Harley-Davidson has been in the news a lot lately, and not always for great things. The company's coffers have seen a routine decline in recent years, if not decades, largely in part due to its intransigence toward change. Cruisers, and the lifestyle the brand has cultivated with the Boomer generation, have remained the steadfast direction, even as that market slips.
To its credit, the Motor Co. has offered other options, including the pretty damn great Pan America platform. But one motorcycle that still costs as much as the rest of the bagger lineup, things that only the wealthy can afford, doesn't make for a sound business model. And its delving into electrification has been...not the best, as even those started pricey, come down to more reasonable MSRPs, but failed to capture the audience it most desperately needs: The youths.
I've opined about this topic a lot since taking over RideApart, as I've hope the brand could see the forest for the trees. I still very much like Harleys, the brand, and the American spirit that's baked into the company's DNA. And I've come to the brand's defense when idiotic D-tier political commentators believed that it was Harley's going woke that caused its financial issues. It freakin' wasn't.
