".  LOL

Quote:


Yup.

Stereotyping Millennials as being all the same, is just as stupid as stereotyping everyone who rides a Harley as a pirate dressing, loud pipe, one per-center wannabe.

My son is a Millennial, as his his wife. They both have advanced degrees in fields that allow them to have a very Good income. Much better than mine was before I retired. There are two motorcycles in their garage. A Honda VTX1300c and a Triumph Thruxton. Among their circle of close friends, also  mostly Millennials I can count the following motorcycles: Triumph Rocket !!!, Heritage Softtalil classic, Two Victory Cross Countrys ( a husband and wife own identical bikes), A Harley Vrod, A Honda cb300f and a brand new Softalil Slim. There are also a couple of small dirt bikes that one couples' kids ride.

" The only way I see the motorcycle industry prying money out of their hands it to sell the motorcycle as a viable means of transportation."

I'm not too sure about that. The young folks I'm referring to all use cars or trucks as their primary means of transportation. The bikes are recreational vehicles.

The common denominator is a certain level of disposable income. And possibly growing up in a household where they were exposed to motorcycles. My son, and some of the others, had Dads that rode, or ride, so they had some exposure to bikes growing up.

I think Harley has two big problems. Its product line is not diverse enough, and it's marketing strategy is just plain stupid.

They need to stop with the "wind in your hair, "rebel without a clue" nonsense and focus on the motorcycles themselves, which, when used for what they were designed for, are mostly good bikes. The big touring bikes especially.

They also need to figure out a way to get the dealers on board when a model that's out of the HD mainstream is introduced. The Street line for example. Those are not bad bikes-although the first model year examples had some issues that have since been resolved - but when you walk into a dealership and ask about one and the salesman tells you "Nah, You don't want one of those. How about this Sportster over here ? It's not that much more and it's a 'real Harley'", they aren't going to sell very many, especially to folks looking to buy their first bike, or their first Harley.

There are 4 HD dealers within 50 miles of where I live. There is not a single 2018 or 2019 Street model in the current  inventory at any of them.You can't sell what you don't have, even if you want to.Same thing happened to the Vrod, and of course Buell.

And then there is the Livewire. Any one at the Motor Company who had anything to do with that debacle needs to be looking for work in another field.

I like Harleys. I own one. I wish them well. There is nothing wrong with the motorcycles. There is a lot wrong with the folks running the company right now unfortunately.