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Harley to close assembly plant in Kansas City

Joe Namath....

This guy right???
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BCWvH2ISyI"]Joe Namath pantyhose - YouTube[/ame]
 
Maybe that is the beginning of the problem....
 
Like everyone I really hope they get their stuff together ..... here is one nice example.
 

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Cadillac had a lot of help from the cross platform compatibility as well as the marketing blitz. Putting their latest gen ATS cars on the same platform that your average Cruze is based from and selling it for 65,000 goes a long way to making a turn around. HD doesn't have the luxury, aside from putting chrome spoke wheels on a leather couch and calling it an FLHC and trying to sell it for more than any other market bikes... You think they would have learned something after not being able to sustain EBR (which probably had a better business model than HD had for it's own bikes)...

You mean my ATS is really a Cruze? :doh:
 
^- This.

Fewer and fewer kids play outside these days. They don't learn to ride bicycles. Motorcycles seem too skeery for many young men raised on soy milk, xbox, and surveillance camera nannies.

Plus, the teenagers who watched Joe Namath and Peter Fonda ride Harley's in the 1970's at the drive-in theater are now too old to ride.

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Nailed it on the young-us.
 
I wonder if these were the "brand ambassadors" we saw on stage when my daughter and I regretfully rode through one Saturday? http://www.americaneaglehd.com/--american-girls
If this is the norm for all dealerships, then they may have already missed the boat on millennials and next-y's. They (M&N's) already have less disposable income, and they tend to favor friendly, socially conscience, and stylish brands. I work at a university primarily for women, and although not typical for university populations, this campus is well represented with scooters, groms, and more recently small ninjas and cbr's (even an odd bonnevile, but that may belong to a prof). Not to mention tons cheap & really expensive bicycles. There is interest in two-wheels by today's "kids".
I hope they can figure this out. I'm 48, and I may not be able to swing my leg over this strom forever. 10 years from now, I want as many choices as possible, and this will require all mfg's to figure out how to keep the doors open with these generations.
 
There was a Grom pulling into the parking lot across from the MD Anderson research building this morning as I left the gym. Among the several bikes there, all seem more orientated towards transportation- scooters, small dual sports, etc.

I had a poster of Captain America on the wall along with a half dozen others. Being a third generation motorcyclist, I grew up in a garage along with AJS, BSAs, Triumps, Hondas, Benellis, Ducatis and my uncle Doyle's K model. Dad drag raced out of Dalio's shop and the big dog in the neighborhood in those days was the latest Triumph built by Jack Wilson. Maybe I was jaded listening to dad complain about how HD influenced the AMA rules to keep obsolete bikes competitive, but neither movies or HD defined motorcycling or personal identity for me. HD was just another brand, and one that didn't make a decent dirt bike, which is all I cared about as a teenager. Now the 250 Elsinore, that was something special.

Two acquaintances of mine returned from their tours in Iraq to buy Buells. Both kept them for six months before trading them in on Gixers. The kids these days...
 
Just imagine if Harley had diversified their product line.

There is no valid reason they couldn't build a KLR 650ish bike.

They do

http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/h-d/harley_davidson_mt_350e_army_bik.htm

HD is doing what it has always done when markets are tight (remember Buell, axed in the economic downturn of 2008). They also eliminated 2 lines of bikes, more to come? Any company with half a brain is going to make changes when it's required, the ones that don't are the bankrupt ones :eek2:
 
Read today that Harley invested in Alta Motors. They are into electric mx, Mxr, supermoto, and a new enduro coming out also from what I read. Wonder where they are going with that ?
 
Read today that Harley invested in Alta Motors. They are into electric mx, Mxr, supermoto, and a new enduro coming out also from what I read. Wonder where they are going with that ?



I don’t know, but it’s going to take somebody with big money to get that tech to a point where it’s a suitable and affordable alternative to internal combustion. I don’t know if HD is that company or not, but I sure hope they are.
 
They've Almost got the range. What really needs to be worked out is charging time.

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