I have a 2008 vilcan. Nomad. But it had metal shavings in it. So I’m saving for a new voyager. But my nomad I still ride it’s just a little slow and lagging at high speeds
Two things that I've heard from fellow Harley-Davidson riders I have met recently. I am still trying to wrap my head around. They said, "If your bikes breaks down, you want it to be a Harley" and 'If you want to customize a bike, it needs to be a Harley"🤷🏿♂. I still can't grasp that concept. Good stuff man, yeah Harley-Davidson has done a great job with marketing. Stay safe!!!
Lol Back in the day I had six Metric bikes ( rice grinders ). We had fun bashing Harleys. There was that saying, If I have to explain you wouldn't understand. After four Harleys I understand. Harleys more funner. Sorry you can't grasp that concept, it makes perfect sense to me. It's ok if you don't understand. I will wave to you and I won't try to run you off the road.
I do agree that for some people, there is a large allure of a branded Harley Davidson motorcycle. It’s all in the marketing. Just like women are conditioned from birth to like flowers, guys who are into motorcycles are conditioned to want Harley Davidson motorcycles because they were so prevalent in the market. There’s movies, TV shows, and all kinds of other media that glorify the Harley Davidson motorcycle. I’ve never seen a movie about a Yamaha V-Star touring motorcycle. And, it’s true that for the Kawasaki‘s that you and I both ride, there’s not as large an aftermarket accessory market as there is for Harley Davidson‘s. But parts for most Japanese cruisers are cheap-ish relatively. So there is that.
Maybe the Japanese looked at the future of the big cruiser market as flat at best, and probably decreasing (Harley sales are on a steady downward trend). That, combined with their small market penetration and low volume, made discontinuing the big cruisers a smart business decision - build what sells.
That certainly is possible. With the rise of the adventure, bike segment, full dresser tourists are definitely on the decline. Seems like everyone wants to slap some hard bags on the bike, and do some on road and off-road touring.
The adventure bike buffet is more appetizing for the people who were buying big cruisers. The Harley crowd is more interested in running people off the road if they don’t ask permission to pass. They aren’t interested in going off-road.
ha ha ha! Real talk though, there is a bike for everyone. I prefer to stay on road and crush miles. But if an ADV bike bro wants to pass, more power to you. But if you want to hang and ride low and slow, let's crush hella miles together. I'm easy either way.
Cruisers are like Full Size Pickup Trucks. The Domestic brands OWN the market because their brand cache is intrinsically American. Any Japanese competitor needs to have traditional styling at a lower price to sell in volume. That is why all the Yamaha's after the Road Star failed.
That is an interesting analogy, but what would your response be to Toyota and Nissan offering full-size pick up trucks? There are quite a few people who drive those trucks and are happy with them. But you don’t see car manufacturers killing off those pick up trucks for inexplicable reasons. I would say that the American motorcycle market is even more restrictive than that of the full-size pick up truck market, and that Harley Davidson did an excellent job of branding itself, monopolizing the group of buyers who are looking of those types of motorcycles.
@@Burroughspoint Nissan is discontinuing the Titan. Toyota sells the best selling non-domestic full size truck, but their market share is minuscule compared to The Big 3 (Ford, GM and Ram).
I'm a boomer been riding for 60 years and worked in the motorcycle industry most of my life (most with Harley) but the Gen X seem to be the last that likes the cruisers the Millennials and Gen Z like sport bikes and Naked Biker and Adventure touring , and Even Harley and indian sales are down and as boomer like me age out the only gen left is X and when they are gone the Cruiser will be gone, and y'all will be riding and putting out fires in you Electic bikes
I'm a boomer who never understood the H-D attraction. Not a hater, they just aren't my type of ride.... been riding since 1963, owned Yamaha, BSA, Triumph, Honda, and Kawasaki bikes. "Standard" bikes until the 90s, sport touring bikes after that. Ridden a few hundred miles on several different H-D cruisers and baggers - not for me.
Well, I definitely identify as a millennial, and I love burning miles on a full dress touring motorcycle. On the pavement. I think what we are seeing now is a rise of the adventure bike segment where there’s a lot of people getting into “getting away from it all” by taking off onto a logging road or less traveled mountain trail. However, there are quite a few other millennials, like myself, who ride full dress baggers. Also, I think what we’re seeing now in the market is a wholesale rejection of electric motorcycles across the market. Harley Davidson recently announced that it’s sold 99 Livewire motorcycles in Q3 of 2024. 99. That is not a typo. It has sold less than 3000 motorcycle since the conception of the Livewire brand. I think as millennials age, more millennials will go into the touring segment, looking for that luxury on two wheels. But they’re not gonna pay $40,000 for it. Or at least they won’t want to. With Gen Z and millennials being cash strapped, it’s no wonder that the cheaper adventure bikes are seeing a larger part of the market share in 2024.
For one they have to upgrade the metric bike’s with just a little more modern stuff, maybe a little more power from the engine and some fancier wheel’s……lol I got a list
But here's the question: Would you rather have a cheap base bike and accessorize yourself to glory? Or want something turn key? The former might be better to ensure the survival of my favorite metric v-twin touring bike.
@ I like turn key but still would like to make the bike my own taste, and yeah I’d rather not have to dick around with the motor like the Harley guy’s do.
@@SouthernBoyzRyde I think we are on the same page. It would be nice to have something turn key from the factory but your fav may not be my fav, and vice versa. But if you give us a solid platform that we can build off of, then we both can end up with what we want.
@ I going to try and do more vids about aftermarket metric part’s for us that love and ride metrics, maybe I might catch a companies ear, tired of buying Harley part’s and making them fit 🤫
Absolutely! I think a lot of riders are looking at the adventure, bike segment, and are getting in on the action, wanting to try out the new-Ish style of riding.
All great, but what happened to the 1L V-Twin Touring market? Agreed that Suzuki is still making the M109, but it's a boulevard cruiser. The lone survivor is Kawasaki. If Suzuki added a fairing and hard bags to that bike though, they might have something...
Suzuki, yamaha, kawasaki all still make big cruisers. And when it comes to touring the king is honda wing! What are you talking about? I'm 65 riding 49years
I'm talking about 1L or larger V-Twin cruisers/touring bikes. Of course there are other touring bike options out there like the Goldwing, and they are queens of the pavement in their own right. But I'm talking about only the V-Twin. Many Japanese bikes used to be competitive in this segment, but have all been discontinued, except for one. Good on you man, God bless old bikers.
i have a 2005 vulcan nomad, paid 3k$can, and i love it, reliable, does not break...ever, i call it my FCKHD!
I do love me a long lasting Japanese cruiser!
I have a 2008 vilcan. Nomad. But it had metal shavings in it. So I’m saving for a new voyager. But my nomad I still ride it’s just a little slow and lagging at high speeds
I miss the mid sized cruisers in the 1300cc size.
The Japanese segment of V-Twins over 1L is quite sad nowadays.
Two things that I've heard from fellow Harley-Davidson riders I have met recently. I am still trying to wrap my head around. They said, "If your bikes breaks down, you want it to be a Harley" and 'If you want to customize a bike, it needs to be a Harley"🤷🏿♂. I still can't grasp that concept. Good stuff man, yeah Harley-Davidson has done a great job with marketing. Stay safe!!!
Lol Back in the day I had six Metric bikes ( rice grinders ). We had fun bashing Harleys. There was that saying, If I have to explain you wouldn't understand. After four Harleys I understand. Harleys more funner. Sorry you can't grasp that concept, it makes perfect sense to me. It's ok if you don't understand. I will wave to you and I won't try to run you off the road.
I do agree that for some people, there is a large allure of a branded Harley Davidson motorcycle. It’s all in the marketing. Just like women are conditioned from birth to like flowers, guys who are into motorcycles are conditioned to want Harley Davidson motorcycles because they were so prevalent in the market. There’s movies, TV shows, and all kinds of other media that glorify the Harley Davidson motorcycle. I’ve never seen a movie about a Yamaha V-Star touring motorcycle. And, it’s true that for the Kawasaki‘s that you and I both ride, there’s not as large an aftermarket accessory market as there is for Harley Davidson‘s. But parts for most Japanese cruisers are cheap-ish relatively. So there is that.
Maybe the Japanese looked at the future of the big cruiser market as flat at best, and probably decreasing (Harley sales are on a steady downward trend). That, combined with their small market penetration and low volume, made discontinuing the big cruisers a smart business decision - build what sells.
When has HD sold 15 million bikes in a year? That's yearly average for Honda. HD is a bit player in the global bike industry.
That certainly is possible. With the rise of the adventure, bike segment, full dresser tourists are definitely on the decline. Seems like everyone wants to slap some hard bags on the bike, and do some on road and off-road touring.
The adventure bike buffet is more appetizing for the people who were buying big cruisers. The Harley crowd is more interested in running people off the road if they don’t ask permission to pass. They aren’t interested in going off-road.
ha ha ha! Real talk though, there is a bike for everyone. I prefer to stay on road and crush miles. But if an ADV bike bro wants to pass, more power to you. But if you want to hang and ride low and slow, let's crush hella miles together. I'm easy either way.
Cruisers are like Full Size Pickup Trucks. The Domestic brands OWN the market because their brand cache is intrinsically American. Any Japanese competitor needs to have traditional styling at a lower price to sell in volume. That is why all the Yamaha's after the Road Star failed.
That is an interesting analogy, but what would your response be to Toyota and Nissan offering full-size pick up trucks? There are quite a few people who drive those trucks and are happy with them. But you don’t see car manufacturers killing off those pick up trucks for inexplicable reasons. I would say that the American motorcycle market is even more restrictive than that of the full-size pick up truck market, and that Harley Davidson did an excellent job of branding itself, monopolizing the group of buyers who are looking of those types of motorcycles.
@@Burroughspoint Nissan is discontinuing the Titan. Toyota sells the best selling non-domestic full size truck, but their market share is minuscule compared to The Big 3 (Ford, GM and Ram).
I test rode the 2018 Star Eluder and wanted one. Then it disappeared. Did it on a Yamaha Demo Day.
They are such a lux option for bikes, they were cutting edge and a direct threat to the "Premium" touring bike brands. Sad that they were axed.
I'm a boomer been riding for 60 years and worked in the motorcycle industry most of my life (most with Harley) but the Gen X seem to be the last that likes the cruisers the Millennials and Gen Z like sport bikes and Naked Biker and Adventure touring , and Even Harley and indian sales are down and as boomer like me age out the only gen left is X and when they are gone the Cruiser will be gone, and y'all will be riding and putting out fires in you Electic bikes
I'm a boomer who never understood the H-D attraction. Not a hater, they just aren't my type of ride.... been riding since 1963, owned Yamaha, BSA, Triumph, Honda, and Kawasaki bikes. "Standard" bikes until the 90s, sport touring bikes after that. Ridden a few hundred miles on several different H-D cruisers and baggers - not for me.
Well, I definitely identify as a millennial, and I love burning miles on a full dress touring motorcycle. On the pavement. I think what we are seeing now is a rise of the adventure bike segment where there’s a lot of people getting into “getting away from it all” by taking off onto a logging road or less traveled mountain trail. However, there are quite a few other millennials, like myself, who ride full dress baggers. Also, I think what we’re seeing now in the market is a wholesale rejection of electric motorcycles across the market. Harley Davidson recently announced that it’s sold 99 Livewire motorcycles in Q3 of 2024. 99. That is not a typo. It has sold less than 3000 motorcycle since the conception of the Livewire brand.
I think as millennials age, more millennials will go into the touring segment, looking for that luxury on two wheels. But they’re not gonna pay $40,000 for it. Or at least they won’t want to. With Gen Z and millennials being cash strapped, it’s no wonder that the cheaper adventure bikes are seeing a larger part of the market share in 2024.
For one they have to upgrade the metric bike’s with just a little more modern stuff, maybe a little more power from the engine and some fancier wheel’s……lol I got a list
But here's the question: Would you rather have a cheap base bike and accessorize yourself to glory? Or want something turn key? The former might be better to ensure the survival of my favorite metric v-twin touring bike.
@ I like turn key but still would like to make the bike my own taste, and yeah I’d rather not have to dick around with the motor like the Harley guy’s do.
@@SouthernBoyzRyde I think we are on the same page. It would be nice to have something turn key from the factory but your fav may not be my fav, and vice versa. But if you give us a solid platform that we can build off of, then we both can end up with what we want.
@ I going to try and do more vids about aftermarket metric part’s for us that love and ride metrics, maybe I might catch a companies ear, tired of buying Harley part’s and making them fit 🤫
@@SouthernBoyzRyde Well, I know @engineeredadapters was snooping around here on one of my other videos...
And adventure bikes got popular so people had other bikes to choose from.
Absolutely! I think a lot of riders are looking at the adventure, bike segment, and are getting in on the action, wanting to try out the new-Ish style of riding.
Yamaha royal and v star suzuki boulevard. Kawasaki Voyager
All great, but what happened to the 1L V-Twin Touring market? Agreed that Suzuki is still making the M109, but it's a boulevard cruiser. The lone survivor is Kawasaki. If Suzuki added a fairing and hard bags to that bike though, they might have something...
Suzuki, yamaha, kawasaki all still make big cruisers. And when it comes to touring the king is honda wing! What are you talking about? I'm 65 riding 49years
I'm talking about 1L or larger V-Twin cruisers/touring bikes. Of course there are other touring bike options out there like the Goldwing, and they are queens of the pavement in their own right. But I'm talking about only the V-Twin. Many Japanese bikes used to be competitive in this segment, but have all been discontinued, except for one. Good on you man, God bless old bikers.
Brother try to get a bike in background , change locations add photos so the videos are not monotonous
Thanks for the feedback man. My New Year's resolution is to try some new stuff in '25 from a filmography standpoint, so stay tuned!
Metric bikes dont brake
Dependability is great on them for sure.