Another shot comes across the corporate bows of Harley-Davidson as financial experts questions the very people running the famous motorcycle manufacturer.

Popular opinion has Harley-Davidson used to weathering as much criticism just as it enjoys a rarely found undying loyalty among the riding public. Some of the unfavorable attitudes could be attributed to its success making the company a larger target, or from old-fashioned brand rivalry and the thrusts of motorcycle unreliability come from a dark period in its corporate history when they produced a less than perfect product.

But quite frankly, that time has long since passed with a Harley-Davidson motorcycles matching, and in many cases even exceeding, the quality of its competition. So there should be no foundation for concerns or complaints against Harley-Davidson?

An article written by Michael Brush, published yesterday on MSN Money put Harley-Davidson in the top five of America’s worst corporate boards. With many high level decisions made by a company’s board of directors, the article ‘5 of the worst corporate boards’ used the Corporate Library, an independent company that is the recognized expert on corporate governance to dig into its Board Analyst screener to come up with a list of five of the worst corporate boards.

Harley-Davidson was among well-known names on what could be considered the least desirable top 5 list, joining the ranks of Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, Comcast and lesser known Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

The very structure of the motorcycle manufacturer’s board and concerns over some of the director’s connections to Harley-Davidson distributors, attendance records and even the amount of time they served on the board all came under the writer’s scrutiny.

Whether bikers agree with the article’s author or not, it comes on the heels of headlines over CEO pay, needlessly auctioning a well-loved brand and questionable buy-out rumors.

And with the Milwaukee motorcycle manufacturer's reputation to market itself as well as the products it designs, the rough public relations road it’s currently riding may be unfamiliar territory.

The current journey may have started with taking on a non-riding CEO and Chairman, Keith Wandell to succeed the retiring Jim Ziemer, who appeared regularly in the motorcycle saddle. Replacing Ziemer, a man with the American success story of working his way up from an elevator operator to running the company may have caused a bump in the PR road, but not much of one.

However, in doing what he was known and essentially hired for, Wandell’s goal of turning around a company that produces what could be considered a non-essential, luxury item quickly turned into a quagmire of union fighting, threats of factory closure and the shedding what were considered as detracting from the refocused branding of Harley-Davidson.

The motorcycle world called these Buell and recently acquired MV Agusta.

But like any ride that takes the group through a few showers, the road up ahead could make it all worthwhile. The very last paragraph of the MSN Money article notes, ‘Harley-Davidson says its own inventories and dealer inventories improved in the fourth quarter of last year and that a dealer survey by brokerage Robert W. Baird released in March found that nearly three-fourths of dealers believed inventory was "about right." The company says loan quality is improving because 80% to 85% of loans were considered "prime" last year, compared with 75% in prior years.’