It is a time honoured tradition that if you own a bike you also work on said bike in a garage, shop, spare room or backyard which is actually how William Harley & Arthur Davidson started in a backyard shed in Milwaukee

Somewhere along the line Harley-Davidson lost touch with those roots of the biker who maintains, rides, (re) builds and who rides for as many days as he can. The company became about biker elitism which seems like an oxymoron. Staff are inclined to fawn over the middle aged, weekend riding couple; paying little attention to the young guy with the grease under his finger nails. So now among one of the many issues that they are dealing with is an aging customer base.

I have been in a number of Harley-Davidson's sleek, windowed showrooms with my husband. Customer service is a best tepid, anything with HD on it is overpriced and the bikes and parts have an exorbitant mark-up. The decline in their brand value would indicate that this equation isn't working. Just as Starbucks got back to what they do best which is serving coffee; perhaps Harley-Davidson needs to get a little grease on it's logo.