I think I must be cranky this AM but some of the responses are interesting at best. Guys, you know we are talking about a toy here... HD is not inventing the cure for leprosy or preventing world peace. Face it, a motorcycle is a luxury item that we buy to have fun with and in some cases get from point A to point B. Like most on this board I have owned many bikes over the years. Most have been HD brand...I think my count is up to 11 or so. My point is I see folks getting upset over a rather silly thing...a piece of machinery. As someone said, if you don't like what HD is selling...don't buy the bloody thing. Go get a BMW, or Honda, or an older HD if that is what makes you smile. One grows weary of the constant discussion of the short comings of the HD offerings. They work. Are they perfect, hell no, but then again it is just a toy...a hobby...a diversion...Life goes on no matter what HD does or doesn't do. And now I will be quiet and my flame suit on. Later.
What happens here, my opinion, and on other forums is: Somebody has a bike they have just spent $xxxx.xx on customizing, & that bike is 1-5 (or more years old). To them,it is the best bike out there. Therefore,any new bike, in this case a 2017 Harley, is of little interest to them. The colors, features, improvements, etc. don't matter. Why? They are not in the market for a bike, they like the one they are on. Also, they could be in a financial position not conducive to a trade. some of these folks bitch about the new bikes, because they can.
Then you have the constant biatchers. HD is bad, the bikes are lousy, all stuff HD does is crap, yadda yadda. The cloud of HD impending doom follows them on their posts. And even that is the MOCOs fault. Could call it "Harley Derangement Syndrome". They have had a bike with problems invariably. Others wonder why in hell they don't just sell that HD and buy something else. BTW, I know plenty of people with "something else". Recalls, part failures, service department issues, unreliability - yep, HD does not have the market cornered on that, it is spread across MC bike brands. Somebrands are better, others worse, it is subjective as well as situational.
Also there are kool aid drinkers who don't see anything wrong with Harley. Love Harley long time, very happy with the MoCo, you just shut the hell up complaining. Fewer of them these days though. HD ownership for a long enough time will take care of that.
Others have older bikes (or newer bikes) and are looking to maybe trade for a 2017, for a wide variety of reasons. The criticisms when legit can be helpful to these potential buyers, pointing out real issues or valid potential ones. Trick is to weed out the good stuff from the static. And some days, there is a lot of static...
Does Harley have room for improvement? Of course it does. Service levels are a cost of doing business. Have never seen any company at 100% service level, cost becomes too great. Theory is should be as close as possible though. If service is bad a company gets a bad reputation and goodwill goes away. Hard to ever recover that, cost then is even greater. My opinion is bike part failures, reliability factors, service, and other similar issues are all costs of HD doing business that they have addressed. Sometimes for the better, other times not. The proof of the pudding is how well a company responds to and handles failures that are problems for their customers. That's what counts.
A long way of my saying, if it was as bad as I read it is sometimes, or if I felt the same way, HD ownership would become a passing memory not a current reality. Not the way I see it, therefore, it abides.