Flooding the market

Back in the the day(the '80's?) HD MOCO had a motorcycle producing system called Just In Time:Manufactored As Needed/Materials As Needed Sytem when they first divested from AMF. I think it had something to do with the AMF transition and surviving the initial damage. That and President Reagan helped too by imposing a serious tariff on all imports in 1983 over 649cc's. And for 5 years hoping to assist HD's recovery. Pretty cool huh.

Consequently there were waiting lists for brand new Harleys:

Harley Davidson 1971 Crises...{Strategos}

Fast forward to today thats not the case. Every dealer that I've gone to in recent years has major stock of used bikes and unsold back years of new bikes. And the bigger dealers have even more. And HD keeps pumping out new bikes in droves, year after year. Its not making them cheaper either in fact creeping up in price year after year. Somethings gonna happen at some point with all the deluge of left over new and used stock. And don't forget there are 3+ dealerships less then 50 miles from each other in some places. I like that. I found itr a boon when traveling cross country and figure nows the time to do stuff like that before the market bottoms out and bad stuff happens.

My stated facts may not be dead accurate or spot on but they are well in the ball park.

What do you guys think?

Yup...Back in 99 I paid a $1,500.00 premium for my WideGlide...Paid MSRP for our 04 GeezerGlide...Can't comment on stealer stock as I have no reason to go to a Stealership...

"Just in time..." is still in use today by most mfrs of anything. Very cost effective and that savings has become to norm now.

"Just in time mfg." was designed to eliminate nearly all parts inventory from outside suppliers and speed up the assembly process. H-D was able to convert huge warehouses into much more valuable use of that space. It worked so well, their bottom line improved considerably and their stock value rose, allowing them to introduce many new improvements that might not have happened.

The dealer network is another success story of H-D putting pressure on them to change their old ways and update their facilities. Course, that investment the dealers made had to be recouped. We can all be thankful for most of those changes, but us buyers are really what made it happen. We truly go hand-in-hand with the Motor Co.

There'd be even more HD's on the road if the MOCO would share a little of that prosperity with the consumers.

Back in the day,during the lean years only cops or robbers had Harleys, majoritively speaking. Everyone else....they were following the leader because he was on a Honda,lol. And I distinctly remember being somewhat ostracized by fellow co workers who were on metrics............... Honda's,Kawasaki's etc... And I swear to God, today, those same azzhats are 25 years later on the Harley band wagon denying they ever had anything else. Of course they are sporting SOA gear and fingerless gloves. Flipping each other the bird and giggling. I'm not lying. And they don't ride no where. As far as I'm concern even amongst the HD world its still us against them. I've tried mixing in with the new harley breed....its not working out very well. I don't speak politically correct or blow smoke. And if anyone whose reading this has been riding for over 35-40 years too you will understand what I'm saying and I'm sure these new just add water and stir types have amused and annoyed you simultaneously too,lol.

My wish is for the up and coming new age HD rider to STFU and watch and learn. Talk and pretend acting less and watch more. Quite trying so hard. Most of its hollywood BS anyway. I'm not talking about the older touring types who have chosen the HD over the goldwing. I'm talking about the middle aged fomer speed boat racer and 1st time HD owner pretending and playing billy bad arse outlaw. You know the jokers I'm referring to. You see them at every major motorcycle suare. I think it reduces that realistic lifestyle to a holloween costume when in fact there are those who live and breathe it everyday not just weekends and vacations. It only bothers me because while those jabronies are wasting time pretending.... they are over looking the important stuff like what brotherhood really means. I think they make up at least 50% of todays HD ownership. Of course thats what HD MOCO sells with each bike. You don't see the LEO in the HD comercial as much as you do the hollywood version of a biker renegade,lol. Silly MOCO.

What a rip off. And yet people would be so desperate they'd pay it(shaking head)..why?

Like you ...I was on my 1983 FL and my 1963 FL clear thru to 2007 and I still have her now. Maybe if I wasn't so poor or had the money I'd have paid the premium too I don't know. I was both poor and broke so its a mute point.

I guess at the time it was the only way a person would be able to get a Harley. Shovels never really sold well here and you had to be quite capable mechanically to keep them running so when the Evos came in and everyone wanted them you ordered one and waited. One bike I waited a year and a half for. In retrospect, I probably should have picked up a shovel when they couldn't give them away.[lots of them went to europe]. Up in Canada we also had to deal with the exchange rate when buying a new Harley and in 2003 it was 62 cents on the US dollar so you can figure that a 2003 Ultra was a serious outlay of coin for us. I like it a lot better now, you can walk in and buy a bike but there aren't as many of us buying them now. There was a good article in one of the Sturgis mags about the same generation [baby boomers] spawning two bike booms but the future doesn't look as rosy for the motorcycle industry

You're Canadian,eh? I been all over Canada as far west as Winnepeg. Hoping to go farther west soon. I spend alot of time on Oak Island, Western Shore,NS

It's very pretty out east..grew up in Atlantic Canada. It gets pretty flat west of Winnipeg ..at least in the southern part of the provinces..a lot like North Dakota and eastern Montana..gets more interesting when you get back into the mountains. It's funny, I like riding south of the border better than up this way...in the west at least, there are some great riding roads in Montana Idaho Colorado Oregon Washington and the gas is cheaper.

West of Winnepeg...I heard its pretty scenic,ALCAN hwyway,glacier NP and other neat things to see as well as mountainous landscape. Hopefully come 2014 I'll be able to clear this up,lol.

I never really understood that mentality. Lots of wannabes out there. It's not just with motorcycles either. Some people actually spend $75 on jeans with holes and patches on 'em. They like the image but don't want to really wear those jeans out. In 6 months they'll buy another new pair of raggedy ass jeans.

And the manufacturers all the way to the bank.

:roflmao:Still lots of them around...You see them all the time at the donut shops looking like they just finished a 1000 mile ride and wearing a brand new shiny Harley uniform....Genuine HD leather jacket,chaps and dew rags and T-shirt...on the plus side,they kept the MOCO in business and they're are lots of very low miles Evo's available to be had at real good prices....

BTW Happy B-Day Cowboy!!!:cheers:

To add on this, Harley practiced a technique called "channel stuffing." This practice forced dealers to take an x amount of bikes regardless of what their market called for. MoCo did not care if they sold (the individual dealership) the bikes or not because Harley recorded the sale (For the Corporate Office) at the time of shipping the bikes to the dealers, not when it actually sold off of the dealer floor.

Some folks didn't like AMF, AMF was and is a super huge manufacturing company. They have a lot of technology.
Look today at how many parts on everything is made somewhere else.

I had a AMF bike and rode it and rode it and rode it.
AMF brought a lot of new good thing and new bike styles to HD.
AMF saved HD
What pissed off folks is AMF brought some japaneese parts to HD
Think the 1st thing was the Mikuni carb, And its a good carb.
If I remember right.And that ain't workin like it used to.
The wide Glide and other bikes come into HD from AMF.
Something that I think hurts HD is the Union.
Its good for the workers and their retirement.
But to the company itself I think they hurt the business.

Happy Birthday Cowboy! Wow, 2 Texans in a week! Youse und CB 2 peas in da pod! :cheers:

We have A LOT of what youse guys call "wannabes" here in NY. But hey, the prices got to the point that for a while only city slickers could afford the bikes. Then got got "WIld Hogs" with some big names in da movie. Dew rags n all. Fact is, many members of HOG fit the label and you wanna know sumting, they can and do ride A LOT MAN. So, whatever floats yer boat. jmo