Hypothetical - you're in charge of HD. What would you do?

[atadaskew]

Remember, you are held responsible to the employees, share holders, turning a profit.
You are running it as a business.

What would I do differently?  Nothing.

[black hills]

business as usual, why mess with success?

[DogBoy]

Hire Elton John for the 110th anniversary celebration.

[Prubert]

Give that handsome devil down in the Marketing a HUGE raise!  

[miles]

More bass-boat paint jobs.  Sparkles rule.

[Cricket1]

Try and retrieve the company from 1957..........  oh wait, they tried that with Buell.

[squeezer]

I'd have jumped over Audi to buy Ducati so I could sell it back a few years later for a buck.  

[atadaskew]

Try and retrieve the company from 1957..........  oh wait, they tried that with Buell.

So what would you do?  You haven't actually answered anything.
Remember, it's a business.  And right now they are doing extremely well again.

What would you change given the criteria in the original posting?

[Cricket1]

So what would you do?  You haven't actually answered anything.
Remember, it's a business.  And right now they are doing extremely well again.

What would you change given the criteria in the original posting?

Wow, that was easy to get you riled up. 

[atadaskew]

Wow, that was easy to get you riled up. 

Ahh, ok, so you have no suggestions.

Which in itself means that you don't think Harley should change anything that they are doing.

[DNA]

I'd add a scooter line- possible sold at in separate chanel.

Seriously - their demo is aging and the city kids these days are buying 'em up trying to be all euro.  

Scooters sell in he city like 4 wheels to rednecks.

If they can replicate the HD cache with scooters somehow (think Vespa) - that would be a big win that would fund future growth.

[garry]

HD is very successful, so why mess with a machine that prints money? From a selfish perspective, a bike like the XR1200X, but lighter, better suspended, etc. A true SPORTster from the factory.

[atadaskew]

I'd add a scooter line- possible sold at in separate chanel.

Seriously - their demo is aging and the city kids these days are buying 'em up trying to be all euro.  

Scooters sell in he city like 4 wheels to rednecks.

If they can replicate the HD cache with scooters somehow (think Vespa) - that would be a big win that would fund future growth.

Interestingly enough Harley did sell a scooter years ago - called the Topper.

And funnily enough Yamaha recently copied that design with their C3 scooter.

[highside]

Mostly i would keep doing what they have been doing. I would try introducing some different models to appeal to younger riders at a price point they could afford. I really think that something like the XR1200 flat-track back could have been something awesome if it had been done right. Smaller displacement standards to compete the Bonneville type retro bikes would probably be well received.

I would really like to try an in-house Buel type project and develop some more modern street bikes. Harleys do have some great attributes that could make for some fantastic street / touring bikes (i'm thinking 100,000 mile interval belt drives and tremendously low-maintenance motors that are cheap to fix). There is room to expand the line while keeping the core business going strong.

[coucours grad]

I'd offer a water cooled Shaft drive based on the Vrod on a geaser pleaser frame...



   I'd make it cool to wear helmets and gear....



  and I'd buy Moto Guzzi.... That way I could also sell 100 year old technology with alittle Italian flare!!!

[falconati]

Probably not much.

[veefer800canuck]

V-rod based heavyweight tour model. Full bags, topcase, the works.

[coho]

I'd have the special projects group build me something like the Motus for my own personal use, change absolutely nothing about the products that the pirate folk seem to be buying in droves and sleep like a baby on top of a big pile of money with many beautiful ladies.

[Carbonero]

I'd have the special projects group build me something like the Motus for my own personal use, change absolutely nothing about the products that the pirate folk seem to be buying in droves and sleep like a baby on top of a big pile of money with many beautiful ladies.

I like what you're thinking.

I also like the V-Rod-based tourer, except NOT in the V-Rod frame. It's not the tool for the job.

Put the 'Rod engine in the touring frame bikes, add 2" to the frame length and dedicate that to passenger compartment, get in bed with Traxxion Dynamics for the CVO bikes, then give clinics on EVERY SINGLE OTHER BIKE MANUFACTURER on how to PROPERLY build a fuel injection system.

Drop the price of the Dyna base models and the sportsters, each by $1000.

Pare down the Sportster line, put the missing 2" back in the ride height, put wheels that weight less than 40lbs on them (that alone could increase the handling and stability of those bikes), and make ONE - ONE - Sportster 883, move all others to the 1200.

Sell fewer pre-packaged trims of the Sportster, and just make the catalog items more affordable so it becomes more of a platform to build what the buyer really wants.

Put mid controls on everything, make forward controls a buy-up feature for a premium price. If it's going to ruin the riding experience, hurt your lower back and make you look stupid going down the road, it should be premium-priced.  

[Rincewind]

Get back into racing.  Get back into the dual-sport market and market to the military again.  As suggested, get back into the scooter market.  Push forward the plans for a 500cc or smaller model.  In other words - re-diversify and innovate beyond the existing models, as they have done previously.

And nix the metal flake, too.