Topic: Sure sign of a faltering economy?

[Trevor from Warragul]

The number of Harley-Davidsons for sale!

I regularly search Bikesales.com.au for Harley-Davidson Sportsters for sale in Victoria, Australia. In the past I'd get around 25 results. Yesterday it was 63! Toys are the 1st thing to go...

[dave500]

harleys aint really a toy?more like a piece of #$%*,wipe ya bum and be done with it?

[PeWe]

Has Honda released a new model?
Or have they seen the Rebel 1100 Youtube videos and visited a Honda reseller?

[Stev-o]

harleys aint really a toy?more like a piece of #$%*,wipe ya bum and be done with it?

Why are you sugar coating it, Dave?!!

[scottly]

What about some of the insanely high prices SOHC's are going for lately?

[BomberMann650]

Sportsters are often sold so the owner can get an FLH

[HondaMan]

What about some of the insanely high prices SOHC's are going for lately?

Well, gold always holds its value, ya know... 

[HondaMan]

Sportsters are often sold so the owner can get an FLH

My shop sold HD.
We thought the FLH meant:
F****d Lots Harder

[Don R]

  I think they hit the market saturation point around here. We had a legendary Harley shop, then corporate forced a move to the high rent district, old reliable owner bailed out and a corporation from the big city bought it. Now it's an empty building and there are Harleys for sale everywhere. My hardcore Harley buddies have sold their new bikes and are looking for old ones.
  I bought the last item from their parts dept, the small diameter valve stems for my tubeless Lesters. While I was waiting, they were rolling office equipment out into a truck.

[BenelliSEI]

  I think they hit the market saturation point around here. We had a legendary Harley shop, then corporate forced a move to the high rent district, old reliable owner bailed out and a corporation from the big city bought it. Now it's an empty building and there are Harleys for sale everywhere. My hardcore Harley buddies are looking for old ones.
  I bought the last item from their parts dept, the small diameter valve stems for my tubeless Lesters. While I was waiting, they were rolling office equipment out into a truck.

Don..... what you wrote above applies 100% to my local Harley Dealer. Identical story, right down to the brand new and now empty building!

[BomberMann650]

  I think they hit the market saturation point around here. We had a legendary Harley shop, then corporate forced a move to the high rent district, old reliable owner bailed out and a corporation from the big city bought it. Now it's an empty building and there are Harleys for sale everywhere. My hardcore Harley buddies are looking for old ones.
  I bought the last item from their parts dept, the small diameter valve stems for my tubeless Lesters. While I was waiting, they were rolling office equipment out into a truck.

HD is so much more than the trademarked store.

The privateers are doing some real cool chit.

[C317414]

  I think they hit the market saturation point around here. We had a legendary Harley shop, then corporate forced a move to the high rent district, old reliable owner bailed out and a corporation from the big city bought it. Now it's an empty building and there are Harleys for sale everywhere. My hardcore Harley buddies are looking for old ones.
  I bought the last item from their parts dept, the small diameter valve stems for my tubeless Lesters. While I was waiting, they were rolling office equipment out into a truck.

Triumph has done that to a few dealers.  They want them to have a separate, high-end showroom that's exclusively Triumph.  Some have gone out of business, and others have dropped Triumph.  I bought my Thruxton R from a successful multi-brand dealer, who dropped Triumph later as a result of their policies.  This dealer was 1/2 way between Seattle and the Canadian border.  Now, there are no Triumph dealers between Surrey, Canada and Seattle (130 miles).  This dealer was selling Triumphs successfully.  They just were not selling all the models that Triumph wanted them to stock, and they did not have an area exclusively for them.

[HondaMan]

I worked for 2 Honda shops before I opened my shop, which had an attached sales operation.
Both Honda shops struggled because of the single brand label, which Honda enforced from around 1964.
The sales company at my store/shop (TNT Enterprises) sold Honda, H-D, Yamaha, Suzuki, Hodaka and BMW because the main store was a giant. Yamaha wouldn't let them sell Yammies at my shop because the only motorcycle shop in the town (before mine) was a garage-size Yamaha dealer for 12 years (1 mile west of mine), so we sold all the others. If we hadn't done that, we'd never have made it because of the wide pricing differences: riders would come in and drool over the bike they WANTED to ride but couldn't afford, but would buy something less expensive so they could at least ride. In numbers, Suzukis were 50% of all sales, Honda and BMW were neck-and-neck at about 15% each, and the rest was split between H-D and Hodaka, although 95% of Hodaka stuff was parts for bikes already in town.

But, in the shop we took everything: more than 60% of the service work was on Hondas because all the college kids already had them from their homes, somewhere else. In the winter almost 100% of the work was on Hondas because they were being ridden even in the snow, not sure why the others weren't?

[dave500]

 In the winter almost 100% of the work was on Hondas because they were being ridden even in the snow, not sure why the others weren't?

you meet the coldest people on a Honda?

[HondaMan]

In the winter almost 100% of the work was on Hondas because they were being ridden even in the snow, not sure why the others weren't?

you meet the coldest COOLEST people on a Honda?

The HD engine made too much torque, too suddenly with its 80-ish-degree firing sequence, always breaking the traction of the rear wheel according to one of the riders I knew then. He had a Sportster and a SuperHawk, rode the SuperHawk most of the winter to school.