sburns
Well-known member
Unfortunately its like other things, take it or leave it.
Don't even look at the price for CVO models.
Will this help HD attract younger buyers??
- Thread starter timtune
- Start date
Don't even look at the price for CVO models.
Is it possible to make a decent bike with decent tech made in USA for $20K? Maybe with "Made in USA" as in final assembly from global components (maybe make frame in usa as it's big to ship and easy to automate).
TK4
Well-known member
They were a start. They needed some help in the looks and finish departments but instead of improving they just bailed. By the time the 750 Street Rod came along they were getting closer.
TK4
Well-known member
At least other companies (like Ducati) have a price mix. You can start with modest, then slowly progress up to ridiculous.
Maybe "Assembled in the USA"?
My point being that they need to somehow keep the nostalgia while venturing into a new sub 20k market
You know, this is a bit of dragging up now-ancient history, but what kills me the most about that is consider what version of the V-Rod is most interesting for "those people". I'd say it'd be the VRSCR, right?
They made that for two years! Then spent the next ten years marketing worse versions of it to people who weren't super interested in it in the first place
Yup.
40 degrees of lean angle.
For those of us who actually like to go fast in corners...
The Bronx may have been their best effort, who knows now. The styling was a bit off but the essentials looked good. I liked the XR1200, saw a few at Mosport one time and they looked kinda`... agricultural,... disappointing . That short lived XR1200 class sounded great though. Through 10 and onto the pit straight they sounded like a flight of B-17`s taking off. Yes I flew in one several years back.
If you`re still interested Robinson`s, in Wheatly? has a nice lookin` one.
Have a friend who owns three now. Third one was purchased within the last month.
He went to hop on the third one yesterday and it wouldn't start.
Two are inactive. Still waiting for parts or diagnosis on the one that he'd ride.
Not attracting me to the brand, and I don't think it would attract younger buyers either.
He went to hop on the third one yesterday and it wouldn't start.
Two are inactive. Still waiting for parts or diagnosis on the one that he'd ride.
Not attracting me to the brand, and I don't think it would attract younger buyers either.
Dirty Frank
Well-known member
The way that they treated legacy dealers like Robinson's and many many more gives you the idea about the motor company's marketing strategy.
Their trademark name has value the products that they build not so much these days.
When i bought a bike from Kim at Robinson's she offered me a HD t shirt and i said "how about a discount on a cobra links lock instead" .She threw the $250 lock in for free. Good folk.
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Agreed. They made stupid decisions with the bike that surrounded that motor.
They could have made a modern XR750 out of it and created a racing series around it, both dirt, pavement and maybe the rebirth of TT.
They could have put it into a good frame, with primo suspension and decent style and made a modern interpretation of a cafe racer.
They could have engaged an experienced designer/company and made an adventure bike with good suspension, long range and comfy ergonomics.
They could have put the engine in a standard style frame with comfy ergos, reasonable range, sensible controls and geometry and retro paint and style and appealed to new and returning riders.
All of these could have had extensive accessory catalogs to personalize them, maximize profitability and forge long-term customer loyalty.
Then they could have taken what they'd learned about MODERN motorcycle design, function, AND modern motorcycle consumers and come out with a range of new bikes based on the engine out of the Pan American for the customers/riders they cultivated and drew from other makes and thereby secured a new generation of customers, though different than the ones who more or (mostly) less "lust" after the +/- $40K mobility scooter.
But of course, they didn't do any of that. Why? Because that would have been hard work, and would have taken innovative thinking, delegation of responsibility, authority and accountability, collaboration across departments and with outside expertise, commitment and long range planning. In short - real, traditional LEADERSHIP, the kind of that looks beyond short-term shareholder value and quarter by quarter profitability targets. All characteristics and approaches that have been abandoned by 21st century corporate North America.
Instead they made $40k mobility scooters.
For the record I think it's pathetic that H-D was influenced in any way by this nontroversy. That said looks like somebody didn't get the memo in time.
I think it's pathetic that these companies bowed down to the DEI lunacy to begin with.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
For the USA, I mean.
I can't decide which is more disturbing:
That the worlds stupidest man has a drivers license, that the same moron has access to military grade weapons, Is probably a parent, or that he can make You tube videos to spread his idiocy far and wide?
Something doesn't look right/sound right about that bike when he rode up on it. I'm thinking it was a ran-when-parked-fire-sale-Craigslist find to sacrifice for the Y-T clout.
Just playing the algorithm. His last 'Woke' video got him 1.3 million views.
If that's your job... makes good sense. You get clicks from both sides.
There is plenty of 'outrage' farming on both sides. It's actually an advertising tactic.
Some buried in the regulations, that USED to be The Auto Pact, there are tables that list the amount of content AND value required to be "made in USA", and there are parts that HAVE to be made in the US (the engine casings must be cast in the US and the frame has to be welded together in the US...IIRC)... but it gets complicated with content and production costs, there's percentages... the motor has to be 44% US content, 22% of production costs have to be spent in the US... stuff like that (I don't remember that actual numbers but there's pages and pages and pages of tables).
Harley is known to cut those percentages with a razor... if they made a motor that had 45% US content, they'd put a team on it to figure out how to save money... by getting that down to 44%.
I was at a bike show with a buddy that worked for Trev Deely, the Canadian Harley distributor, we were looking at a new Sportster and I commented on the big MADE IN THE USA on the tach face... and being the AH cynic that I am I had to throw in that they probably make the tach in the US then ship it to Mexico for assembly. NOPE, the TACH FACE was printed in the USA and shipped to Mexico, to be assembled into the tach, THEN assembled on the bike that is shipped to Canada.
At the time they were assembling Gold Wings in Tennesee... there was more american content AND production cost in a Gold Wing than anything Harley made
Didn't they sorta try that when they bought the rights to produce the XR1200 from Storz, for a boxfull of cash... then figured out they didn't own the right's to the name XR1200, and they had to give Storz ANOTHER box full of money... then produced a ****** bike that no one wanted
... and NOW Storz sells a SP1200 TM, which is a pretty cool bike
Dirty Frank
Well-known member
That smells like that nonsense kid rock pulled over bud lite and look where he ended up.
The lengths that some people will go for attention never ceases to amaze.
