harley davidson motorcycle, harley sportster

There's no question that the Harley Davidson motorcycle is a classic ride, but even this company has to respond to economic pressures sometimes. In the case of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company that means slashing more than 700 jobs from the factory and from some non-factory workers as well. Harley CEO James Zeimer called the decision to let so many staffers go "agonizing" and claimed that it was the hardest decision he'd ever made. Because of the generally lousy economy in the U.S. sales of durable goods like washing machines and the Harley Davidson motorcycle are down, so Harley has dialed down its sales predictions for 2008, and the company will sell between 23,000 and 28,000 less motorcycles than it planned to last year. This will make the Harley Sportster and other models of Harley bikes a lot less available for customers, but it should help the company's fundamentals stay strong. In fact, making the staffing cuts should help the Harley Davidson Motorcycle company maintain its bottom line this year. Profit are actually up 10% from the previous quarter.