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[CagivaRider]

The big Harley dealership down the street from me in Lynnwood Washington closed for good last week. They spun off their LiveWire sales to their other dealership several years ago. The clock is ticking on the rest of them.

[Specter]

what do their financials look like compared to the rest of them?  Is it a harley thing or did the location possibly play into it?  washington is not exactly a year round bike mecca either, that hurts sales.  Now throw in a high cost to do business, and a company looking to streamline, yah, places like that are the first to go.

Harley has been in decline for years, and bringing a woke bimbo on board did not help them.  The prices are just outrageous, they are planned to break really, and they really don't have much for an entry level bike anymore.  The new guy getting into riding is not going to throw 40 grand at a bike generally, to be told, well at 30k you will have to redo the top end, at about 40k this will blow, so plan the money now to keep it running.  THAT is not good business at all.   Besides, if I want to dump obnoxious money into a bike, Goldwing and BMW got that covered pretty well

Aaron

[CagivaRider]

We do ride year round - just have to get used to 40F and raining for four months out of the year! I commuted on my motorcycle into greater Seattle for forty years.

The local dealer, who had been open for years, had to be way over extended. Harley is a finance company that sells motorcycles. Their profit center is their financing arm. The dealers are paying for flooring costs of bikes that are not selling. It's too bad the local guys went out of business. They had a large HOG following, sponsoring rides and putting on local events that I often attended. They reminded me of the shops I hung out at as a kid, just missing the oil stains on the floor!

[Richard230]

Here a link to a report about more U.S. H-D dealerships closing. A sad situation for the the Motor Company, for sure:  https://patch.com/california/pacifica/s/jtnpm/iconic-american-brand-struggles-shuttering-dealerships-in-ca

[Specter]

They did it to themselves.
I am wondering if this is all by design, you see a pattern being followed by a lot of 'American Icon' companies, getting destroyed in this fashion.

aaron

[T.S. Zarathustra]

Harley is a finance company that sells motorcycles.

And clothes. Lots of clothes.

[Specter]

and oil dri kits for your garage    ....

Aaron

[CagivaRider]

They can be oil tight, but it takes some work. Their engines have several vertically split pieces that are hell to seal when you put them back together. I'm working on one right now. Kind of like the Brit bikes from my youth. At least the Harleys have decent sized mating surfaces. My Triumphs had maybe 3mm surfaces - guaranteed to leak.