These moves extinguished that hope.
Forget HD, and the union they rode in on. They're a one-trick pony.
"Harley Davidson: Expensive motorcycles for people who like expensive motorcycles, vibration, annoying/deafening their neighbors or lots of all three!"
Oh, it should also be noted that many of the problems Harleys (and Buells) had/have are due to the fact that traditional Harley engines generate a lot of vibration for no good engineering purpose. This vibration leads to both equipment damage and (this gets overlooked by a lot of riders) physical long-term damage to the rider - and I have yet to see a Harley mounting system that successfully prevents of the vibration from being transmitted to the frame.
V-Twins don’t have to shake like paint mixers. (Case in point, my Honda Pacific Coast, an 800cc V-Twin that’s so smooth many people can’t tell when it’s running.) In fact, Harley got Porsche to design them one - the Revolution engine - but they don’t use that engine in most of their bikes; instead they keep trying to get yet more mileage out of that same old V-Twin that has its roots back in the Silent Gray Fellow bike of the nineteen-teens.
History repeats itself... I’m a little fuzzy on the details but I had a business school case on HD in the mid-90’s but IIRC back in the 80’s HD, either through acquisition or home grown tried to get in the sport bike business. This is away from their core competency and it drove similar results. They got rid of it and focused on what they do best. Looks which helped drive much better results. Looks they are doing the exact same thing here.