10 questions with Bill Davidson

BIll Davidson is the great-grandson of the Davidsons who established Harley-Davidson and son of Willie G. who bought the company back for the family in the '80s and steered it to a string of record profits. It is now one of the top 10 most recognized brands in the world.

Davidson was in Australia this week for the 21st annual Harley Owners Group (HOG) rally in Margaret River, Western Australia, where we asked him 10 quick questions.

The GFC hit Harley pretty hard and it has been a difficult road since. How are you coping?

The economy is an uncontrollable factor. The great thing about our company is that we have been blessed with excellent leadership. Testimony to that is that we have been through more than 100 years of good and bad times. When you go through bad times you learn what to do and what not to do to continue to reach to the next level. So when the GFC hit in 2008 we made a lot of very difficult moves to ensure that we would get through and strengthen us for when the economy started to improve.

When do you see the world's financial troubles ending?

I wish I had a crystal ball to answer that. As consumer confidence is returning to the global marketplace we are experiencing an increase in sales. Right now we are ahead of last year.

Harley wanted to buy Ducati, established the Buell sports bike brand and once owned MV Agusta. Is there a sports bike future for Harley?

I wish I could give you all of our product details but I can't really talk about our future product plans. The company shut down Buell and that was one of those very tough designs we had to make. We had to focus on our core brand.

Even Porsche now has diesels and hybrids. Will Harley ever have alternate power such as electric?

All I can say is that we will be customer led. If our customer base were to demand or ask for alternative power we would take a serious look at it. Being customer led is what has brought our company great success and we will continue to do that.

Do you believe the Harley-Davidson brand image has been affected by outlaw bike gangs?

I don't. Our brand has always had a rebel ingredient to it but it's really about a sense of freedom and getting out and being yourself on the open road with the wind in your face.

What is your proudest achievement at Harley?

I worked very hard on my education and one of the greatest moments of my life was being hired by the company. I went through three interviews when the company was coming out of a rough time in '84 and we were not profitable so just to be hired on my merits was a major achievement.

What cars and bikes are in your garage at home in Milwaukee?

My only four-wheel vehicle is a Ford F150 pick-up with Harley on the side of it. The rest is a nice collection of Harleys and one KTM dirt bike which is up north at the cottage where we go trail riding.

What is your favorite bike?

All of them. It's probably the most difficult question to answer. The product lineup we have is a mix of different vehicles with different features and the way I look at it is each one makes a statement and each one is unique in its own way. I believe that is a major part of our strength. However, one of my favorites from my collection is the 1990 Fat Boy, the original year.

What is your secret vice?

I don't really have any. I don't smoke and I've got to be careful with what I drink as I'm a diabetic so I focus on staying healthy.