Yes, Harley Davidson tanked in sales in 2024 again. They are not listening to the dealers and the public. They need to offer a cheaper bike for new riders. They just want to be the Premium bike period. Harley’s start at what price now? $30k? all in? Triumph had record sales for 2024 and the two years prior to that too I believe. I’m sure others did too. Maybe not record sales but they did okay. The young people today don’t know how to shift gears with a clutch and they don’t even want to. I’ve heard some say it’s too complicated for them. All the Japanese makers have introduced optional “automatic” riding. I think and hope this will help bring new riders into motorcycles this year and improve sales for everyone.
The two rypes really should coexist, combustion and electric. Maybe some hybrids. But as you have said, let them be a choice of a highly engineered bike and a simple engineered bike. The problem comes as manufacturers started to build bikes that are no longer reliable for decades and just for years. Will see where this is going, it depends on the consumer and their pocket after all.
I have not, and never will buy a brand new motorcycle . Firstly, because from what we've seen over the last decade is that the more " advancements they make, the worse reliability we are seeing from these machines, ...I would rather wait two or three years to see which bikes are actually staking up to the manufacturers claims, if at all. Secondly,...I've been riding since I was 10,...now 64. I have ridden some pretty basic bikes over the years, and in many ways that's exactly what made then so enjoyable. Just me and a motor stuck between two wheels, cruising down the road ! Easy to fix if something does go wrong ,...and fairly inexpensive to begin with. If I had $35k to fork out on a bike,.. I'd much rather have three or four different setups sitting in my garage just waiting for whatever mood I find myself in that day ! And all of them would have proven track records at reliability !
I'm with you. Keep it simple, stupid. I like my W800 for that reason, albeit at the expense of the fuel injection system and the bits that go with it. It was too much of a bargain to pass up. My next bike will likely be a seventy something Moto Guzzi. Pushrods, screw and lock nut valve adjustment, simple Dellorto's, air cooled and shaft drive. If a bike gets up to 75 quickly enough and will sit there, and if it stops and has a chassis and suspension that doesn't want to wrap me around a tree, that's all the performance that I need and it's the sort of performance that I find fun because you can thrash them a bit.
The waning of motorcycles coincided with the great recession of 2009 and 10. Honda corporate wrote a statement about this back in 2012 or thereabouts how the market was declining and probably going to. One is the price and other is the young generation are not into them like the Boomers were. I have a Victory Cross Country and certainly enjoy the great suspension and comfort, especially as I near 70 years, but I always have another much lighter bike. Right now I am looking at the new Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650. It's looks are a throwback and a much less expensive cruiser for 7000 dollars. They make quite a few other bikes and the reliability seems to be quite good. Fuel injection is here to stay and thank goodness.
The US is designed to require big, 100mph gas-guzzling SUV's and pickup trucks. It has no worthwhile public transport, and cities and towns are dominated by "stroads". This is intentional (the oil and auto industries are still major stockholders of US govt influence). So, American roads are not suitable for small, lightweight, economical and slow forms of transportation like traditional motorcycles. The motorcycle industry has tried to fix this by making motorcycles more like automobiles (bigger, faster, more expensive), leading to the situation you're describing. Putting it another way, if big oil and vehicle manufacturers didn't own & operate the US govt. against the public interest,, and we were laid out more economically (more like Europe perhaps with no "stroads" in the cities), even my Honda Super Cub would be a suitable long-distance tourer. And if I needed to get somewhere at highway speeds, I'd need go no further than my Piaggio BV400 scooter. Agree that the situation is a little more complicated than that, but we have to also put blame where it is due, not try to plop it all on electric vehicles and the need for economy, etc.....
More years to come for you! :D keep riding!
Yes, Harley Davidson tanked in sales in 2024 again. They are not listening to the dealers and the public. They need to offer a cheaper bike for new riders. They just want to be the Premium bike period. Harley’s start at what price now? $30k? all in? Triumph had record sales for 2024 and the two years prior to that too I believe. I’m sure others did too. Maybe not record sales but they did okay. The young people today don’t know how to shift gears with a clutch and they don’t even want to. I’ve heard some say it’s too complicated for them. All the Japanese makers have introduced optional “automatic” riding. I think and hope this will help bring new riders into motorcycles this year and improve sales for everyone.
Self driving cars will literally sweep all of us motorcycle riders right off the road. They are deadly to cyclists and pedestrians.
The two rypes really should coexist, combustion and electric. Maybe some hybrids. But as you have said, let them be a choice of a highly engineered bike and a simple engineered bike. The problem comes as manufacturers started to build bikes that are no longer reliable for decades and just for years. Will see where this is going, it depends on the consumer and their pocket after all.
I have not, and never will buy a brand new motorcycle .
Firstly, because from what we've seen over the last decade is that the more " advancements they make, the worse reliability we are seeing from these machines, ...I would rather wait two or three years to see which bikes are actually staking up to the manufacturers claims, if at all.
Secondly,...I've been riding since I was 10,...now 64. I have ridden some pretty basic bikes over the years, and in many ways that's exactly what made then so enjoyable. Just me and a motor stuck between two wheels, cruising down the road ! Easy to fix if something does go wrong ,...and fairly inexpensive to begin with. If I had $35k to fork out on a bike,.. I'd much rather have three or four different setups sitting in my garage just waiting for whatever mood I find myself in that day !
And all of them would have proven track records at reliability !
I'm with you. Keep it simple, stupid. I like my W800 for that reason, albeit at the expense of the fuel injection system and the bits that go with it. It was too much of a bargain to pass up. My next bike will likely be a seventy something Moto Guzzi. Pushrods, screw and lock nut valve adjustment, simple Dellorto's, air cooled and shaft drive.
If a bike gets up to 75 quickly enough and will sit there, and if it stops and has a chassis and suspension that doesn't want to wrap me around a tree, that's all the performance that I need and it's the sort of performance that I find fun because you can thrash them a bit.
The waning of motorcycles coincided with the great recession of 2009 and 10. Honda corporate wrote a statement about this back in 2012 or thereabouts how the market was declining and probably going to. One is the price and other is the young generation are not into them like the Boomers were. I have a Victory Cross Country and certainly enjoy the great suspension and comfort, especially as I near 70 years, but I always have another much lighter bike. Right now I am looking at the new Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650. It's looks are a throwback and a much less expensive cruiser for 7000 dollars. They make quite a few other bikes and the reliability seems to be quite good. Fuel injection is here to stay and thank goodness.
The US is designed to require big, 100mph gas-guzzling SUV's and pickup trucks. It has no worthwhile public transport, and cities and towns are dominated by "stroads". This is intentional (the oil and auto industries are still major stockholders of US govt influence). So, American roads are not suitable for small, lightweight, economical and slow forms of transportation like traditional motorcycles. The motorcycle industry has tried to fix this by making motorcycles more like automobiles (bigger, faster, more expensive), leading to the situation you're describing.
Putting it another way, if big oil and vehicle manufacturers didn't own & operate the US govt. against the public interest,, and we were laid out more economically (more like Europe perhaps with no "stroads" in the cities), even my Honda Super Cub would be a suitable long-distance tourer. And if I needed to get somewhere at highway speeds, I'd need go no further than my Piaggio BV400 scooter.
Agree that the situation is a little more complicated than that, but we have to also put blame where it is due, not try to plop it all on electric vehicles and the need for economy, etc.....