Raw and Random: Harley Davidson Courts a New Rider By Soup     When we pick our vehicles, we consciously or unconsciously base our decision on what reflects to the public an aspect of our personalities. We pick something that says “This is Me and it is Mine.” If financial constraints force us to choose something more functional, yet bland, we personify it with stickers, naked plastic devil women, or air fresheners that haven’t worked in 3 years that say “Gas, Grass, or Ass, Nobody Rides for Free.”     Now for the statement “I Live Loud, Ride Hard, and Play Dangerously,” there is no other wheeled machine like a Harley, and throughout the 20th century Harley Davidson became THE name in motorcycles around the world. Harley owners have turned the bikes into icons, the steel horses of our day. From motorizing bicycles in the backyard, being the first motorcycle used in warfare, surviving the Great Depression, mobilizing the Allies, becoming symbols of rebellion and danger, to becoming symbols of affluence and decadence, the brand has inserted itself fully into our collective American consciousness. It’s so ingrained that every single one of us can recognize the distinct roar of their coveted V-Twin engines.    But this is the 21st Century and everything needs to adapt or get the fuck out of the way. Harley Davidson understands this and in an effort to integrate themselves into a new generation of riders and appeal to them, they took a look at the custom culture that heralded back to the days when William Harley and Arthur Davidson were experimenting with velocity in Milwaukee. They saw that people were stripping down the models to the barest essentials and blackening out the chrome trim, making the bikes lean and efficient without aesthetic perfume. With this inspiration, Harley Davidson rolls out a new line of bikes inspired by these creative minimalists and aimed at people who want their vehicle to say, “I Don’t Care if it’s Pretty, I Need it to be Hardcore.”     The Dark Custom line of motorcycles targets the demographic that is young, reckless, and doesn’t want their father’s Harley. They trimmed the bells and whistles, incorporated the classic designs as homage, and plated them up for meanness. They saw that the image of the bikes has culturally shifted to being a way for men to deflect a mid-life crisis by throwing money at it and decided it was time to listen to potential riders that want to own their product but do not want to wait until retirement to experience a true Harley. Starting under ten grand, I expect to start seeing the iconoclasts and malcontents who want the world to know they are coming rolling thunderously past me any day now. Harleys are never going away. Riding Harleys will never fade into nostalgia. I expect that they will be lumped with baseball and apple pie as pure Americana if we ever tally up the little things that define us as a country. The Dark Custom line is what Harley Davidson wants us to straddle as we ride into the future, and I’m certain for the upcoming evolution, the company is watching us to see what we’ll do next. To check it out yourself, go to www.harley-davidson.com/darkcustom

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Published on: 2008-10-10 (2679 reads)