Easier to crush it for Beer Money

“Barn find of the century?” Hardly.

Most younger folks find HD bikes and owners to be one thing, obnoxious. The whole aura surrounding HD reminds me of that scene in Billy Madison where he rolls up in the Trans-Am with the REO Speedwagon shirt on. People who are stuck in a period three decades prior to their actual age are HD customers, and that’s who…

Actually, you *could* buy a VR1000 for the street.
In Poland.

Indian was it’s own private company back then so you can’t really compare them to Victory’s of the same age, or the current bikes. Victory certainly didn’t have the smoothest start but their quality has vastly improved over the years and that’s carried into the Indian line. Check them out sometime, I think you’ll find…

They can commit but with their current engine tech it’ll never happen

Actually the GM at my local Yam/Suz/Honda is a close friend. I’ll take my sportbike with better ergos, lighter weight (nice cast aluminum frames), better tech etc for much less money.

Same.

None of my neighbors or friends work at Harley. To be fair, I did sell my harley for what I paid for it after owning for a couple years. I will agree that everything was metal. Which turned the bike into an unweildy monster at low speeds. Whereas the plastic Monster I had weighed nothing and was a joy to ride in any…

I’ve told the story in these “Let’s all shit on Harley because they genuinely deserve it” threads, but I’ll tell it again here.

None of that makes up for their image, lackluster performance, and extreme prices that aren’t competitive.

Actually the V-rod was a brilliant bike. It’s the Harley faithful, including dealers and the cult of air cooled that doomed it.

...cough...Buell...cough.

...and even then, after fucking it up the first time, they might be able to find a timeless Italian prestige brand to be hooked up with...but they’d fuck that too...

And dudes trying to tell you that loud pipes save lives because they don’t understand the Doppler effect...

“At least with the plant in Thailand, the bikes can actually be assembled where the parts are made.”

Does the name Buell ring a bell? I had an XB12X that was an awesome bike, but once H-D killed Buell I moved to BMW.

I think that their biggest problem is the riders themselves. If you ever want to see a big group of try-hards and smug assholes go to a Harley Dealership on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Even if you did want to buy one of their bikes, you have to pass some sort of personality test that the salesman would give you from…

My ‘14 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 has a delightful v-twin. There is no reason HD can’t latch onto the adv-style or even make a legit adv with their modern v-twins. Even their aging base could get excited about that. I see more boomers on adv bikes than HDs anyway (at least in the PNW).

They need to revamp their image and start catering to a younger crowd. I think Harley is too old school for that ICQ/MySpace era.