How long will wannabe outlaw bikers keep buying custom cruisers? As long as the Discovery channel (now known as "The Chopper Channel") keeps airing shows like American Chopper and the Biker Build-Off.
The popular media has convinced a whole generation of men in their mid-life crisis with entirely too much disposable income that their misable, middle-class life just won't be complete until they buy a chopper. Even if they've never ridden a bike before. It used to be that these guys would either have an affair or buy a Porsche. I constantly see guys riding shiny new customs, wearing brand new riding gear, who obviously don't know how to ride. Ever hear of the MSF?
Just this past year I've begun to see a lot of these custom bikes sitting on front lawns with "For Sale" signs on them. There is a lot of them on eBay too. And not surprisingly, they sit on that lawn for a long time. Their owners sell them when they realize that they've been sold a over-priced, unrelable, unridable piece of driveway jewelery. And they're not the babe-magnet they were led to believe they were. Hey! The bike is just the ice-breaker, you have to have a personality to carry the conversation.
A small company making one-of customs might make it, but when they go main stream like Excelsior-Henderson or Indian, they'll fail because the market just isn't there. How many custom clone companies have come and gone (and come again)? Titan, Ultra, Indian, E-H, Confederate, and others. The list gets longer every year.
my sportster has rear shocks and three disc brakes...
