Harley-Davidson motorcycle is more than just transportation. It really is an American icon and is one of a . . . handful that we're left with culturally. I'd put it in the same class as jazz music. |
It's colliding head-on with a demographic trend in that now you have the baby boomers. The average Harley customer is 46-years-old -- my age -- and they didn't have the money or the time to ride a motorcycle back in the '70s. So there's this nostalgia for the freedom and the rebellion of that era. |
Many of the Harley executives will take off for days, sometime weeks at a time, [to] attend these rallies and these rides. Very, very few companies' senior executives can say that they actually spend several days a year with the product, with the customers, out in the field. |