Harley Davidson X350RA | GTAMotorcycle.com

Harley Davidson X350RA

TK4 said:
Let the flaming begin -

www.rideapart.com

How Will Harley Position Chinese-Made X350RA In The U.S. Market?

California Air Resources Board (CARB) documents and a leaked owner’s manual and image hint at Harley-Davidson's intentions for the X350RA in the U.S. market.
www.rideapart.com www.rideapart.com
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Surprised they are bringing that here. Maybe they are just aiming for fleet sales to riding schools? If they sell it retail, I expect it to be pretty awful with HD premium pricing on a mediocre bike. Hopefully I am wrong. More choice in the market is always good.
 
Brand suicide or just dilution?

Does the MoCo REALLY believe their core or aspiring customers won't notice or will actively support the notion of lowering the bar to admission to their cherished and (self) revered tribe?

Or do they believe the core customers are aging out/dying off so the brand impact will not matter?

It will be an interesting story to follow.

Personally, I don't place as much value in brands as many do and am actually more often repelled by branding than attracted.

If this is a move by HD to diversify their appeal and attract new customers then it's certainly worth a try and good on 'em.
 
xrljoel said:
Brand suicide or just dilution?

Does the MoCo REALLY believe their core or aspiring customers won't notice or will actively support the notion of lowering the bar to admission to their cherished and (self) revered tribe?

Or do they believe the core customers are aging out/dying off so the brand impact will not matter?

It will be an interesting story to follow.

Personally, I don't place as much value in brands as many do and am actually more often repelled by branding than attracted.

If this is a move by HD to diversify their appeal and attract new customers then it's certainly worth a try and good on 'em.
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I fear this will be another step down the road to complete brand confusion. Remember Aermacchi in the 1970s, the Buell fiasco, the made in India Street 500/750s or Live Wire ? A Made in China H-D will send the Faithful into cardiac arrest.
 
The street 500 wasn't very long ago. I wonder why they think this will sell? I don't think problem with the street 500 was that the engine was too big and people wanted china quality instead of India quality.

I'm a Harley guy and if I were in the market for a 350 naked, I don't think Harley would break the top 5 list of brands I would be looking at.

The dealers won't keep bikes in the showroom for good reason. No one wants them.
 
woot said:
The street 500 wasn't very long ago. I wonder why they think this will sell? I don't think problem with the street 500 was that the engine was too big and people wanted china quality instead of India quality.
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I remember going to the February bike show back when the Street 500/750s were introduced. They were stuffed off the corner of the H-D display and nobody, including the company reps, seemed to even want to talk about them. I suspect the new 350s will suffer the same fate.
 
HD seems to have no direction, maybe this is another bike to throw at the wall to see if it sticks.

I could see this bike doing relatively well in other markets where an affordable HD branded bike might be appealing to locals because they'd never in a million years be able to afford a traditional large V-Twin. In the U.S. exactly who would be buying this?

HD continues to be viable because they've secured their market on the history and mystique of the legendary V-Twin, an American icon, or so it goes. This good and bad for HD. They sell old tech, overpriced and often unreliable bikes to a slavishly devoted crowd, but any deviation from the formula runs the risk of breaking the bond between old and new.
 
race_17 said:
After the failure of the XR500/750, how the hell is this idea even on the table???
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They made it for overseas markets. With some smart design, the incremental cost to sell it here may be very low. Hell, it may just be a marketing game for overseas "Buy the exact same bike here you can get in America!!!". The fact that almost nobody in america buys them may not matter.
 
GreyGhost said:
They made it for overseas markets. With some smart design, the incremental cost to sell it here may be very low. Hell, it may just be a marketing game for overseas "Buy the exact same bike here you can get in America!!!". The fact that almost nobody in america buys them may not matter.
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Fair point good Sir! Makes perfect sense.
 
GreyGhost said:
They made it for overseas markets. With some smart design, the incremental cost to sell it here may be very low. Hell, it may just be a marketing game for overseas "Buy the exact same bike here you can get in America!!!". The fact that almost nobody in america buys them may not matter.
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Yup, but it's also an offering for something smaller either for you or your partner while in the showroom. I have plenty of friends riding expensive tarted up HD baggers and their wives are on 250-500cc Asian bikes because their isn't a good small/light HD option. You've also got new types of people in the showroom looking at things like their adventure bike now as well so timing is better than the Street 500/750 days.
 
TK4 said:
The current CEO came from a running shoe company, maybe that explains something ?
en.wikipedia.org

Jochen Zeitz - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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You know, this might be part of the explanation.

The guy obviously knows about brands, brand loyalty and brand value but running shoes and athletic wear are very different from HD.

People may have irrational brand loyalty to a shoe company and buy nearly everything they make with their only expectations being that the product is of comparable quality to the competition and that it makes them cooler than the people who don't wear it.

HD has the added burden of being a national/cultural icon and has cultivated a market within a segment of the population who take it's iconic stance at their primary reason to own one and (sometimes annoyingly) suggest that everybody should aspire to own one. That's a core group that they've avoided antagonizing for a long time.

I'm sure the guy and the marketing team he's assembled is many times smarter than me, but this seems risky to me.

Had they just put the 500 street motor into a less stylized and more standard chassis with good quality components and quality control it would have achieved their desire for an entry level bike. It might have been more expensive than some competition but they could have sold them without muddying the whole brand thing.
 
HD's starter bike was the old Sportster, a relatively inexpensive and mostly terrible bike that was good for 50 km hops between gas stations and the local Timmies. This was the bike that allowed access to the club and the V-Twin at an affordable price and HD probably hoped that owners would trade up over time. The Sportster was replaced with a much better bike, but one that is about 75% more expensive and time will tell how well it sells.

Anyone have an update on HD Pan America adventure bike sales? This is another new HD bike looking for new non traditional customers. Lots of hype, but rushed to market with many quality issues. I predict low low sales and eventual cancellation.

The thing with HD is that it may be a dead end brand. Demographics will play a role here in that rabidly loyal customers are dying off and the bikes themselves are hugely expensive in a market where customers no longer have as many high paying manufacturing or trade jobs. No one working at McDonalds is buying a $35,000 bagger to cruise around on.
 
ReSTored said:
Anyone have an update on HD Pan America adventure bike sales? This is another new HD bike looking for new non traditional customers. Lots of hype, but rushed to market with many quality issues. I predict low low sales and eventual cancellation.
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I'd like to see those sales numbers also as I've been curious how well it sold as it got great reviews and I did see a few out on the roads by some happy owners that I chatted with.
 
Hardwrkr13 said:
Yup, but it's also an offering for something smaller either for you or your partner while in the showroom. I have plenty of friends riding expensive tarted up HD baggers and their wives are on 250-500cc Asian bikes because their isn't a good small/light HD option. You've also got new types of people in the showroom looking at things like their adventure bike now as well so timing is better than the Street 500/750 days.
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But the 500 Buell BeLast didn't really help move things along.
 
TK4 said:
I remember going to the February bike show back when the Street 500/750s were introduced. They were stuffed off the corner of the H-D display and nobody, including the company reps, seemed to even want to talk about them. I suspect the new 350s will suffer the same fate.
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The MoCo *HAS* come out with products that are different and innovative, like the PanAm and LiveWire, and even the V-Rod back in the day.

The problem is that back in the day, when Harley couldn't compete with the metric cruisers, it pushed the heritage angle: "If it doesn't look, feel and sound like a HD made in the 1940s, then it isn't a "RealHarley™".

Now that they are innovating and trying to find new riders, their old marketing schtick has come back to bite them in the ***. Because they're at odds with not just their core group of buyers, but also the dealerships as well, as they want nothing to do with bikes that aren't "RealHarleys™". They won't show them, and they won't sell them.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

If they were smart, they'd market anything new under a logo and brand that doesn't say Harley-Davidson.
 
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