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What a great article, Jeremiah. I talked to several of my friends who were working at Rossmeyer's Destination Daytona HD shop. They all confirmed what we already knew: sales sucked. One guy, Anthony, has taken off from his regular job to work HD sales during Bike Week for years. Usually he expects to make $10-15K for two weeks; this year he said he'd made just $2k by then end of the second week. Randy, the Sales Manager at Arlen Ness, was hoping it was just the weather...but I suspect it's not that simple.
I'm not sure I agree with your cultural comments on why motorcycling is dimming. Your points may have some vailidity, but I think it's just that a fad is coming to an end. We could have dug up a lot of reasons why Hula-Hoops fell out of favor, but really, it was just a matter of once they'd had a chance to try them, most people found out they weren't really that fun and interesting after all. On to yo-yos.
Couldn't agree more on the Adventure Touring thoughts. No matter where I was, the BMWs and other AT bikes came through in packs. Every one of them had thousand$ in farkels. I agree, it's clearly the "next big thing" within the motorcycle genre. And, like 99.9% of all the 4WD SUVs sold, they'll never leave the pavement. But, you're right, compared to choppers AT bikes are a great direction for the industry to go in.
See you at Biketoberfest?
I'm not sure I agree with your cultural comments on why motorcycling is dimming. Your points may have some vailidity, but I think it's just that a fad is coming to an end. We could have dug up a lot of reasons why Hula-Hoops fell out of favor, but really, it was just a matter of once they'd had a chance to try them, most people found out they weren't really that fun and interesting after all. On to yo-yos.
Couldn't agree more on the Adventure Touring thoughts. No matter where I was, the BMWs and other AT bikes came through in packs. Every one of them had thousand$ in farkels. I agree, it's clearly the "next big thing" within the motorcycle genre. And, like 99.9% of all the 4WD SUVs sold, they'll never leave the pavement. But, you're right, compared to choppers AT bikes are a great direction for the industry to go in.
See you at Biketoberfest?
