Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Harley Davidson is Gonna Shake it Up

I was in the Harley dealer today, one of those high-dollar showrooms.

Sporsters, Softails and Dressers. I dunno that I consider the water cooler “Street” models to be Harleys, nor that Italian (V 4?) copy.

Sportsters, for their size, ain’t set up well for carrying a passenger. OTOH most every big twin weighs 800 lbs and has the foot pegs way in the front.

If they would kick out the wheelbase a bit on a Sportster to give more passenger room and better suspension, figure out a way to give better lean angles for backroads while keeping the foot pegs underneath to help support my weight, I would prob’ly buy it.

Triumph and the big three Japs are all building stuff that interests me but thanks to the Harley glut the sales of their big dressers are hurting too.

I've got an old low mileage 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 that I paid $2000 for. Excellent condition and it's much more bike than a Harley per dollar spent.

Those "urban stores" are nothing but clothing outlets.. NO bikes.. And, those bikes they show in the ad might draw a few milenials but no serious crotchy rider's gonna give more than a passing glance to those machines.. If you wanna go cross-country on a long vacation the last thing yer gonna jump on is one of those...

Sorry, but I'll pass. I can put on 700+ miles/day on my Ultra and not be tired.. Even a somewhat youngster ain't gonna try that on these new super-modern HD crotchies..

And an 'electric' bike? Puhleeeeeeze.

I don't feel sorry for HD. My first one was in 1975. My latest is a '14 and I most likely won't need another. Really no reason unless you put on more miles than I can lately. They have to try to target a new generation every so often and the majority of the 20 to the 30+ year olds DGAF after a few hundred miles. I have never seen such a flooded market with people trying to unload these bikes sitting in their garages.

Well, man, that's your opinion.

Try it, you might like it. I wouldn't have my foot pegs any other way.

I've got my '14 Ultra fixed up exactly the way I want it.. Have over 32K on it and don't plan to get rid of it.. But I did pick up a '18 Street Glide just for S&G.. Love it.. Will be on that saddle in about 20 mns..




Got THAT right.. I rode Kawasaki Voyagers (1300 six) for a lot of years but they just got SO uncomfortable since ya can't move yer feet off them center pegs..

The foot pegs I put on the '14 and '18 allow nearly full stretch out at the knees and it makes for an easy day of riding..



Rinehart headers, pipes and mufflers with improved air intake and tuned via HD Super Tuner on the dyno at Rice Lake HD.. I just love it......

Harley had a Porsche designed water cooled V4 touring bike prototyped years ago,but decided the air cooled 100 year old design was much better.If they would have sold it there never would have been Goldwings or other big Jap touring bikes.By the way a Jap manufacturer used that design and built some of the fastest bikes available.

Exactly my experience as well.

when my mom passed on I found a note at the bank to me that went along with one of her savings bonds. it said for me to put this money down on a new Harley. yes mam, you have to do what mom said right?

To me, loud motorcycles are on equal footing with the ghetto sleds with trunks full of loud crappy speakers.

“Hey everybody — LOOK AT ME!!”

The "low milage" says volumes about these bikes, low value, low self esteem, best riden at night.

Harley is losing its demographic and it's flailing around trying to define something that will sell.

Electric motors are definitely the trend of the future. The only thing holding them back now is battery technology. But HD is devoting a lot of money to produce an electric styled cruiser motorcycle. That's not going to sell.

No. It's more like "listen to me, I'm here". There's a certain amount of safety in noise. Ask any biker that's been accidently dodged at, driver not knowing they're there, especially in the city. Reason for most bike/car accidents, "I didn't see him or even know he was there".

There are good reasons far beyond that you mention here.

Now,,,the boom boxes, man, what the fug can anyone say positive about those types?

I thought this was going to be about H-D going back to solid engine mounts.

I really don't want a cruiser since I'm not planning on doing any long trips. I think about going into the pasture and bringing up the cows. Or, going to town on gravel roads. For the millenials it would be for dodging through down town traffic. The scrambler, dual sport or adventure design is right for me.

kwg

Harley's demographics have changed more than once...the days of vibration having that desired effect on your slender passenger are long, long gone...

Go environmentally friendly--electric motor and promote imitation leather reinforced with Kelvar to keep that biker look--safely.

I'd hate to see anyone have an ankle break holding the bike up at a stop sign, so suggest they go with dual tandem rear wheels to carry the increasing passenger load more comfortably.

Ought to go over big...:)

Harley lost their way years ago. Their "flat paint look" Denim bikes look awful. They don't even make a Superglide or Dynaglide anymore. Everything that isn't a dresser is a Softtail. They ignore what the root of the word "Sportster" is. Almost all the Sportsters have 16in, wide front tires. They need to bring back a Sportster that looks like the original 883 but as a 1200 with some grunt. A stoplight to stoplight urban bike. Who designed their current exhaust systems? They look like a bunch of soup cans welded end to end.

Yep. And I still see Harleys being trailered to Sturgis....

I strongly doubt that HD is going to shake up the motorcycle market. They have been trying to branch out of the cruiser market since the 1960's and have failed every time. In 2008 they paid the Castiglioni brothers $109 million to buy MV Agusta. After 13 months and tens of millions more they threw in the towel and sold the company back to the same Castiglioni brothers for 1 euro. At the same time they shut down Buell after years of mismanagement at a cost of over $250 million. They had several viable offers for Buell that they refused, reportedly Rotax was interested. A lot of the present management team was directly involved in this. Total losses were around $400 million for divesting both companies as well as a lot of residual bad will from former Buell owners. A lot of Harley dealers were openly insulting to Buell riders, not exactly good for business.

The present water cooled 500 and 750 vtwins are not competitive in their market niches with any of the Japanese or BMW bikes. I hope I'm wrong and HD comes out swinging but I wouldn't bet on it.