Harley was feeling the pinch before the recession hit. Harley boomed in the late 80's and 90's when all the mid life crisis guy's ran out and bought one. Well those blokes are all in their 60's and 70's now. The new mid life crisis guy's are all buying adventure bikes and touring the outback.
All the young blokes are buying or building aftermarket choppers.
I visited the Buell factory back in '91, before it was bought by Harley. It was just a small workshop down a lane way in a small town. I ended up buying a 2000 Buell Cyclone. It has the 1200 sporster motor but with shaved flywheels' lumpy cams and high flow heads from the factory. What a beast of a machine. It handles and stops like nothing else.
It's funny, back in the 60' and 70's when everyone bought an old 42 WLA for their first Harley. One that already had had about twenty previous first time Harley owners. Owners that all brought their unique four thumb no idea mechanics to the maintenance schedule. Therefore most bikes where mechanically stuffed. keep in mind that most bike where twenty to thirty years old on average, and that people were trying to use them as daily riders.
This gave them a reputation for being unreliable that has lived to this day.
The irony is, is that they are dead reliable.
