How We Ride
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EDITOR'S LETTER
AMERICA IS A DIVERSE MARKET, YET HARLEY-DAVIDSON SALES TELL US WE ARE A CRUISER NATION.
Harley-Davidson is right. All you have to do is cruise (sorry) the sales numbers to see that America's focus is on traditional American-style riding, and nobody does that kind of ride, that kind of lifestyle, better than The Motor Company.
On Facebook, as in life, all we have to do is post something about a HarleyDavidson, and it might as well have been religion or politics. Or both combined: Massive onslaught of negative versus positive. “Vehement” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Thing is, nobody who loves their motorcycle, whatever it is, is wrong, but Harley-Davidson really is right about the American market.
Harley-Davidson shares its sales numbers by platform. So while we don’t know how many Forty-Eights are sold in a year, we do know that 62,407 Sportsters were shipped in 2015. Sixty-thousand! Those are among the least expensive bikes in the line yet are generally around $10,000. The Touring line, FLs like Street Glides and Ultras, sold 114,768 units, the least expensive 2015 being the $18,449 Road King.
Worldwide across all its platforms, H-D moved 266,382 units, 170,688 of those in the US. It’s a roughly 50-percent market share for motorcycles more than 6oicc. One brand, half the market.
Other “character” manufacturers that stand clear of dirt bikes and typically don’t play under 6oocc? Ducati is celebrating its record 2015 in the US with 12,132 bikes sold. BMW’s record year was 16,330. Polaris doesn’t release unit sales numbers, but a good estimate would put combined Victory and Indian sales in the 20,000 range for 2015.
The two other biggest makers in the US are Honda and Yamaha. Honda reported 235,000 units in North America during 2015 fiscal year, and Yamaha did 123,000 in 2014, the latest numbers I could find. That’s boatloads of 50CC dirt bikes all the way up to liter-class sportbikes and big cruisers.
From our perspective, any motorcycle
can supply you with the freedom you’re after, and CW exists for the broad-based enthusiast who wants to know about all kinds of bikes. But Harley-Davidson has done more to make this freedom attractive, accessible, and conveniently purchasable and in so doing has been a true engine in the development and growth of the US motorcycle market across all brands and segments. It’s not just the
60.000 Sportsters in 2015; it’s the fact that since 1999 H-D has never sold less than
40.000 and once sold more than 70,000 in one year! Add those numbers up...
So while cruisers might not be for everybody, Harley-Davidson knows its market and its customer and, in fact, is right.
And on that cruiser-based note, I’d like to announce the addition of Bradley Adams to our full-time staff as associate editor. Adams, 26, has been with Sport Rider magazine for five years and replaces Andy Bornhop, who left us to write about cars, of all things...
Adams is an accomplished racer and tester who started roadracing with Willow Springs Motorcycle Club when he was 14 and in 2007 won all three WSMC 6oocc class championships. Which isn’t altogether surprising because—as a reporter for Cycle News—I covered his dad, Curtis, racing at Willow Springs against the likes of Chuck Graves (now the main man behind Graves Motorsports/Team Yamaha).
Between stints shredding tires for SR on sportbikes big and small, Bradley was sneaking out to ride cruisers and adventure bikes on weekends, so we thought it was time to have him join us at CW in our coverage of all types of motorcycles. He hasn’t hung up his leathers and will be a huge asset in track testing, but he’ll also bring this high-level riding skill to other segments.
MARK HOYER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THIS MONTH'S STATS
167 HORSEPOWER OFTHE S&S “DRAGON” BAGGER
327 COMBINED DISPLACEMENT OF OUR BOB-JOB BIKES IN CUBIC INCHES
three WINS RACING EDITOR IENATSCH TOOK ON THE SPONDON YAMAHA TZ750 IN RACE WATCH
