Posted on 04/27/2010 11:50:48 AM PDT by BraveMan
How do you see that? Or, what is it that you are seeing?
I don’t get it.
Look at the difference in the spokes between photos ...
I think your point is mostly valid. The one exception is the t-shirts and some of the other “brand loyalty” apparel. You can buy those to wear whenever, other than for riding.
“I wouldn’t touch one if it was free and came complete with free gas and a babe to put on the back.”
LOL! I’ll take it!
Is Ride magazine a new name for the IIRC, Rider? The one geared more towards touring bikes and roads?
History repeats itself... I’m a little fuzzy on the details but I had a business school case on HD in the mid-90’s but IIRC back in the 80’s HD, either through acquisition or home grown tried to get in the sport bike business. This is away from their core competency and it drove similar results. They got rid of it and focused on what they do best. Looks which helped drive much better results. Looks they are doing the exact same thing here.
I don’t know. You don’t see spoke blur in the first foto either and he’s clearly not braking then. Again, in the first second fotos the (stationary) rocks in the back ground are blurred...which would be because the camera is panning. By the time the rider is going going down there are totally different speeds and camera angles than the previous two shots. I think you can make the argument but shutter speed, bike speed, panning speed and angle variations could just as easily explain it. I would buy it more if the camera was stationary.
I find it interesting that the guy is pointing to the camera as he enters the turn. Looks like he is starting to “peg” out with only one hand gripping the bar...which means the right side pull would have have been even more dramatic than if he had had a solid two hand grip. By the time he got his left hand back on the grip it was too late.
Look at front versus rear wheel in same photo.
I did. It’s so dark I can’t see enough to make a comparison.
A perfect example of the bike follows your eyes...Don’t look at what you might hit, look where you want the bike to go.
Regarding parts content, among other things: Harley: Nissin brakes, Showa forks, Mikuni carburetors, Nippon Denso electrics and ignition, Jahr pistons in the Revolution engines, Australian and Chinese wheels (check the stamps on the Sportster wheels sometime), foreign made tires, etc, etc.
Partial confirmation: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/grainger/harley-davidson/
So your Wisconsin School of Business link says the following:
Tires (New York)
Wheels (Australia, China and domestically)
Pistons (Wisconsin)
Seats, Powertrain (engine and transmission) (Wisconsin)
Engine control modules (Midwest)
Shocks (Japan - assembled in Ohio, then shipped to Pennsylvania)
Wiring (North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Mexico)
So let’s see. According to your link, the foreign content consists of some wheels, some wiring, and the shock components. Wow. That's too much confirmation for me.
So you’re saying that I shouldn’t buy a Harley Davidson because they’re not 100% American, yet it’s okay to buy a Japanese bike despite it having even less American part content. Got it.
More: http://books.google.com/books?id=DvsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Harley+engines+assembled+in+Mexico&source=bl&ots=fgqMWowQ0u&sig=pU3AF9Lc9dbefS6A9yhUDd7vGhQ&hl=en&ei=m_TXS6iEDobg8QS65o2dBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAsQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&q=Harley%20engines%20assembled%20in%20Mexico&f=false
“The engine was developed with the help of Porsche, with pistons and connecting rods coming from Germany. The heads are from France, while the starter and some other electrical components are from Japan, and the throttle body is assembled in Mexico.”
ROTFLMAO!!! I see you searched for “Harley engines assembled in Mexico” in Google but the best you could find was that the V-Rod’s “throttle body is assembled in Mexico!” LOL!!! And not only that, you had to go to a “peak inside” feature of Google for a magazine from 2001!
That is hilarious! How long did you stay up looking on Google to find such a tiny morsel of information? You are pathetic. Trying so desperately to prove that Harley isn’t really an American bike that you try all sorts of Google searches until something comes up.
Depending on the model, American parts content can (reportedly) be under 50% (depending on how you count parts)
Under 50%? Bull shit. The model with the lowest domestic content is the V-Rod. It’s the least traditional Harley and accounts for what, less than 10% of the bikes Harley sells in a year?
Overall, the American part content of Harley is 95% according to some “buy American” websites such as USstuff.com:
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Say YES! to:
Harley-Davidson Motorcycles
American Made- Union Made by an American company. 95% of parts Made in USA. USA owned company. Plants in York, PA, Tomahawk, WI, Milwaukee, WI and Kansas City, MO
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Last I looked, Victory was making a point of making all their engines and wheels in the US, which automatically puts them ahead of HD. They’ve also been actively trying to increase their US parts content, as more than one magazine review has mentioned. They even have the Ness duo building/designing customs for them now.
Interesting... so what do you think of this?
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Polaris designs, manufactures and markets snowmobiles, ATVs, and motorcycles for recreational and utility uses. The company registered annual 2004 sales of US$1.8 billion and made purchases of about US$1 billion, including 25% from Asia. In January 2007, Polaris set up an Asia procurement office in Shanghai and tapped Tony Wixo to head it.
In 2005, Polaris`s major product categories were parts, garments and accessories (accounting for 15% of the total), motorcycles (5%), snowmobiles (14%), and ATVs and UTVs (66%). According to Wixo, Polaris` ATV, UTV, snowmobile, and motorcycles all share the same global parts procurement system. In an interview with CENS, Wixo noted that Polaris and Victory expect to boost their procurement from Asia to 40% of the global total over next few years, generating new business opportunities for qualified suppliers in the region.
According to Wixo, Polaris procures about 15% of its supplies from Taiwan, including complete ATVs, casting parts, continuous variable transmission (CVT) systems, engine parts, air-filtration items, lightings, wheel rims, and rubber tires. "Polaris` purchases from Taiwan are expected to increase rapidly in the next few years, especially in the areas of engine parts, aluminum-forged key parts (currently supplied by some companies in the U.S.), and lighting, generating a lot of opportunities for companies on the island."
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And yes, I do know quite a bit about bikes and am aware that Harley offers counterbalanced models, but they’re almost the exception to the rule in their lineup. Most of their larger cruisers are not counterbalanced and as such shake like paint mixers. Victory’s bikes are mostly counterbalancer equipped with only a couple not so rigged, as I recall.
A quick visit to a Harley enthusiast forum will reveal that most Harley owners are extremely conservative. You’ll find guys that take the counterbalancers out of their Harley’s for more horsepower, less weight, and the ability to rev higher.
It’s not that Harley can’t make a bike exactly like what the Japs offer; it’s that their customers don’t want it. Considering that Harley sells more heavies in the US than all the Jap bikes combined, maybe they know what they are doing.
Polaris should have went head to head with Japanese bikes instead of Harley’s before rolling out the Victory line. Maybe they are beginning to realize that and that’s why they are (or were?) interested in aquiring KTM.
Even down here in Harley-mad Texas, it is rare to see old men on Harleys - but you see lots of them on Goldwings, Shadows, Road Stars, etc., etc.
It’s rare to see old men on Harley’s? Up the thread a bit, you said “Harley is a distant also-ran in terms of rep and desirability among younger riders,”
So rare to see old men on them, and they are “also rans” with the younger riders, and yet somehow they sell more heavyweight motorcycles in the US than all other companies combined? I guess they targeted the right group then!
But wait. As usual, you contradict yourself:
partially due to their GM-esque image and older demographics (where every year the median age of a Harley buyer gets one year older...)”
That looks like I nice ride. I’ve never owned a Yamaha, but I used to drool over my friends’ R1s. At least until I bought a Honda RC51. Come to think of it, I used to drool over my friends’ YZ250s (when I had a Suzuki RM125 at the time) until I bought a Honda CR250.
My first bike was a Kawasaki and my first cruiser was a Suzuki... two brands I won’t be buying anytime soon. I love Hondas and have to admit I always liked the Yamahas.
I also love my Harley, but it sounds like you made a good choice. Harley’s loss!
Good grief. Did you read my previous response to you? Go follow the reply trail all the way back to the photo. Look at the frame, belt drive, primary case and derby cover. Does that look like a Sportster to you?
Furthermore, isn't it about time for a Godwin's law pertaining to sourcing Wikipedia!?!
He's "waiving" to the guy with the camera on the side of the road. Bikers normally wave to each other as they pass.
"I did. It’s so dark I can’t see enough to make a comparison."
There's a lot to explain about riding to grasp what's happening in those pics.
The rear wheel is spinning, else the individual spokes and tread pattern would be visible, as it is on the front, and the bike would be down. The spinning rear wheel keeps the bike up, because of conservation of angular momentum. The angular momentum vector is positioned at the center of the rear axle and points to the left. The force necessary to change the orientation of that vector is proportional to the rotational speed of the wheel and is rather large. That's what keeps the bike upright, or stable in the angular posiiton it's been placed in. When the spinning stops, there's nothing to hold the bike up. ...try to keep a staitonary bike up by balancing it.
The front wheel is lighter, has much less mass attached to it and also is governed by conservation of angular momentum. A 2 wheel vehicle is turned by lean and countersteer. Countersteer means the handlebar is rotated left a bit in the steering head to turn right. That motion of the handlebars causes a force on the angular momentum vector to lean the bike into the turn and allows the rubber of the wheel to distort to follow the curve of the turn.
If the front wheel stops, the front wheel will skid and that force on the rear angular momentum vector will cause the bike to go down real fast. That's what the front lockup is doing in fig. 2.
The rider is also trying to steer, not countersteer. That causes the bike to stand up+, not lean into the turn. If the handlebar is turned right in a right hand turn, the bike will stand up and can even be flipped into an opposite lean(high side). (That's the major reason why the bike stayed up.) The rider knows he's losing control, so he pushes down harder, causing the bike to lean more out of the turn(high side). Then he lets go, 'cause he feels like he's about to be tossed off the left side.
LOL! Or it’s just a dark picture.
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