This thread and the various links adequately cover the global (and Indian) decline of HD. Let me share my personal experience from last year when I was planning on buying a bigger bike.
As you can see from my signature, I ended up with RE Interceptor 650 - so it is no mystery that I did not go for HD or any other big bike for that matter.

My budget was around ₹12lakh with capacity of +₹1lakh if I really liked something. My use case was breakfast/day rides and also as daily commuter.

Street Series: The Street series was out of contention for me. Personal opinion but I don't like the looks at all (too squat) and the riding position was not comfortable for me. Still I had a small test ride and loved the torque but it heats up lot and does not give the HD feel. If forced, I would much rather go for the superior Vulcan in the same price range.

Iron 883: Next I had a test ride of the HD 883. Prior to my visiting the showroom, my online research and talking to some owners had lead me to believe that this would be the one I buy. The test ride was an eye opener. The clutch and gears shift was extremely clunky. The suspension is almost non-existent. And as expected, the bike has good amount of vibrations. How can HD sell this bike in 2019 and at this price point?

Anyway I have to admit the riding position and the torque and the sound (the test bike had aftermarket exhaust) makes you feel very cool
Back from the ride, when I talked to the sales guy, he told me this is the HD "character and soul". But I can get improved suspension and the screaming eagle exhaust (and pillion seat) for the low low price of ₹1.20 to ₹1.5 lakh. The whole thing was pushing the price of the bike over ₹13 lakh on-road.

Roadster 1200: So the salesman suggested, I try out the Roadster which comes with better engine and suspension and a price of just over 13lakh. I took a test ride and the suspension is better than the 883. Not great but atleast acceptable. The braking is also much better. The engine was smoother but it heats up more. The riding stance was more aggressive than I wanted. And the clutch/gearbox continues to remain clunky. Overall I liked the bike.

However the Roadster has fuel tank size so small, that the bike range is just over 100km. My commute (pre-Covid offcourse) is around 30km per day. And I did not want to spend 15-20 mins every 3rd day at Petrol pump. The salesman suggested a bigger accessory tank. I would also need a different handlebar to make the stance less aggressive and offcourse the aftermarket exhausts. With all of this the price of bike was crossing ₹14 lakh on-road.

At this point, I could not really justify this amount of money for bikes I liked but did not really love. The salesman tried to convince me about how the HD is personalized with various accessories. This can be a good point, if accessories are just that and not equipment which should already be on the bike. And the insane pricing of these accessories. I remember the sales guy telling me that the pillion footpegs assembly for Iron 883 was something like ₹5000!
Later I found out, the loyalists fondly refer to this as the "Harley Tax" but I refuse to pay it.

And I think this is the big problem facing HD. They marketed and sold the bikes as mostly toys for rich people. And now rich people are moving onto something else. (Yes I know HD are used here and abroad for hardcore touring but the percentage of those users is small and cannot support the growth they want)

Apparently, the Iron/Evolution engine series has been in production since 80s with some updates along the way. If so, their tooling and depreciation costs must have been covered years ago - so why is the price not cheaper? Alternatively the equipment level should have been better to justify the costs. How does Triumph manage to sell the far superior Speed Twin / Scrambler XC for the lesser price?

Personally, I am not surprised by this rumour around HD shutting shop in India. They are struggling for global survival and it makes sense for them to cut the cord on smaller/less profitable markets.
I have never been a ‘Harley guy’ and while I have always appreciated seeing them roll down the highways, its not my genre.
To my mind, their problem is evolution, or the lack of it. In hindsight I am sure their management would have done things differently over the past decade but then this is an unforgiving industry. If you dont read the writing on the wall well in advance you have no one else to blame.

Agricultural bikes with poor refinement, these are mainly iconic with the American Baby Boomers and their children, both demographics have retired or are rapidly retiring from riding. The American markets have matured and people in general tend to prefer Nakeds, ADVs or outliers like the Honda Goldwing.

Indian markets too are maturing, we prefer quality over an aspirational brand from the yester years with questionable products. It's not just India, but they're a dying breed and their current attempts may very well be their swan song.

Triumph itself isn't doing any good when it comes to sales in India! Harley does have problems but IMO if they were to just cut prices of spare parts & accessories to a logical level, they would have survived with whatever junk they are selling. India is a maintenance sensitive market, high cost of ownership wouldn't cut much ice over here.

Triumph is doing a lot better than Harley worldwide. The Indian market is irrelevant since no high end bike brand has done well here. My point about comparing with Triumph was diversification. Imagine Harleys performance in India if it wasn't for the Harley Street which is very unlike any Harley bike as it sports Harleys first liquid cooled engine. Harley needs newer products than just more of the same old that is slowly going out of fashion.

That said I had gone for a ride on 15th and I saw two Harley guys riding. I think it was a Fatboy and it had amazing road presence. My friend had a Hyosung Aquila which is also a big bike but the Hyosung had a fraction of the road presence as the Harley. The Harley guy was just cruising around at 80 and he looked very comfortable doing so. My butt was already getting sore after just 150 kms of riding so seeing him enjoying his ride I started to get some sense of why people buy Harleys.

Has HD finally admitted defeat in India?

At the time of launch it held a lot of potential and promise. But, one misstep after the other, a half baked domestic product launch, poor after sales, dealer troubles..... and dwindling sales. HD found out the hard way that simply having a once iconic brand name can only take you so far!

Perhaps the final nail in the coffin was the success of the RE 650 twins. India had the hunger for a bigger twin cylinder leisure bike, RE executed it a lot better than HD.

I think HDs future in India will focus on cbu and a much smaller dealer network.

https://www.thehindu.com/business/In...le32397914.ece

Will be sad to see HDs go out, if they do. But then, as per this documentary, them being in trouble is routine. Apparently they have driven the patriotic wave in the domestic market to stay afloat (got Govt. bail out as well during the Ronald Regan era) and now the writing is on the wall.

It hurts me a lot to read these rumours going around. I have been a Harley Fatboy fan ever since I understood motorcycles and was a couple of years away from buying one. That was before covid. But if they shut shop it won't be wise at all getting one. And even if they do stick around now with a doubtful future it always makes it risky getting one.
Guess all dreams are not meant to be :(

Harleys if maintained well can easily outlive a generation. They are solidly built, old school, zero (cheap) plastic and simple to maintain. There is a reason Harleys are heavy- all solid steel! You can easily DIY most of the routine maintenance. There are tons of videos on Youtube and helpful forums around to sort you out, if stuck. Parts will not be a problem, as Fat Boy is a international favourite model (I have a last generation Fat Boy) and you can easily import, even if they shut shop here.

Don't limit your dreams due to rumours and speculations.

Fat Boy has distinct "all metal" rim (shining chrome on last generation, brushed alloy in latest) and wide rear tyre (widest in Harley range). It is difficult to miss . Harleys are like sofa on wheels, on a smooth tarmac. My Fat Boy touches triple digits at around 2150 rpm (almost like car). Newer ones will probably do that at ~2000 rpm. These low RPM cruising are less tiring.

Cheers,
-BJ

Source:
https://gaadiwaadi.com/harley-davids...on-report/amp/

As an MBA, PhD. candidate who's also a college professor, I know a little about business and I would like to give my opinion about the situation.

First, a little backdrop...

But, what they didn't understand was that, a product range is a pyramid...

The bottom end products are like a pyramid's bottom stones:- they're produced in huge numbers, but they're not too visible/ attractive, but they support the top range...
The top range products are like top stones of the pyramid:- they're lesser in number, but they shine afar from a huge distance.
A company like Hero MotoCorp is like a huge pyramid without a top stone- it is performing, but lacks an appeal.
A company like Ducati or Harley is like a very small pyramid, no bottom end to support its top performance products...


A company in India can't survive on ONLY premium products! Period.
Your products will sell in 4 digit numbers, your dealers will remain frustrated and quit, and your customers will leave too, in the long run.


You must have a bottom end. A 150cc cruiser is a must.
Now, I know what you're thinking- a 150cc will kill the brand value of Harley Davidson, and you're 100% right!
But who told you must use HD as a brand for your bottom range?


Volkswagen group doesn't use Bugatti or Lamborghini brand name for a 1600cc road based sedan, it uses "Volkswagen" for it.


Similarly, I wonder why Harley managers couldn't develop a decent bottom range product on an altogether different, lower brand...

They should've made a smaller brand with 150-250cc cruisers, with no mention of Harley at all... Something like Street, but with cheaper products, around the 1L range.
They could've gone electric commuting way too, seeing the LiveWire concept few years ago.


I'll repeat:- A company in India can't survive on ONLY premium products...
... or it has to loot a lot of parties to do so, particularly the customers, just to survive.

HD today is the Nokia (Nokia TM is used a HMD global for phones today :P) of the pre-android era not refusing to give the market what it wants. The post WW2 gen had prosperity and the knack of fixing things. However, today's generation doesn't have that. The Japanese motorcycles have evolved to give customer what they wanted. HD failed to do so.

HD leaving the Indias market is akin to a surgeon amputating a damaged toe in a foot that has suffered multiple fractures. I wish they can be successful again, but a reintroduced HD might be like Jawa in India today.

I felt sick in my stomach when I saw the three words from my moist eyes, "Might Exit India."

My love for big fat bikes came right from this brand. Staying in Jodhpur and Jaipur for a good 8 years of my life, I had a fair share of HD experience (though I'm not an HD owner yet) and had opportunities to lay my hands..err..wrist on them. I still remember my first visit to HD Jaipur showroom back in 2012-2013. I spent hours discussing the bikes with them along with all the accessories. Here's a couple of old pics I have from those days -




Skinny me trying to look like a prospective buyer

I have even helped HD in a financial way too. Though we were not legally allowed to ride/drive back then, I convinced a rich friend of mine to get a HD for himself. .



Sorry for the bad image, but what a sweet ride it was!!

Nostalgia hit me like a train writing this down.
I hope, Adios, HD.

I am not a biker, I don’t even know how to ride a motorbike or scooter (Bicycles are a different matter). So I cannot comment on whether Harleys are good bikes or bad ones - have some friends who use them for early Sunday morning rides (like the Ferrari owners of SoBo) and a couple who have Harleys in the USA and barely use them even there.

But when you are selling a lifestyle product in a growth economy, the above attitude of the dealership and the company management in not pulling the dealer up is shocking and foolhardy. There are plenty of threads on Team BHP of folks who own BMWs or Mercs today - who started off with Padminis or 800s or (like yours truly) even a second hand Zen. If I were running a Merc showroom, I would certainly not be rude about test rides to anyone - there are simply dressed, non English speaking businessmen who may be immediate customers, and there are others who could be customers a decade later.

For a product which even more than a Luxury car is about identity, I would welcome any such customer with open arms, and have perhaps sent a free headband or a coupon to buy a jacket at a discount to Rahul above. You need to build that ownership of the brand - which will get people to ignore that fact that riding a bike in Indian cities with their heat, humidity, traffic and pollution is crazy - and plonk down a million bucks for one of your products.

If this attitude has been consistent and not one off, I am not surprised Harley is facing this fate. From a customer perspective of course, the problem also lies with the autarkic economic policies we pursue - I can understand protecting mass car or bike manufacturing with tariffs, but it makes no sense whatsoever to have high import duties on niche bikes which force companies to make them locally. (You want to discourage their use, have high GST or OTT - similar to the slab wise system used for cars.)

Anyway, let me leave this thread to the bikers. Ciao.

This news brings tears in my eyes since I've had one of the best days with my fellow Harley riders family. As an avid biker and HD enthusiast, I've ridden thousands of kilometres across India and made the best of friends in our Harley groups. The thing that people don't understand which only the HOG's do (Harley Owners Group), is that when you buy a Harley, you don't just buy a bike, but you also join a family.

The HOG's are not just a group for weekend rides; it's someone you can count on. You know you will have your HOG brothers even at 3 am when you need them, you will have them all line up to donate blood if your family member needs it, they will help you shift your house, they will assist your family when you are not around, and they will also accommodate you around any corner of India. The list is endless! Harley Davidson became famous for not just their bikes but also for their motorcycle club legacy. For the great brotherhood that comes with its bikes. Unfortunately, those who never experienced it will never realise what they missed out on and how amazing it is to be a part of this family: the HOG rallies, the charity rides, the awareness rides and whatnot. Damn, am I a sad man today. Will leave a couple of pics below of just a drop of the memories I made with my Lovely Harleys and the HOG brethren.

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