Your new 1198 for only $55,000.00. Hurry!

[muskrat]

as long as the mortgage market 

that's what happens when you let your shareholders get the best of you EVERY quarter and don't manage the bottom line without setting reasonable expectations.  everyone got caught in the frenzy. 

[dhc8guru]

My buddy works at a Harley dealership and last year he said the number one bike repo'd was Harley's. DFW was averaging 1700 repo'd bikes a month!

Like he told me, these guys would come in and buy a stock $20k bike and then add on $20k in accessories that Harley would wrap up in the loan. So these guys were buried with a $40k bike at 22% interest and they were dumb enough to sign on the dotted line. These guys had no business buying a bike in the first place let alone an overpriced one with a high interest rate.

Several articles have been written about Harley credit taking the biggest hit of all the finance lenders because of risky lending practices in the past...last I heard Harley credit was looking for a government bail out.

[jweave]

[RUFKM]

Now jweave that's just not pretty (in anybody's eyes).

You know the Harley guys post pictures of Ducatistas standing next to thier $55,000 1198's in matching leathers parked in front of Starbuck's on thier sites.

I just don't want to pay someone to do the mods for me so I'm not in on this bike, but if Santa's following this thread....

[jweave]

Its all in good fun.  To be honest I would definitely take the XR1200 for a spin or two.

[RUFKM]

Its all in good fun.  To be honest I would definitely take the XR1200 for a spin or two.

+1 on the fun.  In so much as Harley doesn't make a good sport bike Ducatis suck for touring comfort.  Ducati-ball syndrome alone could kill you after just a couple hours in the saddle, but I have several 500 mile days on past Harleys.