Harley Davidson to Retire from Racing

What would you consider a reasonable price for the technology they produce? Remember Harley has come a long way in the last few years. They now use fuel injection, counterbalancers, they have the new v-rod..liquid cooled & 115 hp..more than any of the japanese cruisers puts out & it does it with less cc's. The new firebolt..remember at it's core it is a harley, probably the best handling bike ever mass produced. Fuel injected, gas in the frame, oil in the swing arm, front perimiter brake & under $10,000. Hell most of the japanese sportbikes are priced right around $10,000. And since we are on the subject of price, have you priced any of the so-called harley wannabe jap cruisers? Most are $12,000 or more...Road star, Royal Star, VTX, Warrior, all are up there in price & don't exactly have all the latest & greatest innovations on them.



The damn Goldwing costs just as much as the most expensive Harley, everyone likes to bash Harleys prices but in retrospect they have actually remained pretty stable for a number of years now while the competition has had their prices skyrocket.



As far as the racing aspect goes, I am glad to see them get out. I would much rather have the reigns to a future racing project handed to Buell. If & when that happens I am sure it will be a viable competitor.

Actually Harley has probably sold more fuel injected bikes than any of the large Japanese manufacturers. Fuel injection has been available on Harley touring models since '95 -- well before it appeared on the Gold Wing. The injection introduced last year on softtails and adapted to the touring bikes this year is probably one of the most advanced injection systems out there. Having owned two injected Harleys with no problems, I can attest that it works. Harley doesn't build sport bikes. The bikes they build make a lot of people happy, however.



The racing has been a failure. This does not mean that Harley is technologically inept. It means that they have tried to develop advanced solutions to make a design based on their heritage continue to work. Ducati does the same thing with Desmo heads -- most agree that desmodronic valvetrains are not the most efficient solution any more.



When Harley had the V-4 water cooled engine in the early '80s, the decision was made that they could be far more successful building their traditional product. This has seemed to work well for them. Take a look at the recent article in Cycleworld (August I think) on the difficutly of developing an effective air-cooled large displacement twin. Those that claim that this is only a marketing gimmick -- all I can say is that without marketing you don't get sales. Harley has marketed an image. They build a product that makes a lot of people happy. They have a plan for the future. Thank God they realized it's not in AMA superbike.

A rather selective retirement..

So HD MoCo will depart road racing... but not the dirt oval or the quarter-mile strip. This merits reflection... the road race competition had continuously raised the performance bar (somewhat predictably) to the point of redundancy, and alas, the fate of the VR1000 was sealed. It would be reincarnated in a modestly de-tuned street version (V-rod) which will hopefully recoup the past road race investment over the next few years of aggressive retail marketing and "lifestyle" hyperbole... and that just might work. They may indeed make up every dollar spent on the road racing program through retail sales of the "new" street bike. Remember, it's the dollars that are of supreme importance to the Board and the stockholders.

Now let us consider the dirt oval and the drag strip... The rules of the games change to some degree each year; and the current competitors have invested considerable time and resources in maximizing the performance of sanctioned/approved designs. HD has not done poorly on these tracks - but it has been most often the privateer teams who have pushed the envelope and the presumed design limitations of the air/oil cooled V-twin. And beware complacency, for there are other manufacturers' machines prowling about these arenas - taking no prisoners nor offering excuses. The drag strip does not coddle whiners... if it breaks - too bad. It either wins or it doesn't. Second place on Sunday doesn't sell on Monday.

Perhaps HD has some new engineering which may debut in these forms of competition... that would indeed be interesting. I only hope not to be bored... So, let the games begin!

Let's think about pricing rationally. If it only costs $5600 to build a Sportster 883 (and sell it at profit), do they really expect me to believe that it costs $16,000 to build a Fatboy?



By the way, your average Japanese cruisers (Shadow 1100's and such) are pretty much all under $10,000, and though they aren't bleeding-edge technology, they're well ahead of Evo and Twin Cam Harleys (liquid cooling, 3 or 4 valves per cylinder, etc). Yet they cost 1/2 or 2/3 as much. And remember that HD only needs the tooling to build a few engines (twin cam, sportster 883, big-bore it to get a sportster 1200, new V-ROD) whereas the Japanese manufacturers have dozens of different engines. All rational thinking says that Harleys should cost as little or less than Japanese cruisers, but they cost far more. Welcome to the world of $6000 tank badges.



Of course a Goldwing costs as much as a Fatboy or an Electraglide. It's an aluminum-framed, technology-intensive design that usually also comes with a freakin' sound system and all sorts of other goodies. And it makes something like 100hp, 100 ft-lbs stock. What does the Fatboy have to justify ITS price?



Incidentally, I don't object to Buell pricing, as it's more reasonable than HD and you get a lot more technology and work for the price.