The Bottom

Not to buzz kill the summer riding season, but the current recession is the longest we’ve seen in the post-war period. 
Inclusive of the current downturn, there have been 11 recessions since WWII.  Having officially started in December 2007, this month marks the 19th month of the current “slump.”
As you would expect, cut-backs in consumer spending [...]

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Babies, Bikers and Glam Rock

Twisted Sister (“We’re Not Gonna Take It”) is an American heavy metal band known for delivering youth anthems, wearing outrageous clothes, gawdy make-up and having wild hairstyles during their performances.  One could debate that glam rock peaked in the mid-80s with MTV, yet the band has sold over 10M records and earned 35 gold and [...]

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2009 MDA Hope Ride

Mark your calendar.  The fourth annual MDA Hope Ride will be held Saturday, August 1st for the Portland, Or area.
The event will start at the I-5 Baldock Southbound rest area (mile post 282) which is just past the Carbonneau/Canby exit and will end at the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City.
The event is sponsored by MDA, Columbia Harley-Davidson, Paradise [...]

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57 Miles In A Million

Today is the Million Mile Monday ride.
H.O.G. members around the world ride together for the purpose of logging 5 million miles in a 24 hour period.
Why?  Because they can!!
So, to support the ride call I took some extra time today and rode beyond any normal commute to work.  The weather at lunch was a perfect [...]

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One More Time

Napster was 10 years ago.  “Thriller” twenty five.  The boy band peak never arrived and Hip-Hop can’t fade fast enough in my humble opinion.  Then you wake one morning and realize how much time has passed!  Sure, it’s the financial crisis, but the change of centuries has pulled away from the train station with no [...]

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Biker Buff As CEO

Question — Does the CEO of a multi-billion dollar motorcycle company need to be a motorcycle enthusiast?
The newly named Harley-Davidson CEO, Keith Wandell, sent a letter to the approx 1400 independent dealers opining his excitement in joining the motor company.  I was able to obtain a copy.  What did it say? But, more important what [...]

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Motorcycle Sales Pessimism

Harley-Davidson is scheduled to report its first-quarter 2009 financial results April 16.
Even if you’ve been leveraging “guru” Cramer (Mad Money) to help make a fortune — who in my view has no more idea of what is going to happen tomorrow than the average chimp. Pessimism runs high especially after the motorcycle manufacture took the [...]

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HOG Call For Hooters

For 15 years the Honda ‘Hoot‘ has been touted as one of the largest motorcycle rallies in North America. 
Honda pulled the plug for 2009 citing “economic uncertainty” as the rest of us watch yet another motorcycle rally bite the dust.
I’ve talked to folks who attended the “hoot” previously and they’ve told me, it went from [...]

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It’s Only Money

Harley-Davidson Inc. (ticker symbol HOG) is cashless in Milwaukee.
The BizTimes Daily reports Harley-Davidson Warehouse Funding Corp. and Harley-Davidson Credit Corp. subsidiaries’ received $500 million last week in a loan advance from its lenders, which included JPMorgan Chase Bank (recently purchased WAMU) because of their inability to securitize bike loans.
Harley has burned through $221 million for the 9 [...]

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Milwaukee Harley Stock Gimmick

We all know that winter places an icy grip on motorcycle purchases and often chills sales.   It’s just a slow time even in a good year let alone during the “mother” of all financial deep freezes.
But, along comes a motorcycle sales concept that I don’t understand.  Buy any 2009 Harley-Davidson motorcycle from Chaz Hastings Milwaukee [...]

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