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[Ghost Rider]

Agreed Travis.  And, again, it's not the kid service writer at the dealership or the tech behind the wall I fault.  They're low on the food chain and only know what they're told.  The company reps are a different story though.  Or the surprisingly demeaning and laborious process too many have to go through themselves to get even a response out of the company that should be easy.

Troubling economic times, one would think, would make an otherwise financially healthy company seek to maintain its base rather than alienate them.  It's just too easy to see only the short term and not exercise either the intellectual effort or even baseline of courage necessary to raise your head over the screen and look ahead farther than your front wheel.  We all know what happens to riders that only look down at their front wheel though. They crash.

I am in total agreement with you.  I guess what I spent that entire diatribe trying to say is, "there is bad information going every direction."  I don't think anyone knows the entire depth of the problem.  The members of this board may represent a decent sampling of 110 owners, but I don't know that.  We ride our bikes.  If there are problems or issues we'll find it first.  We all know there are thousand of these 110's sitting in garages getting a grand total of 100 miles a year put on them.  Even if 30-50% of site members with 110's are having problems, that may represent only 2% of total production.  Something Harley would call "isolated."

I know what your saying its the arrogance you can't stand.  They have a very firm mindset that it doesn't matter what they stuff inside the dealership as far as bikes, clothes, or parts we'll just mindlessly keep buying.  And if there is a problem it is the consumers fault for having the gall to put a non-harley part on the bike.  They will repremand us for our mistake, charge us $120.00/hr labor to "maybe" fix the problem and we'll pay it because its a privilege to own a Harley Davidson.  And that is what really gets us pi$$ed off.  We keep feeding this beast.  We've drank the kool-aid.  "Yes Willie G, it is a privilege to own a Harley Davidson."  I guess when we change our mindset, they will change their's.

 

Wow, I'm in a pi$$y mood for a Friday.  Where is that beer thread?  

[SBB]

Wow, I'm in a pi$$y mood for a Friday.  Where is that beer thread?  

Geeee
Never seen Travis in a pissy mood.
Interesting to say the least.
Hang in there Buddy, it will get better.

SBB


 

[Ghost Rider]

Geeee
Never seen Travis in a pissy mood.
Interesting to say the least.
Hang in there Buddy, it will get better.

SBB


 

Thanks Chip.  I will blame this on the fact that I haven't been able to ride for weeks.  The joy of riding usually off sets the crappiness of my job.  Without that realease I can become a bit of a "Richard head."   

[skreminegul07]

This issue reminds me so much of Learjets and how they dominated the aircraft corporate arena back in the 60's,70's with there awesome jets. They kept things the same never updated or believed they had to because they had a loyal customer base and so they never changed. then Cessna came out with a corporate jet that flew as fast as a Lear,as plush as a Lear and got much better gas milage at 1/2 the cost and there customer service was so much better!! The moral of the story is that Gates Learjet went out of business!!!

I think what everone is saying in a nutshell is that Harley needs to focus on Customer Service!! They have just saturated the market with motorcycles and made money up front but working with the customer and supporting there Engineering Blunders they are lacking!! I wonder why sales are down?? My 2 cents!!

Mty sentiments exactly.  If you read the annual reports, they tell the average age of the HD buyer.  It goes up each year and will soon be 50. At some point people cannot ride because of physical and mental limitations so this again is limited. That's why they started their training program with the Buell Blasts to get younger riders on a HD product.  They are also actively marketing to women also.
Several years ago, when there was a s"hortage", they produced around 200K bikes, now its over 300K.   Bikes for the most part have a very long life because they do not get ridden.  The simple economics is a flooded market.  Add poor quality, more alternatives like Victory, and a bad economy.  Voila!

[Ghost Rider]

Mty sentiments exactly.  If you read the annual reports, they tell the average age of the HD buyer.  It goes up each year and will soon be 50. At some point people cannot ride because of physical and mental limitations so this again is limited. That's why they started their training program with the Buell Blasts to get younger riders on a HD product.  They are also actively marketing to women also.
Several years ago, when there was a s"hortage", they produced around 200K bikes, now its over 300K.   Bikes for the most part have a very long life because they do not get ridden.  The simple economics is a flooded market.  Add poor quality, more alternatives like Victory, and a bad economy.  Voila!

Ooops.  I stand corrected, my mental limitations have put me in this pi$$y mood.  If not for my mental limitations, I'd be that CEO in the ivory tower who has no idea there are any problems anywhere.

Speaking of "ivory towers" I was always told that that term came from Proctor & Gamble and Ivory soap.  I do know that there corporate headquarters building actually does have two towers in it.  Fact or urban legend?