Fast Forward to Today

A new day is dawning. Honda’s problems began when the peak Baby Boomers exited the defined sixteen- to twenty-four-year-old male demo beginning in 1986. The demographic shift caught the Japanese (and just about everybody else) by surprise. Now it looks like the Japanese motorcycle industry in general and Honda in particular are going to get caught flatfooted again, but for the opposite reasons.

When you visit a Honda motorcycle dealership (the few that are left), you will see that Honda has made a concerted effort to clone Harley-Davidson’s anachronistic motorcycle concept, evidenced by all the Harley look-alikes on the showroom floor. It’s sad. The bloom is off the rose for Harley-Davidson and all its Japanese copies. ...

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