How can you sell something that you cannot understand?

Harley has NEVER built a competitive sport bike. Buell never sold because the bikes were crippled with an obsolete engine. I know, I rode on of the first Erik Buell built bikes with the hopped up Sportster 1200 paint shaker/irrigation pump so called "engine". Buell spent countless hours engineering a fine chassis then saddled it with a hapless 1930's era engine. Imagine a Ford GT or ROUSH Mustang with a supercharged flat-head V-8 engine. There is not a Sport rider on the planet that would choose an Air cooled pushrod antique over ANY of the modern sport bike engines currently produced (regardless of brand preference)! Harley's idea of a "new" model is to take a fender from one bike, fuel tank from another, bend a new set of bars, slap on some new emblems and paint and you have a 2010 model that looks like it could be a 1940 model. The Japanese and independent Americans builders have proven that ANYONE can build a cruiser and sell it. Building a competitive sport bike takes something that Harley has never done, that is RACING and Winning in a class where the rules are not rigged in their favor! HONDA and Yamaha went AMA flat tracking in the 80's, kicked Harleys BUTT and what did Harley do? Improve their bikes? NO, they whined, cried, pissed, moaned and petitioned the AMA for rules changes that effectively eliminated ANY competition! In the Mid 80's Harley got a tariff passed on "imports" larger than 700 cc's, what did the "imports" do? They built bikes just under the limit that would still feed the Harley of the day their ass on a platter! For bikes that could not be downsized, the imports simply started manufacturing the big stuff in the USA and went right on dominating the market! When Harley went Superbike racing, they were fed their nuts on a plate, they could not force a rules change so they just quit! Now they cannot make it in the sportbike market where the BUYER makes the rules, so they just QUIT! Typical, short sighted Harley Logic! The inherent problem with HARLEY is that they do not know how to SELL anything, their success depends on a huge number of novice and uneducated buyers who buy the LIFESTYLE and MYTH, not the quality and performance of the product. Now that the money is drying up so is Harley.

I hope and pray that BUELL and MV Augusta can find a savior in the market, however that prospects are not good!

MWLynch A hardcore performance motorcycle enthusiast!

I wholeheartedly second your letter - and posted a similar rant on asphalt and rubber! One can only shake his/her head at corporate strategy (how they can operate without regard for the market really mystifies me!).

Hayabrusa
Suzuki, Yamaha, BMW, Triumph owner/rider