The article raises some excellent points about HD's customer base changing through the 2000's, and yes a lot of the riders new to the Harley "family" were the Malcom Forbes types who just wanted to be able to say they owned a Harley, AKA "yuppies" but then again some of those have become faithful owners.
However the argument on the price increases is a little weak without some context... According to the Bureau of labor statistics CPI inflation calculator, $3131.00 in 1977 dollars - the cost of a new 1977 XLCH equals $12,245 in 2015 dollars - which is actually less than the $10,650.00 MSRP of a 2015 Sportster 1200. The writer fails to acknowledge that the cost of EVERYTHING has gone up. I never thought I'd see $50K being the cost of a decently equipped pickup truck. The other side of the inflation coin is I FEEL better looking at my W2 each spring at tax time - thinking I make a decent wage
Are Harley's business practices really that different from any other manufacturer like Chevy, Ford or Toyota? Maximize corporate and shareholder profit by controlling both labor and material costs, this unfortunately usually means outsourcing, job losses and yes even threatening/intimidating the unions and municipalities into giving concessions - give us a wage concession(union) or a tax abatement(state/town) or we're moving our operation.
And yes the T-shirts are ridiculously priced, and have been for a while now, but I still have quite a few....
IMHO the quality of the product is suffering at the moment. Is that from efforts to integrate technologies beyond their core talents, rushing products to market in order to be "first", or from taking a few to many engineering shortcuts?, I don't know the answer to that one.
I am optimistic that the new competition from Polaris, Indian and the rest will, in the end , help HD to improve.
I guess it's a long winded way of saying I love my Harleys - warts and all.