Harley Davidson - an Americans view....

[Skip]

This is just too funny.... (http://www.goingfaster.com/angst/noharley2.html)

But sooooooo true as well.....! :lol:

[wyrdness]

Wow, what a lengthy rant by someone with a bee in his bonnet. I think that he needs to chill out a bit. He also starts out from the false premise that the only point in having a bike is for its performance, and builds his whole argument from there.

[Razor]

"Harley Davidson. It's not a motorcycle company. It is a pagan cult religion for brain dead trend humping fashion lemmings."

Brilliant rant =D>

[tricky]

He does go on doesn't he.
He seems to be rather mis informed about the British bike industry too.

"American Historical Limited Edition Super Extra Easy Wide Glide FGXLHR" made me smile though.

[Peter Henry]

He could have saved himself a whole load of time and simply wrote:

Harley Davidson are crap,end of. :P :P

[Viney]

He could have saved himself a whole load of time and simply wrote:

Harley Davidson are crap,end of. :P :P
Youd think after making for so long, they would have evolved.

They have thier place in biking history, same as duc, suzuki, etc etc I wouldnt mind cruising Highway 1 on a V-Rod thank you, i would also like to do it on a Goldwing, and a sports machine.

[timwilky]

He could have saved himself a whole load of time and simply wrote:

Harley Davidson are crap,end of. :P :P

Yes, but when was the last time an American heard/listened to the truth?.

They wouldn't recognise it.

[Carsick]

He could have saved himself a whole load of time and simply wrote:

Harley Davidson are crap,end of. :P :P
Youd think after making for so long, they would have evolved.

They have thier place in biking history, same as duc, suzuki, etc etc I wouldnt mind cruising Highway 1 on a V-Rod thank you, i would also like to do it on a Goldwing, and a sports machine.
The V-Rod is the evolution, or at least the closest thing so far.
By all accounts, they're pretty good.

[mudge32]

:shock: Wow. Do you think he might have been picked on for owning a Jap bike :wink:

I don't personally like Harleys, but, as the old addage goes and what makes biking great (or maybe just European biking) "Each to their own"

[Skip]

I think he is right in saying that they have stuck their heads in the sand for a very long time though, hopefully the V-Rod will lead the way to a few more "interesting" bikes, but I cant help feeling they will just leave that up to Buell.... :roll:

[Razor]

"Written by Christopher T. Shields, October 18, 1993."

I don't think Buell had very much of an impact at this point, they're still using H-D engines but small changes are the way forward with the traditional customer base that they have. An ageing customer base I might add.

[Chicken]

It's hard enough to turn someone around from their pre-conceptions but insult your target audience and you'll never do it.

Can't help but feel like it's a wind up...

[Captain Nemo]

if you read it right to the bottom, youll notice that rant is 13 yr old, so his points about no harley performance model, or the british bike industry might be a little different if he wrote it now.

but if anything the harley situation is even worse now, for whatever reason, even more middle aged accountants buy them now than then.

he does go on but he makes some good points about how Harley is actually bad for american business and development.

not that im bothered mind they could go bust tomorrow for all i care,


maybe i could afford one then........hhhhmmmmm Harley Davidson..............

[northwind]

I think he completely misses the point of Buell though... Erik Buell's not trying to make "The American Sports Bike", he's making the bike he wants to make, end of. I like his style, he's sort of like the American Lester Harris.

[Skip]

he's making the bike he wants to make
I think his hands are tied - I seriously cant believe that he wouldnt consider using a different engine now and again....

But then I could be wrong! :lol:

[northwind]

His hands are tied, but he tied them ;) He's got access to the Porsche/Rod engine if he wanted it, he's often said he's just not interested.

[wyrdness]

His hands are tied, but he tied them ;) He's got access to the Porsche/Rod engine if he wanted it, he's often said he's just not interested.

I thought that he wanted to use the v-rod engine, but it's too large to fit in a Buell frame.

[Sid Squid]

It may well be a rant, but there's more than a grain of truth in a lot of it.

Harleys = Crap? Simply not true. Not what I want from a bike for certain, but if anyone here can remember the AMF Harleys of the 70's they'll know what crap is, and the modern ones just aren't.

[northwind]

His hands are tied, but he tied them ;) He's got access to the Porsche/Rod engine if he wanted it, he's often said he's just not interested.

I thought that he wanted to use the v-rod engine, but it's too large to fit in a Buell frame.

Not quite... He's said he can't build his sort of bike around it, so it's just the same as IL4s etc

[Rog]

I think he is wrong. HD's are perfect for the american market. The Majority of american roads are long straight and riddled with traffic cops with great distances between major urban areas. So like their cars, americans dont need sport set up suspension, blistering fast pace and balanced like its on rails full of electronic gizmo wizardry. What they want is a big heavy lump of metal that will potter from A to B in a straight line. When it does go wrong its fairly easy to get it temporarily fixed at Bubba's Garage to get you home. Europeans dont have the same conditions and hence our cars and bikes reflect that. As the japanese have similar roads and sell to our market they copy the european ethos. Would you honestly consider a 5litre 4 seater car twice the size of a focus, that does about 15miles to the gallon and wallows around like a fat kid on a monkey bike and has the turning circle of a super tanker.

Neither would I but I do see the appeal of such a car in a land where there are no corners the citys are 400 miles apart and the price of petrol is the lowest in the world. HD reflect the market, and market their product very well. At the end of the day the Americans appear to still have the fear of buying anything foreign and while HD are there no matter how crap their bikes are, they will sell by the bucket load.

On the Americans buying foreign bit you only have to watch any of their films to see this reinforced. Whenever a character has a crappy car that wont start is slow and falls to bits, you can bet it will be a funny little european car, never american. Theres nothing wrong with suporting your market but you shouldnt complain if the stuff you make is crap. :wink:

[Anonymous]

As Captain Nemo said, it's 13 years old.....so what's the relevance?

And as for mocking Americans and their choice of motorcycles, well, isn't Great Britain the country that allowed its Government to pump umpteen millions into Rover just two days before it went bust? And why on earth would anyone want to support Rover anyway - or indeed, British Leyland, Rootes group and a few others before it!

At least Harley didn't go looking for hand-outs from the taxpayer....just got on with making bikes that people bought, becoming quite wealthy in the process.

[Sid Squid]

At least Harley didn't go looking for hand-outs from the taxpayer....just got on with making bikes that people bought, becoming quite wealthy in the process.
Not so. Harley took a significant amount of public money and were the beneficiaries of a number of very definately 'protectionist' regulations. This is why the Japanese have sizeable American subsidiary companies making many of the bikes that sell well in the Americas - it avoided the disproportionate importation taxes placed upon bikes over 700cc - in years past you may have noticed a number of the models that we got as 750s were 700s for the American market - these taxes were specifically designed to assist Harley Davidson.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Gulp! :notworthy: :notworthy: :oops:

I shall - in future - do as LynnW always says and check my sources!!!!!