Harley should start reproducing vintage parts, NLA stuff that the restoration sector needs and Harley can get into restorations themselves and raise the bar.

A perfect example is Ferrari in the not-too-distant-past decided to cash in on the restoration market and broke out some of the old tools and made new ones to not only sell parts to the vintage crowd but to start a restoration division all their own. To capitalize on this even further they offer a certification program where any restored car can be inspected by them and certified (provided its done correctly) as being numbers matching, correctly restored and proper colours etc etc. So now when people sell a restored car one of the things thats asked for is the certification documents backing up the cars pedigree from the factory itself. That or judged event scores for those who dont go through that process. By them offering parts it removes the excuse of "I can't find the right part", it just comes down to money.

I think Harley could benefit from reproducing vintage parts instead of abandoning a big market of vintage motorcycles where they have the most clout. Fenders, tanks, rims, castings and labeled as Genuine HD parts. I know there's a bunch of aftermarket suppliers but a lot of the stuff is junk and wrong. This move might also earn the respect of those that feel the Moco has left them behind to focus on making bikes that dont appeal to them. "yes me make electric motorcycles but here's a new fender for your UL that's indistinguishable from an original and bears an HD part number."

Sign me up!

 

The Mother Ship could give a **** less about vintage motorcycles.

 

Why? The aftermarket stuff is better.
It's not like the bike would be original anyway. I'm not concerned with 100 point originality...I want a rider.

 

Thats an assumption I think and they could be very proud of their heritage. Im not privy to the inner workings of HD or the minutes of the meetings but if they did it, it could be just as much about winning back clients as it is about making money.

 

I disagree when it comes to sheet metal, rims and other things nobody even makes. Maybe you don't own a 50+ year old bike so it wont apply to you anyway.

 

You can still get a twinkie re-built through the Long Block program, but that's as far back as it goes now.

 

Actually I do. It's got Panhead tanks now, because the original Shovel tanks were leaking at the tabs. Virtually the same anyway. I don't recall having to do anything special to bolt them on. Not that hard to find parts, you just have to know where to look.

 

Zero percent financing thru Harley Davidson on brand new bikes. Do they have that? Toyota did that back in the 80's to sell cars and it worked.

 

hellonewman- That sounds like a good idea. But my gut feeling is HD would have them made overseas. Which of course many or may not be beneficial to HD's North American workforce. Well, I guess keeping the company healthy is actually beneficial to US workers.