Chinese-Made Harleys
[/align]by Steve
Saturday, April 15, 2006

Tracy posted a comment on an older article, where she talks about Harley parts being made overseas...
[blockquote]One comment I will add here, is that for Harley lovers (Which I am one of them) to state put down a so-called metric bike and their argument is that you should own an American Bike, is rather contradictory, when most parts for HD are being outsourced and manuctured in Japan, Chile, Germany, China, Mexico and etcetera...while being shipped into the USA and assembled! Where as several of the Japanese made bikes are actually being manufactured and assembled both in the USA! So for HD owners to put down a so-called metric crusier and make the claim it's "just a rice grinder" and not a truly American made bike, is an oximoronic statement to say the least! [/blockquote]This particular subject has been hashed out so many times before on other websites.

I suppose this whole notion of Harley's being made of foreign parts is going to play out even more as the years go by. While Harley's are still very popular, I'm beginning to see signs that interest is waning[/align]

 

WRONGHave anydocumentation ?

 

There are a few customs assembled with almost all USA made parts, that's why they cost $40K and up. How many would pay that for an Eglide from Harley?

 

The funny thing is that all Jap bikes where derived from Harleys. Do some research and findout where they got thier original dies and castings.

 

must be a victory owner...........[:-]

 

The funny thing is that all Jap bikes where derived from Harleys. Do some research and findout where they got thier original dies and castings.
[/quote]
Not true, this applies only to the Riyoku, a 74" flathead,produced under license to Harley, using the tooling provided by same, prior to WWII. Soon after the war, Hiroshi Honda began producing small bikes that grew as the years went by. He used no parts, dies or blueprints from Harley and I would say he was the father of the rice burners.
In the '20s and '30s Harley tried to establish a worldwide network of affiliates and dealerships by licensing the right to produce bikes using Harley's technology.

 

Then why post it? Again.

What signs? What is your source? Some dealers are on fire with sales, some aren't. The *entire* motorcycle sales industry is down, except for (IIRC) Ducati, up something like 27% over last year. Harley has hung right around the same percentage of sales for the last decade or so.

 

How about the "Made in [Malaysia/China/Taiwan/Canada/Mexico] stickers on the boxes? They count?

 

Sure they count....but so does the difference in saying most parts(in the original post) as opposed to stating a portion of the parts.

 

Actually the Japanese bike makers did help keep Harley in business after AMF nearly put them out of business. When Honda started getting big in the 60s and 70s and Harley was going down hill they didn't want to be known as the reason HD died. They bailed HD out and Harley got back on track to compete as the American made option in a sea of foriegn made bikes.