What happens in Wisconsin may or may not stay in Wisconsin — especially since the bike rolled off the line at Harley-Davidson’s York, Pennsylvania facility. In any case, it definitely made a proud return home to the land where alphabetic county roads and abundant corners full of unexpected gravel criss-cross the landscape.
Harley's Looking Into The Future Like This:
Proud owner Walter Bartlett purchased his new Heritage Classic in Wausau, Wisconsin on June 3, 2019. Just as H-D took careful note when this special bike was being built, the company dutifully recorded as it officially transferred into Bartlett’s ownership with this tweet:
This brief moment in modern history was over 100 years in the making, but not many motorcycle companies even manage to make it that far. The bike in question rolled off the line on May 8, 2019 — slightly under one month before it found its new owner and went home with him several states away from its birthplace.
It’s worth noting that Harley’s sales in the first quarter of 2019 are slightly below its sales for the same time period in 2018—both in the US and elsewhere. For the first quarter of 2019, H-D sold 28,091 bikes in the US, compared to 29,309 in Q1 2018. Worldwide, H-D’s Q1 figures were 49,151 for 2019 and 51,086 for the same time frame in 2018.
This isn’t a huge surprise, though. As we recently noted, the only place in the world where sales of new motorcycles seem to truly be surging is in Europe. The rest of the world is still riding bikes—but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily purchasing new ones fresh off of showroom floors, from Harley or any other manufacturers.
Harley likes to show us where we’ve been—and with the Livewire, also hopes to shed some light on where we’re going. 5ive million bikes sold is certainly no small feat—no matter what the future holds.
Source: Harley-Davidson