How Harley-Davidson Killed Itself

Why HN readers recommended it

Recommended as an entertaining overview of Harley's decline and as a case study in selling a lifestyle rather than a product.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

FortNine

Topic

harley-davidson decline

Format

explainer

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

4

HN mentions in dataset

5

Recommendation years in dataset

2020–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• You are correct. This very entertaining 11 minute video from Fortnine (still one of the best channels on YouTube) does a great job explaining exactly how HD wound up where they are today: [VIDEO]

• That's because the company started dying longer ago. Their stock price today is around 30$. In the early 2000s it was around 90$. Also, like the other comment mentioned, HD has been playing a lot of financial tricks over the last 20 years to prevent …

• Harley Davidson is on the ropes long term though. They made the mistake of pitching their entire product at a very singular niche and the people in that niche are now getting older and in many cases too old to ride. Fantastic overview here [VIDEO] …