CAVE CREEK, Ariz.—William, 69, of Cave Creek, Arizona, is the proud owner of three Harley-Davidson motorcycles: a 1997, a 2001, and a 2005 “soft tail” that he inherited.
He’s had motorcycles from other makers, too—Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW, Ducati—and he considers all good bikes. But Harley-Davidson was “just the thing” growing up, he said.
“Harley has always treated me well,” William, who has long reddish-white hair and a beard, said while having a beer at a local bar. “Harleys are hard to beat in a lot of ways. They’ve come a long way.
“Everybody wants a Harley. Why? It’s the nostalgia.”
William views the current backlash against Harley-Davidson for going “woke” with suspicion. When it comes to politics, “everything’s got its place,” he told The Epoch Times. “But I don’t see it hurting their sales right now.”
He said people need to be careful not to listen to all the hype. “They’re just trying to keep us pitted against each other. It’s not going to work,” he said.
Few motorcycle enthusiasts thought that Harley-Davidson would become the next battleground in America’s culture war after Bud Light’s controversial adoption of a transgender brand ambassador last year.
Since Harley-Davidson’s founding in 1903, the name has been synonymous with freedom and independence. The company’s slogan is “When life gets stressful, just ride.”
In July, conservative commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck released a video on X in which he criticized what he called Harley-Davidson’s woke culture.
Many bikers denounced the company’s internal policies at this year’s annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, in early August.
Starbuck gave examples of more than 1,800 employees who completed a virtual training program and others who participated in a special event called “National Coming Out Day” to celebrate their social identities.
The city of Sturgis declined to comment on the Harley-Davidson controversy.
Given the direction in which the company appears to be going, one biker at The Beaver Bar in Phoenix said he wouldn’t buy another Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
“That DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] and woke political [expletive] will be the death of this country,” he said.
At Indian Motorcycle Peoria in Peoria, Arizona, Marketing Manager Quinn Keefe said the Harley-Davidson controversy is a chance for other brands to sell more bikes.
“I see it as an opportunity. But we’re also smart enough not to pounce on it, because it could go the other way just as quickly,” Keefe told The Epoch Times.
“What people are forgetting is even though Indian is being mentioned by name, Honda is also a name to be reckoned with. Honda also makes a great motorcycle.”
Still King of the Road
Harley-Davidson remains the top-selling motorcycle brand in the United States despite the recent controversy.Harley-Davidson captured 27.1 percent of the U.S. motorcycle market in 2023, followed by Japanese manufacturers Honda at 19.9 percent, Yamaha at 12.5 percent, Kawasaki at 11.7 percent, Indian at around 11 percent, and Suzuki at 5.2 percent. BMW claimed a 3.1 percent market share that year.
Production issues and problems with the supply chain caused Indian Motorcycle sales to drop in 2022 and 2023 after a decade of growth. MotorcyclesData.com states that there are around 50,000 Indian motorcycles sold annually.
“Next year’s perspectives are not so positive as the manufacturer seems to be too stable and too conservative in the product offer, while the competitors are almost [all] dynamic and aggressive,” the site states.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Harley-Davidson reported a 9 percent drop in its North American retail performance.
The company also experienced a modest decrease in revenue, from $918,683 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $791,648 for the corresponding quarter of last year. In 2023, retail sales by unit fell to 98,468 from 126,276 the previous year.
Harley-Davidson attributed the slump in sales to high interest rates and the discontinuation of the legacy Sportster in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Even so, Keefe said, the majority of Harley-Davidson owners “are not going to run out and sell” their cherished bikes over politics. Instead, “they’re hoping Harley will correct” its course of action. “It’s nothing against the brand,” he said.
On Aug. 19, Harley-Davidson did precisely that.
Following an internal review, the company reversed its earlier stance on DEI goals and initiatives after facing a consumer backlash fueled by “negativity on social media.”
The company announced it would end its association with the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group and remove all socially motivated content from its training programs.
“This is going to be a blip in the radar,” Keefe said of the controversy. “I do think they’re going to auto-correct. Harley as a company is going to have to do something because it upset its base.”
The Epoch Times contacted Harley-Davidson for comment but received no response. The headquarters of Indian Motorcycle also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Global Reach
According to Statista.com, Harley-Davidson is expected to earn $3.68 billion in global revenues in 2024 and reach 173,000 in unit sales by 2029.The market analyst states that “despite facing declining sales in the United States, Harley-Davidson’s global market share continues to grow, particularly in emerging markets like India and China.”
The site further notes that as the No. 1 motorcycle maker in the United States, the name Harley-Davidson “alone conjures up the stinging scent of burnt gasoline and the roaring sound of bulky chrome and steel bikes glinting in the sun.”
“The company has established itself as one of the key brands on the global as well as the domestic U.S. motorcycle market. On home ground, the Minnesota company reached a staggering 30.6 percent market share in 2020,” it states.
Keefe said another selling point is that the majority of Indian Motorcycle parts are manufactured in America. The company does all of its assembly in the United States, he said.
While most Harley-Davidson owners remain loyal to the brand, Keefe said a few of his customers weren’t happy about the company mixing business and politics.
“I had a customer—a big Harley owner,” Keefe said. “He came in, and he was pounding his fist, and we sat there and listened. He was upset about the manufacturing. He was upset about the integration of a lifestyle he didn’t conform to.”
Another Indian company employee told The Epoch Times that he’s worked with customers who said they are “not happy with the direction Harley is going.”
“The bottom line is to look at Budweiser,” and the controversy surrounding Anheuser Busch’s decision to use transgender brand ambassador Dylan Mulvaney to sell Bud Light, the employee said.
“It’s like a fire you can’t put out,” he said. “The more you try, the bigger it gets. You have to remember this isn’t something that happened in the past two weeks. It’s been out there for quite some time.”
Keefe said the Indian motorcycle shop offers a variety of high-performance bikes, including pre-owned Harley-Davidsons. He added that the average Harley buyer is conservative and patriotic.
Dawne, who works at a biker bar outside of Phoenix, agreed that the United States is experiencing a culture war. She said that some Harley-Davidson owners have told her they feel the company no longer reflects the values of America.
“They feel betrayed by Harley-Davidson. They’re disappointed by it,” said Dawne, who prefers to steer clear of the conflict.
“We always say, ‘Don’t talk about religion or politics.’ There’s a reason for that.”
