I am sure everyone,
even rich people, consider how they spend their money. When purchasing a motorcycle one would look at things like price first, and then...reliability, ease of service, functionality, comfort, asthetics, performance, name recognition, aftermarket accesories and maybe the opinion of your buddies. With all that considered, the one and only reason anyone would purchase a Harley over a high quality foreign bike is
name recognition!!
The aftermarket industry for japanese bikes is closing in on the monopoly harley once had, so that is not as big a deal as it was 5 years ago. In the mid - late 90's the japanese bikes really started to threaten harley with bigger and better performing engines, and have now surpassed them...so now that is certainly not a debatable option. If you want to purchase a harley because there is a dealership close for servicing...all 4 japanese makers are probably local too, so there goes that!
Why pay 10's of thousands of dollars extra just for a name?? No I do not want a harley and no I am not actively dreaming of owning one! If a steal of a deal comes my way, heck yeah I would own a harley, but it would be on my terms and it would certainly not be at the price the harley brass currently expects folks to pay now!!! It is down right arrogant and narcissistic of harley to think that their inferior product is worth as much as they ask; especially when you can go right down the road and purchase the equivalent or even a superior bike from Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki or Suzuki for as much as 6K less!!!!
As long as I have the God given right and freedom to choose how I spend my hard earned money...I can guarantee it wont be spent on a name. It will continue to be spent on the best product for my money. I haven't got anything against a harley davidson motorcycle, I just cant stand the yuppies that buy em for the name. If I owned one, I would rip all the harley stuff off so I wouldn't be pegged as a "name recognition-status symbol" yuppie!!!
Okay I am thru ranting now. Sorry for taking up your time!! Back to enjoying this wonderful site!
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then in my other hand I have 2 kids college bound within a couple of years !! So I decide to search the net for something that caught my eye and had the power I need for everyday riding on the highway..... Once I saw the Roadstar and read the specs .... I was hooked. I was lucky enough to find my Roadie 5 streets away hiding under a blue tarp and starting to fade away. After spending a winter using elbow grease, recall and my Discover card, this old gal gets me to work in style... where she sits for the day between two HD's and a Boss Hoss 
