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A Lesson in HOG Economics

although, prefer to think of myself as part of a subculture ...
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Same with apple users. That's why they're willing to pay more for less too. Its their perceived scarcity in a sea of PC users that makes them status symbols, even though everyone has an iphone and a mac book.

That video is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. It made my day. Im also pretty sure most of what's going on is a hallucination after the old man cracked him during the bar fight. I think most people would view that as a film about a self-hating man throwing his life away. Not for Harley Davidson.

Can you imagine if Apple tried the same thing? "Hate your life? There's a new one waiting for you, online. Throw away your real life and buy an iphone."
 
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Bumpits said:
Same with apple users. That's why they're willing to pay more for less too. Its their perceived scarcity in a sea of PC users that makes them status symbols, even though everyone has an iphone and a mac book.

That video is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. It made my day. Im also pretty sure most of what's going on is a hallucination after the old man cracked him during the bar fight. I think most people would view that as a film about a self-hating man throwing his life away. Not for Harley Davidson.

Can you imagine if Apple tried the same thing? "Hate your life? There's a new one waiting for you, online. Throw away your real life and buy an iphone."
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:thumbup

giphy.gif


:laughing

yes, inner child hd vid is surreal and absurd ... beautifully captures the human condition.

interesting, to think about where the “throwing away your real life” is happening in the vid. :dunno

:gsxrgrl
 
Bumpits said:
Everything sells a lifestyle.
It's not that harley sells a lifestyle. It's that harley sells a lifestyle nobody wants and it's affecting the sales of motorcycles overall. If you command 1/2 of all on-road motorcycle sales in America, you need to be a bit more generic. Harley is the Apple of motorcycles and needs to act as such.
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Generic?? I don't think so. That would be bad marketing.

Harley is reaching out to everyone it can. It has many programs for all types of riders, but being a cruiser manufacturer, can't reach everyone.:wow
 
Would you stop buying harleys if they gave up the outlaw cruiser schtick and tried to reach more people? 'Cruiser' has a pretty difficult reputation to come back from as an outlaw bike, and that's all because of harley. By the very nature of being outlaw you're appealing to a tiny minority of the population and asking to be opposed by everyone else.
 
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moar anti-outlaw-cruiser-schtick ideas:

e4aefe6adab7ea3e5d21d4e5fbaf1c40.jpg


someone say outlaws ...?:

[YOUTUBE]r3SLg3m8nbE[/YOUTUBE]

:toothless
 
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No american motorcycle manufacturer will ever produce another race bike unless that manufacturer moves its entire operation to europe. We do not produce engineers, and we certainly can not give two shits about motorsports engineering. Harley Davidson's only hope is to come up with cute fun motorcycles that are more competent for daily users and more relatable to more people. Either that or just move to Germany.
 
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Bumpits said:
No american motorcycle manufacturer will ever produce another race bike unless that manufacturer moves its entire operation to europe. We do not produce engineers, and we certainly can not give two shits about motorsports engineering. Harley Davidson's only hope is to come up with cute fun motorcycles that are more competent for daily users and more relatable to more people. Either that or just move to Germany.
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:thumbup

9306a3a14f3c41ff87a82961ae18f0c6.jpg


here's an H-D city cruiser for us ... :ride

some USA engineers:

1461719199-f-22-3.gif


TemptingOptimisticAlbacoretuna-size_restricted.gif


some USA motorsport engineerin' racin':

1014e76db224fa666b24048de96c7597.gif


phoenix-like, from the ashes, I say ... :toothless:flag

:angel
 
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Jalopyshoppe said:
You're a little off base with the effect AMF had on HD. AMF bought into a company that had been bled for every penny by the Davidson family. In the 60's Harley was building bikes in a 5 story building. There was no assembly line, and bikes made trips up and down the elevator from start to finish. AMF invested huge amounts of cash into Harley Davidson. They upgraded production lines and fed lots of money into product development. The bikes that were being produced (Shovelheads) were top notch 1936 technology, assembled by a staff that portrayed every assembly line stereotype there is. There was absolutely a difference between a Monday bike and a Friday bike. My dad worked at a dealer for those years. Some bikes suffered from such poor casting that they had to be torn down and have the cases and heads painted to keep them from oozing oil through the metal.
While that was going on, AMF was working with Porsche to develop the Evolution engine, which went on to be revered by many as the engine that saved the company.
AMF also hired Willie G Davidson as a designer. He tried to diversify the company with bikes like the 71 Super Glide (boat tail), and the XLCR Sportster. Both bikes were considered flops, but the Super Glide went on to be a huge success story. The XLCR frame carried over into the Sportster that sold until 2003.

Harley needed a scapegoat to dump the terrible business decisions of the previous 40 years on, and they couldn't disgrace the Davidson family name, so AMF took the hit. Meanwhile, the developments that the employee owned version of the company succeeded on were all accomplished with AMF money.

Too bad they didn't learn from any of those mistakes.
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I knew Harley had help from Porsche with the VROD motor, but had never heard Porsche helped on the EVO motor during AMF years. Can you please link to some info on that, I tried finding it but my google skills aren't that good.
 
rob linders said:
I knew Harley had help from Porsche with the VROD motor, but had never heard Porsche helped on the EVO motor during AMF years. Can you please link to some info on that, I tried finding it but my google skills aren't that good.
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The Evo was a split from the Nova project, which is pretty well documented. The tech that went into that engine is what made the Evo.
 
Those pictures are cool but SpaceX, Boeing, and NASCAR are all hurting to find more engineers.

edit: before the quarantine. now they're all going bankrupt.
 
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SFMCjohn said:
Harley-Davidson, too, apparently ... :laughing:thumbup
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I don't think they're looking for more engineers. Their new CEO is looking how to continue to polish the same old "turd".







Note: I don't think Harley-Davidsons are turd motorcycles. Hence the quotations and the post script note. It's merely a phrase that fits. :p
 
rob linders said:
I knew Harley had help from Porsche with the VROD motor, but had never heard Porsche helped on the EVO motor during AMF years. Can you please link to some info on that, I tried finding it but my google skills aren't that good.
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AFAIK Porsche had nothing to do with the EVO.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/1984-harley-davidson-softail-v2-evolution

In the Evolution engine, Harley-Davidson contracted the German firm, Mahle, to produce the pistons. ''The untold story is the cooperation we received from the unions,'' says John. After a 40 percent workforce reduction and a 10 percent pay cut across the board, the unions conceded to having the pistons and bearings made outside the company, in order to produce a better product and increase production.
 
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