mscuddy

Will Harley Davidson, who's only entry level motorcycle is the Sportster, start producing 100cc, 250 & 500cc entry level dirt bikes, dual sports and steet bikes?

Since HD's running out of 51 year old midlife crisis buyers for its big v twins, it's only natural they would want to tap into the expanding entry-level bike scene with smaller offerings, off-road bikes being the first major step. And combined with the Harley Davidson name, this could be a giant market for Harley.

Rumor has it the bikes will be assembeled in the United States, by a well known company who has years of experience building dirt bikes.

You can say "I heard about it first on Motorcycle.com".

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Dr_Sprocket

Are you applying for the open position of GMP?

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BrowningBAR

That wouldn't be possible. Cuddy has actual motorcycle knowledge and experience. This automatically disqualifies a person from applying for the position of GMP.

pplassm

Cuddy, is this the long-rumored off-road Buell? I thought they gave up on that before construction of a prototype.

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longride

"Since HD's running out of 51 year old midlife crisis buyers for its big v twins,.."

So the next generation isn't going to make it to 51? Even Roger Daltrey didn't die before he got old.

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seruzawa

And guess what? He's not dead yet! Though his career is. Now he's making documentaries on the History Channel. That's just one step above rock bottom.... a country & Western performer.

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Kenneth_Moore

This concept makes sense to me. Rossmeyer, who has 6 dealerships in FL, has always had smaller bikes on the sales floor from various manufacturers. Not the "Big 4," but others. The Aermacchi partnership was successful for a time, at least it gave HD something to put up against the imports. However, what seems unlikely to me, is that they would invest in creating the manufacturing infrastructure to actually build bikes like this. Our corporate model is to hand that off to the rest of the world and then import it. Which sucks.

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longride

"This concept makes sense to me. Rossmeyer, who has 6 dealerships in FL, has always had smaller bikes on the sales floor from various manufacturers."

Rossmeyer didn't get those 6 dealerships from selling small bikes. I doubt Honda is building new dealerships from the enormous profit from selling 250cc bikes here. Those bikes just don't sell, which is why few dealerships even bother trying to sell them. There is no way Harley can make a bike as cheap as the imports without actually building there and importing it. We don't have slave labor locally to take advantage of. At that point, why bother?

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BrowningBAR

The current generations aren't as large as the boomer generation, so market share could take a hit.

sarnali2

I think the last time they tried that was the Buell Blast, don't see too many of those around though on paper it was a good idea. If they gave the bike enough power to get out of it's own way it might actually sell, trouble is the 51 year old mid-life crisis buyer isn't interested in actually learning some skills, they just want to plaster enough deathhead's on their bikes to embarrass an SS Division and go be tuff. That's where Harleys image bites them on the butt, they've always been expensive, now they have all this ruff guy rah rah sh*t to contend with. Turns a lot of people off.

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