[marcinx27]

To sort of piggy back off of your point, I think Harley is headed for the rocks and it all comes down to number 1. Harley has such a concrete demographic and it's been exhausted. The problem is, by catering so hard to that demographic they are not able to get new riders.

To make matters worse, things like electric motorcycles, discontinuing the Dyna / FXR line, and changing from an air cooled engine to a liquid cooled engine is also annoying their diehard demographic.

The only demographic which seems to be growing (though, I'm extremely biased on this) is younger kids who are getting into customizing motorcycles. Not "Orange County Chopper" bikes, but buying old Harleys (or Triumphs or BSAs or Hondas for that matter) and making them into cool choppers or cafe racers or whatever. The problem is, this demographic doesn't give Harley any money. They don't want the Harley branded everything. They want old bikes that they can get cheap aftermarket or NOS parts for and they want to ride those.

[cptskippy]

This is the reality for a lot of companies, they have built themselves around the baby boomers who are getting to old and dying off. They've all but ignored the younger generations and now must face the reality that soon no one will care about their brand and they'll wither and die just like their core demographic.

Even if millennials suddenly thought Harley was cool, they wouldn't have the money to afford one.