Comments on: Hey girls, Harley-Davidson wants your stories

By: jbel

jbel — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:36:10 +0000

Is anyone else have trouble navigating the women riders story site on the HD website? I try to click “next” to read the next story and it just keeps dumping me back on the main page…no matter how I try to advance to read the next women’s bio, it flips me back to the default page. So irritating.

By: Latina Biker

Latina Biker — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:55:48 +0000

Actually the harley line that is the most successful with young people is a bike they wont even put their name on, and thats the buell even though it is doing very poorly against other sportbikes 80% of sales of buells go to people under 30, though from what I have seen it mostly attracts people who want a sportbike but wants to sit upright.
and yes they for years have targeted 40+ upper middleclass white males. I remember an artical from the 8o’s where an EX harley executive said the reason harley sponsored bikeshows and rallies in outdoor settings with wet T-shirt contests(with payed models) and such was to use the trailer folk to sell bikes to yuppies.(those events arent to be confused with the REAL rallies) but the point of the artical if I remember right was that harley had given up on the trailer crowd because they did not buy NEW bikes they just wrenched on their old ones and they instead focused on babyboomers(RUBS), but now that group is getting old so they are desperately trying to attract overlooked groups. I like harleys because I know how to keep them running(yes girls can wrench) but I understand why many younger people prefer to ride rice, they are dependable good bikes and alot cheaper.
PS: thanks for visiting my site kittin.

By: Lizzie

Lizzie — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Barbara, my sentiments EXACTLY! If I were ever to go down the HD route, I think I would go with either a Fat Boy, a Heritage Softtail or maybe even a Road King!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:07:26 +0000

Why does everyone assume that a woman rider is the one riding a Sporster? Come on people. I like my ride alot bigger than that!! And I can handle it BETTER than a man.

By: Lizzie

Lizzie — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:44:28 +0000

Plus, every time a woman goes into a HD dealership the sales dudes just want to sell her a Sportster. And I totally agree about them needing to change their target audience. They HAVE to start targeting younger riders PERIOD. I think they are attempting to with the line of Dark Customs. It’s pretty obvious with some of the advertising they’ve been doing, but you’re right in that they don’t do a thing to attract minority riders. I think they realize that they need to change, but it’s SLOW going.

By: Latina Biker

Latina Biker — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:31:22 +0000

Being a harley rider myself I know harley does not need much coaxing to get women to want to ride around town with a giant vibrator between their legs, I think the MAIN reason more women arent on harley’s is the price of ownership. I am the oldest girl in my family so my brothers taught me to work on bikes but by the time my sisters were born me and my 2 older brothers were moved out or almost moved out and even though my little sisters ride their own they ride rice rockets and know very little about fixing them they wanted the cheapest most reliable bikes they could find and to them harley was not it and thats a shame, on our blog mortalez has wrote a few articals in the past about how harley fails to attract young, minority and female riders in large numbers. 78% of rider 15 – 35 ride sportbikes I feel its great for harley to be going after women riders but I feel lowering their price would help more.
Example my youngest sister who owns a suzuki gsx-r when going on long trips with me often asks to ride my old harly sporty,