Editor's note: recently a friend of mine made a guest blog post on my site, Small Business Trends. It's been one of our most popular posts and so I thought I would share it here. John Wyckoff, a motorcycle market expert, explains why Harley Davidson is no longer "cool" ...and profiles the new kind of competition. And how reality TV is fueling the trend.

By John Wyckoff

The famed motorcycle designer, Arlen Ness and I were chatting at a trade show recently. Our subject was what was "cool." Arlen reminded me that a few decades ago if you had a Harley-Davidson in your garage that alone made you cool. "Not any longer," he told me. "Now Harley-Davidson is just another bike. They lost their 'cool'."

There are new players in the motorcycle "cool" market. Big Dog Motorcycles and American IronHorse are two of the biggest "cool" bike makers. Big Dog Motorcycles have produced over 10,000 bikes and American IronHorse a bit under that. The big question is what's happening? Why the paradigm shifts?

Here's what I see. First, the Alpha buyer, those leading edge buyers, got to have the coolest, baddest, biggest.... They don't want a bike that looks like anyone else's. They want to stand out in the crowd. Even in a crowd of fellow bikers. They've concluded you can't do that on a stock Harley and even a custom Harley really doesn't cut it.

An old friend of mine is responsible for most of the growth of American IronHorse. His name is Bob Kay, and he knows more about V-twin motorcycles and their owners than most of the folks at the Harley factory. His company makes bikes that "start where Harley leaves off." Their engines are bigger, the rear tires wider, the paint unbelievably complex and graphic, with raked forks, polished alloy wheels and a mass of machined billet parts. The prices start where Harley-Davidson leaves off too.

When I visited Big Dog Motorcycles last year and photographed the bikes ready to be shipped to dealers I was impressed by the fact that of the hundreds staged in the shipping area there were NO TWO ALIKE. High tech abounds in both manufacturers. Electronics are state-of-the-art. Teams of artists and dedicated technicians create the one-off paintwork. Both these companies occupy the narrow, top of the pyramid of custom bikes.