The number of bike styles Harley builds seems to increase every year. Granted, underneath the chrome and paint these bikes are still Sportsters, Electra-Glides and some form of Softail variant, but I might be getting ahead of myself. The issue here is "demographics." Sadly, I believe it's not who you really are, but more what MoCo can convince you about what you really lust for--and something they can sell you.

For example, even when I was boy, Mad Magazine had an axe to grind with Wall Street. In essence that is the marketing idea of making you demand a product you didn't know you needed. In the case of MoCo, I now find that I am completely out of chrome devoid outlaw bikes for my future needs as a saloon brawler.

I'm 61 years old. To be sure, I am also one of an increasing number of potential customers in that nebulous "healty wealthy boomer fantasy bike" segment. But am I being served?

One out of three Americans is a boomer who is contemplating or has taken an early retirement. Let's not forget that wiithout the glut of boomers all buying stuff at the same instant there wouldn't be a modern Honda corporation--or a MoCo, at all. Harley almost went under during the 'Japanese dumping' years, and if that wasn't enough, the bowling people almost euthanized us. My point is simple. To obtain the bike I need or want for real use, I have to build, modify, upgrade or strip down a Harley. There just isn't bike (short of the trikes) that deal with reality. If you doubt that argument, take a stroll through the road clothes section. If you're not an outlaw, have no fear--they'll make you look like one.

I see a lot of old graybeards on stripped down factory customs trying to re-capture youth. But the daily grind in a fact based reality dictated I clean up the suspension and ride quality of Betty. And that's to the point where it cost more than her engine. Can MoCo build a bike for those of us in transition? Not today. They have no product to sell.