I don't want to get into a flame war here but i can't really agree with the BMW as far as my experience with them goes. My dealings with BMW weren't great and the dealer wasn't super good either. Early Flying Brick models ...the K Bikes had a problem where they smoked like a two stroke if the bike was left on the sidestand for any length of time..and for a while, the factory's response to correct the smoking problem was to put the bike on the centre stand..imagine that eh? The service for the BMW wasn't cheap either and each time I brought the bike in I worried as to whether or not I was going to get another mark on the bike. I don't have that problem with the Harley shop here. the motor company is anal in a lot of ways but the local shops look after their customers.......up this way at least. and wrenching your ride is a good thing.
My Personal Take on The MOCO
A lot of folks here wonder why I so passionately express certian viewes I hold. Many times that passion displays itself in an insulting manner. I assure you, it is never meant as a personal attack on an individual. It is always focused at some "system".
The MoCo is a large Corporation. As such, their job is to turn profits for the investors. These well laid plans at conducting bussiness in the most highly profitable fashion calls for vision.
Scan forward 20 years now. What do you see as far as The Harley Davidson that will travel the roads? Shall they have stuck to tradition in style or will they have gone to the jet age look around them? Although the Roadking of today can look back decades and see the like style, not so in the year 2022. Our experiment in the years 2002 and 2003 proved that the real money was in the rich guy who just had to have something he could say he owned. We released the V-Rod and many a folk laid down the cash and parked them in their garages so they could show their friends on Bridge Night. It was almost funny but proved to be a good market ploy when the following year we released the SE RoadKing. We then saw many of the V-Rod Owners trade in at a loss a bike they did not ride just so they could get the latest fad Harley. Therefore we deduced that change is a good thing and the more dramatic the change the easier to market at higher prices the new bikes. This is why today you see no resembelance of the Traditional Harley of old.
Scan back to today and if you were around in the 70's and 80's look around. We are being weeded out by The Company. Today the MOCO hires folks just to track down any of those dirty bikers who dares have a problem with them. The avid need to control the market demands that a rainbow of false marketing ploys be used to attract the new guy that has the bucks to burn. Creating a new breed of "biker" was no small task, but they have done it.
My problem with the MoCo is that they are destroying the very Spirit that kept them alive when they were going down hard. It was at that time that customer loyalty rallied the life back into The MoCo. There was one and one type of customer then and without them even the AMF bailout would not have saved them. The loyalty thing was big because the bikes were not the best thing on the road at the time, hell, they still aren't. But the people stayed their ground and supported Harley Davidson.
Well those same "type bikers" today are becoming more and more amazed at the cold transition of this Company. They are big enough to believe they don't need "us" anymore and they are probably right. They look to and will find a way to attract folks that they don't have to be all that loyal to.
Yes, they are killing The Spirit slowly that eventually will place us as a small footnote in the History Books, wherefrom I fear, is the only way our great grandkids will ever come to hear the term, "Biker."
Oh and they are greedy shitheads to.
The MoCo is a large Corporation. As such, their job is to turn profits for the investors. These well laid plans at conducting bussiness in the most highly profitable fashion calls for vision.
Scan forward 20 years now. What do you see as far as The Harley Davidson that will travel the roads? Shall they have stuck to tradition in style or will they have gone to the jet age look around them? Although the Roadking of today can look back decades and see the like style, not so in the year 2022. Our experiment in the years 2002 and 2003 proved that the real money was in the rich guy who just had to have something he could say he owned. We released the V-Rod and many a folk laid down the cash and parked them in their garages so they could show their friends on Bridge Night. It was almost funny but proved to be a good market ploy when the following year we released the SE RoadKing. We then saw many of the V-Rod Owners trade in at a loss a bike they did not ride just so they could get the latest fad Harley. Therefore we deduced that change is a good thing and the more dramatic the change the easier to market at higher prices the new bikes. This is why today you see no resembelance of the Traditional Harley of old.
Scan back to today and if you were around in the 70's and 80's look around. We are being weeded out by The Company. Today the MOCO hires folks just to track down any of those dirty bikers who dares have a problem with them. The avid need to control the market demands that a rainbow of false marketing ploys be used to attract the new guy that has the bucks to burn. Creating a new breed of "biker" was no small task, but they have done it.
My problem with the MoCo is that they are destroying the very Spirit that kept them alive when they were going down hard. It was at that time that customer loyalty rallied the life back into The MoCo. There was one and one type of customer then and without them even the AMF bailout would not have saved them. The loyalty thing was big because the bikes were not the best thing on the road at the time, hell, they still aren't. But the people stayed their ground and supported Harley Davidson.
Well those same "type bikers" today are becoming more and more amazed at the cold transition of this Company. They are big enough to believe they don't need "us" anymore and they are probably right. They look to and will find a way to attract folks that they don't have to be all that loyal to.
Yes, they are killing The Spirit slowly that eventually will place us as a small footnote in the History Books, wherefrom I fear, is the only way our great grandkids will ever come to hear the term, "Biker."
Oh and they are greedy shitheads to.
