Yahoo News Debuts Harley V-Rod

[FloridaSteve]

Best quote from the story.... for lots of reasons.





``It looks like a Japanese bike, like a car with two wheels,'' said Bob Phillips, 53. ``Looks like they're trying to capture some of the rice-cooker buyers. My question is: How are you going to make a chopper out of that?''

[dck47]

This question goes out to everybody:



What does a Japanese bike look like?

[JoeSquid]

Rice-cooker buyers? Why would someone interested in a food preparation item be interested in a motorcycle? Maybe he meant opposed to fat burger-eaters? Or BBQ-lickers?



Dude, take off the pillow cover and join the 21st century.

[alanheng]

Ah ha! So this is how Harley gets away with charging more and giving less of their products.



They cater to bleepin' idiots who couldn't find their way out of a room made of doors!



If a growing demographic of HD buyers are doctors and lawyers, where are all the smart riders hiding?

[floundericiousFL]

http://www.3fun.com/harley/harley.htm



I wonder if this motorcycle will look as good as the one in this picture... (yes, rated G)

[granny]

I don't care for the cruiser aesthetic but further chopping of a V-Rod could only spoil it. The V-Rod bike convincingly demonstrates that Harley has formidable design and enginneering skill. It doesn't matter that the Harley faithful disapprove of the V-Rod. It is good that the V-Rod will sell to a different marketplace segment since that segment will be one that Harley currently can't touch.

[das]

My favorite quote from the article was:



"Industry experts believe that the high-performance bike may improve sluggish sales in Europe, where Harley Davidson does not have the superstar status it enjoys in the U.S. and motorcycles are geared more to speed than style."



Um, wasn't it Europe that threatened to ban the ZX-12 if it went too fast?



Would anyone here say that BMWs or Moto Guzzis, are "geared" toward speed?



Er, I'm not a fashion expert (or a Ducatisti), but you've been dropped on your head a few times if you don't think Ducatis have style. Ditto for Bimotas. (I also happen to think that Aprilia and MV Augusta bikes are pretty sharp looking, too.)



Who are the "industry experts" who actually believe this junk?



Just my opinion, but I'm guessing that Harley's sluggish sales in Europe are due to the fact Europeans expect their motorcycles to function as a means of transportation (possibly in addition to being fast and/or stylish), not merely as a recreational vehicle.

[DataDan]

Judging from the discussions that have erupted on the Harley boards, introduction of the V-Rod is the motorcycling equivalent of the shelling of Fort Sumter. A highly vocal majority sees it as treason, bleating about unconventional styling and departure from air-cooled, pushrod, 45-degree tradition. A few think Harley has joined the eco-Nazis trying to deprive them of their beloved hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere.



Performance seems to be irrelevant. Somehow, the fact that Harley will be offering twice the horsepower at about the same price as current bikes has escaped notice.



This is further proof that I don't "get it" and never will.

[Gixxerboy]

Guzzis, BMW's, etc. are geared toward high speed grand/sport touring. They ride FAST over there... for more than an hour at a time. Their bikes have to be comfy and handle... funny that... never seen that in a Hardly.

[john]

screw them, they won't stop buying. what are they going to do? Defect to Honda? yeah. right. The brand conscious, look-at-me-while-i-am-on-my-harley riders are the only ones who do not like this bike. I bet they didn't even know their evo had a 45* twin to begin with. Harley knows that its loyal sheep would never buy foreign, no matter what they make. There was the same reaction when Buell came out. Screw all of those who would halt diversity and the progress of better handling, braking, and accelerating bikes.