I have been working again at the HD dealer all week, sales are down almost 70% Dam President BUSH!!!.....well here is Sonny's thoughts about what he would ride if not a member or should i say the MAN of the Hell's Angell's...................................................................................................
That is typical of the unconventional and bizarre relationship between Harley customers and the company. Here was a business in the precarious situation of having a constituency of outlaw-type riders who provided the most valuable research and development for their flawed product. During the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, when hip riders bought a Harley-Davidson, they, in Levingston’s words, “tore it all the way down”. Off came the leather saddlebags, front bumpers and sometimes even the front brakes. Riders would replace the oversized seat and fuel tank, and added high bars, or “ape-hangers”. Thus the chopper was born, and eventually the stodgy Harley brass had to admit that their users were on to something. But not without Harley-Davidson maintaining a coy distance from their “dirty and oily” core adapters. “After we fixed their bikes the way we wanted them,” says Sonny Barger, “they didn’t even want us inside their dealerships. They said we were ruining their bikes. We used to have to send our old ladies into the shops to buy parts. Otherwise they wouldn’t sell them to us. Now they make them like we used to build them.”
“If you wanted to find drugs in 1977,” laughs Holmstrom, “generally a guy who rode an AMF Harley could hook you up.”
To this day Levingston remains a staunch Harley loyalist, and probably will be to his grave. “A Harley is the only bike I’ll ever ride. Years ago I never thought I’d live to see the day when I could ride a Harley-Davidson from Oakland to Los Angeles and only have to stop for gas, as opposed to fixing it on the roadside. The Harley touring bike I have now rides like a Cadillac.”
Barger is less complimentary and philosophical about Harley’s progress.
He rides a 2003 Road King and claims that if he wasn’t a Hell’s Angel he would probably ride a BMW or a Honda ST1100. “At least now, they build a better bike. It’s decent. While it’s still a piece of junk, it’s way better than it was. Now they've got the new V-Rod. It’s really a good motor, but they put it on an unrideable bike. It's the most uncomfortable bike they’ve ever made.”
According to Holmstrom, Harley is a lot better at relating to customers than before, thanks to Willie G. Davidson. A child of the Fifties, a sort of beatnik character and grandson of the co-founder William Davidson, he has helped Harley maintain a grasp on its core customers while still adhering to distance and resistance toward the “one per center” community, the same riders who gave their bikes priceless street credibility and helped Harley become a billion-dollar corporation.
“I’m willing to bet they’ve never given Sonny Barger a free motorcycle,” says Holmstrom. “Nor Peter Fonda, for that matter. Jay Leno would stand a much better chance of getting one.” The same shrewd people who rescued the company and remember the bad old days still run Harley-Davidson today. After the AMF debacle, Harley is unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past. The company currently works hard to develop appealing and innovative new products, which not only includes motorcycles and accessories, but licensing everything from coffee mugs and clothing lines to CD compilations and key chains.
The main challenge Harley-Davidson faces is to maintain high profits without alienating its core audience. Even today, riders might dislike the company, but they love their Harleys. Over the course of decades, their product, once available on American streets for a few hundred dollars, has evolved into a major-ticket item.
“It’s a good bet that if you put an $11,000 Honda next to a $20,000 Harley, most of that $9,000 difference is profit margin,” says Holmstrom. “There’s only so much material that goes into a bike. A lot more development probably went into the Honda than the Harley, technology that Harley has been able to amortise over decades and decades, using the same classic 1930s design on most of their bikes.
“Harley-Davidson’s future prosperity lies in the continuing quality of its bikes as much as it does with its highly recognisable brand.
“Harley is terrific at building cult-like brand loyalty and they’re smart enough to realise that ultimately they’re not selling a motorcycle as much as they’re selling a religion.”
Keith and Kent Zimmerman are co-authors of Hell’s Angel and Ridin’ High, Livin’ Free with Ralph “Sonny” Barger
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1152577.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
