Why is it so hard to believe that an industry that competes (regardless of product) with another industry would want sales to suffer for the competitor? The auto lobby has used "safety" for years in selling autos. Why wouldn't they take advantage of this and ask legislators to create laws to benefit the product they lobby for. The auto industry is using manipulated data to underscore that bikes with performance levels the EU declares as "high performance" to kill our beloved motorcycle industry. Do you think that these Euro-weenies can think of all of this by themselves? I think not. There is an effort from the competition (auto makers) to shut down their competition (bike makers). Why? Simple- auto makers are making vehicles that get great milaege but they can't sell them if you're buying bikes. If Honda is selling a car (let's say the Fit because it's new and gets 40mpg) for $12K and a CBR1000RR for $11K which has the higher profit margin? If you answered the car you are correct. Margins on most bikes sold are very low in the grand scheme of global economics. So, it's easier to kill the motorcycle industry off than to let it compete head to head. The Euro-weenies believe it's in the best interest of people to regulate what they can ride. That's funny coming from the very same people that make the fastest performance cars in the world. As far as the HD reference is concerned, Harley could not compete on the playing field in the 70's-90 or so. So, they asked Congress for an embargo based on C.C. size. It worked long enough for HD to survive. They made a better product and the embargo was lifted. HD took perfectly good bikes like the V-Max and the Eliminator 1000 and virtually stopped production because they had the right ear in Congress. Same holds true today in the EU.
