Partly a test post to see if I'm "live" as I'm a rare visitor to this excellent site but really old chap, "Harleys are such crap motorcycles" !! I often say they are the motorcycling equivalent of a Morgan, a niche within their sector, a marmite choice. "Sacrificed engineering in favour of image", you could say that about Morgans, not exactly cutting edge are they lets face it but thats why we love em and the same with Harley's although now they are far from being the agricultural tool of perception, people buy Harleys precisely because of the iconic V twin engine and sound and Harley have been very careful not to muck about too much with it and thus miff off their massive customer base. Harleys image was not created by Harley, it was created by their original customers way back who where modifying and customizing them, it was Harley who recognised this and then started marketing it with their own factory customs, the rest is history. They also have the best residual values of any motorcycling make. Not all Harley riders are weekend Hells Angels, bit like saying all BMW riders are pipe smoking IAM members ( certainly the image 20 years ago ), same could be said of sports bike riders who ride around looking like Valentino Rossi but hey, we're all marketing victims to some degree, I can't believe an element of our Morgan purchase choice was'nt in part a perceived imaged. By the way I speak as a BMW S1000R and 1981 Harley Shovelhead owner amongst others. Other than that, I tend to agree that the world is morphing into a vacuous image, selfie obsessed nightmare but manufacturers need to cultivate newer, younger customers for their brands to survive and this is the new way whether we approve or not, it ain't going away !
