First of all, Fox, go back and read my post again. I was saying the poster was 100% correct. His explination of why Cannondale failed, is a lesson on why Harley would fail, if they entered the sportbike arena. How that is an "unwarranted, aggressive attack" is beyond me, considering that I agreed with what he said, and would use his quote as a response to anyone that wanted Harley to do this. Sadly, the rest of your post is wrong also. You think Harley doesn't know it's audience? Do yo uthink they don't know what would sell and not sell and at what cost? You are assuming that they can sell sportbikes that perform less and are more expensive. Wrong. They know it, but apparently you and many others don't. If Joe Squidly can't brag about the fastest or the "shootout" winner or the "World Champion", they don't buy in sufficient numbers to remain in that market. Ask Triumph, Buell, Kawasaki(zx9 & zx12), and Honda(SuperHawk). Why is every ad touting race wins and shootout winners? How many ads could Harley run touting race wins or being picked a winner among sportbikes? NONE. I like your last sentence in that you would buy a V-Rod sportbike. So you would spend $16,000 for inferior performance to any $10,000 japanese model, because at that point you are competing head to head. And lines would form for this product? Not only not likely, but I would bet the farm against it. You touted Ducati many times in your post. Why don't you go look up Ducati's track record for making profits over the last 20 years. See how many times they got bailed out and bought out. Then compare the Harley balance sheet over the same 20 years and then we will talk about making money in the sportbike arena. Just to recap, I never attacked the first poster, but did agree that he was correct in his asessments. Harley heeding those words will keep them in business.
