It was an interesting road travelled through the financial back roads by legendary motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson this week.

The first nugget of good news came from the motorcycle manufacturers Board of Directors when they approved a cash dividend of $0.10 per share for the third quarter of 2009. The dividend is payable October 8, 2009 to the holders of record of the Company's common stock on September 28, 2009.

When some analysts on Wall Street gave favorable nods to the Milwaukee motorcycle company, the market followed suit lifting Harley-Davidson's stock price.

Recently, Sharon Zackfia, an analyst at William Blair, upgraded Harley-Davidson to "outperform" from "market perform," saying the company's restructuring strategy would "yield significant savings on top of an already identified ongoing annual savings run-rate of $140 million to $150 million by the end of 2010."

This week Citigroup analyst Gregory Badishkanian seemed to agree with Zackfia about Harley's financial future, changing his recommendation of 'sell' to 'hold' and raised both his earnings estimates and price target for the company. The move came after Badishkanian after conducting a dealer survey and coming away convinced that retail sales of heavyweight motorcycles improved in the third quarter.

"Based on our channel checks, we believe U.S. retail sales trends for [Harley-Davidson] and the overall heavyweight motorcycle category have improved since" the second quarter, wrote Badishkanian in a note to clients.

"We attribute the improvement to the better overall economy, which has also benefited other leisure segments," he continued.

Zackfia also said that she was convinced the decline in domestic retail sales had bottomed in the second quarter, making additional production cuts at the Milwaukee-based company unlikely.

On an international note, British clothing brand Amplified announced last week it is partnering up with Harley Davidson for their new AW09 range. The collection, to made available in Britain, includes two ranges the 'Vintage' and the 'Ultimate', available in men’s and women’s styles.