What is it with boomers and Harleys?

[u/CyanShadow42]

Some background: I am a lifelong motorcyclist, who likes to do lots of different kinds of riding, so I have a few different bikes. I'm also a bad influence and people who spend much time around me usually end up riding too, so my wife now rides and has a bike of her own. Between us we've got 5 bikes in the garage, all different types, and none of them Harleys because all of them together don't add up to the price of a new Harley and if I wanted that kind of bike I'd rather buy a Royal Enfield for all the 1940's tech without the $25,000 sticker on the gas tank.

The other day my MIL, the boomiest baby boomer to ever boom, upon seeing our garage, comments that she's "never seen so many motorcycles" with disgust almost dripping from the words. I point out that in her own neighborhood, I've seen a few garages with several Harleys that look almost identical except for color and a few accessories and suddenly having multiple bikes seems okay in her mind. I wish that was the only case of boomers being like "motorcycles bad but Harleys good" I've experienced, but it's just one of the more obvious and recent instances. Make it make sense please.

[u/TheRealSatanicPanic]

Harley is a boomer brand, like Jack Daniel’s and Gibson guitars. It’s a symbol of their youth. I think you’d need a time machine to know exactly why, it must have been in some movie. 

[u/ButterscotchKey8564 → u/TheRealSatanicPanic]

Harley-Davidson hired an ad company in the 1990s to save their dying brand which had become associated with biker gangs. The company came up with the "Harley Lifestyle" which tested well with boomers. So, this generation fell for yet another corporate maneuver that played on their desperate need to be seen as freedom-loving rebels, even into their 70's. Gun manufacturers, pickup truck makers, and the prepper-industrial complex all plugged into their mania.

[u/0nlyinAmerika → u/ButterscotchKey8564]

Harley Davidson - a clothing brand that sells motorcycles