Opinion: Straight Talk From the Motorcycle World

Harley-Davidson has something almost every motorcycle manufacturer on earth would kill for: a name known by people who couldn't tell a crankshaft from a kickstand. It has history, mythology, dealers, clubs, tattoos, movies, merchandise, and one of the most loyal customer bases in motorcycling. And that may be exactly the problem. Harley spent decades building the perfect motorcycle for the Harley rider. Unfortunately, the Harley rider got old. Now Milwaukee faces an uncomfortable question: What happens when your most loyal customers won't accept change – but aren't buying enough motorcycles anymore?

Marc Márquez is 33 years old, his right arm is visibly scarred, and some of the muscle has wasted away. His doctor says he is currently riding, in practical terms, “with one and a half arms.” And what does Márquez do? He wins. Against younger riders. Against physically healthy riders. Against Aprilias that on some weekends work at least as well as his Ducati, and sometimes better. Perhaps that is exactly the secret of Marc Márquez: physically, he is worse off than he used to be – but as a racer, he may be better.

Two-time world champion, twice runner-up, 31 MotoGP victories with Ducati – and suddenly Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia is riding the same motorcycle Marc Márquez wins on and at times fighting around 15th place. At Misano he crashes out of his home Grand Prix yet again, his fourth retirement in five Grands Prix. The strange part is that nobody seems to know exactly why. Not Ducati. Not Bagnaia. Apparently not even the data engineers. Is the GP26 to blame? Ducati? His head? Or are we watching a highly sensitive perfectionist despair over a MotoGP bike that no longer speaks his language?

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