The adage "Build it and they will come" still works despite dark clouds over the stock market or real storm clouds menacing the Pomona Fair Grounds, aka L.A. Fairplex. Apparently no one showing up for the Easyriders V-Twin Bike Tour 2008 kick-off event had read the headline in The Milwaukee Sentinel that read "Harley-Davidson Stock Takes a Beating." Or maybe they didn’t even care. People will always need good beer, music and motorcycles, a prevailing wind that blows strong and steady in the world of custom bikes. Or does it?
Since I was the Editor of Hot Bike magazine eons ago and later one of the Eds at Easyriders, I’ve heard the debate about the "bubble bursting," the wags wagging about how the Great Surge (or Splurge) of bike building and bike sales had to come to an thumping, roadrash of an end. For years the bubble grew and showed no signs of collapse. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes paled in strength so it seemed. The motorcycle industry and with it custom bikes was part of our living/breathing/replicating lifestyle. It would not go the way of the dinosaur, unless we did.
But back to the report from The Motor Co.’s own hometown newspaper. "Shares fell $9.84 to $48.93, a 16.7% drop. That was the company's worst fall on Wall Street in 14 years. Several investment firms downgraded the stock. The company lost almost $3 billion in market value."
Grim news? The handwriting on the garage wall leaving a doomsday forecast? For those with short- or long-term memory loss, the Motor Co. has survived over 100 years of market downturns, aka Depressions, and depressing management at times. Several years ago they got their act together and made history of history.
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Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show Tour on Motorcycle.com
