Willie G rode. Got a copy of the homecoming rally, on the cover of 1988 Enthusiast magazine, the board of directors are all sitting on there Harleys which they rode..

 

The article linked in the original post is spectacularly devoid of any real information.

There are some pretty pictures though!

 

My take on it is that Harley was open ONLY to ideas from its customer base without any care for potential customers that wanted anything other than heavyweight cruisers. They have dabbled in sport bikes, sport cruisers, small bikes and electric bikes but haven't really followed through on any of these. Thus lots of money lost on projects that really didn't go anywhere, mostly because the Harley Bro's didn't approve of those bikes.

 

you mean like the street and V-Rod were?

 

Well compared to the previous two this bike looks like the engineer's got to do as they wished where the two you mentioned were hobbled by other than engineers.

So yeah, I stick to my statement. I think Pan America will do damn well and it hopefully heralds the age of Harley getting the stick out of their ***. They have the engineering talent to lead all categories. Maybe part of Hardwire is finally accepting that they listened too much to their existing customers.

 

I think the Pan America will work in Europe. Yes there are diehard Harley custom/cruiser fans, but there are probably more owners of other makes and styles. I have just ridden the new 2021 KTM Advernture S and whilst it is a nice bike, it is a bit too 'focused ' for me. Narrow seat that digs into the thighs, legs a touch cramped, gear and brake levers too small to get your feet on. But it will sell, because of it's modern name and connections with motocross/enduro etc. Triumph's adventure bikes are big bulky things, the BMW GS is a massive bike and the best selling European bike. The Harley has a big bulky front, that might be the thing to kill it. Other than that the bike looks slim and manageable. The passenger/rider space looks okay and the price in the UK looks okay at Ł14000 for the base model. The thing is, it needs to beat the BMW in that sector and it needs to lose that nose. If the bike is to be as good as the marketing is making out, it has to look attractive to the buyers and it doesn't. The other major factor is the seat comfort. It has to compete with a BMW seat. If a rider is planning to use this bike as it is designed, it will have to be comfortable for mile after mile. The Harley seat looks a plank, but who knows? The KTM is horrible the minute you sit on it, but you can buy a 'comfort seat'! Why can a rider not have a comfort seat in the first place? The Pan needs a comfort seat from the off. The thing that will stop it selling is the Harley culture it has built up over the decades, the Hells Angels/Wild Ones/bad boy scene. I am 72 and ride a Sport Glide, dressed as a normal biker, in clothes I would wear on any other bike and that is not the look perceived by many riders as the Harley look, hence one of the reasons I think the younger folk are not buying them. Pricewise the bikes are not much different to BMW's but the style is its own and that is maybe where HD is losing out. The road system in Europe is much different to the US. Where the US has lots of straight highways, so you can get places quick, Europe has lots of twisty country roads and it is on this kind of road that a buyer over here buys the bike for. One that is nimble and will go round bends with ease. Not a perceived Harley trait.

 

One thing that many American Harley-Davidson fans don't understand is that while H-D owns the heavyweight cruiser market in North America, that style of riding is not nearly so popular in the rest the world. Furthermore the United States a small and shrinking component of the global motorcycle market.
Nobody from the press nor consumers have had their hands on these bikes, so we don't really know what they are like to ride and live with long term. Everybody seems to agree that the specs look good, the pricing seems attractive, and the front end is a double bagger.
There seems to be constant complaining amongst the Harlier Than Thou crowd that the MoCo has totally lost its way if it makes any small effort to attract other, additional customers. My concern is that these wannabe Hells Angels/Wild Ones/bad boys are going to shame other motorcyclists out of the dealerships. Worse yet, the dealerships themselves may not give the new customers the respect they deserve. Think of Buell and V-Rod buyers if you need examples.
The US is a big place with lots to see, much of which can't be seen from lots of big, relatively smooth, straight, four lane divided highways but a great bit of it can. It's the perfect place to have a big touring bike. The thing is, our secondary roads are as good or even better for riding a touring bike or sport tourer than the interstate highway system. You really have to get down to the county roads and trail systems before ADV bikes and dual sports are in their element.

 

Couple things. The boomer vs millennials argument is silly. I’m not sure what I am 39 years old. Boomers if you don’t like how lazy or soft the millennials are you should have been better parents. Raised em/us right. It’s your fault you allowed them to not get dirty let them have “trophies” and never made them do anything they didn’t want to do as a child. You negotiated with them instead of being a parent. You allowed Nintendo to be their parent.Millennials it’s not your parents fault you are lazy soft and want a handout. You are a grown up now. You got to vote remember. Stop blaming your parents and get on with yourself. You are not a product of your environment but a product of what you make of yourself. Stop blaming others and take your life into your hands.
Sexond thing is. I don’t care if the board members ride Harley’s. Least of my concerns. I mass produce one of the most popular foods in the world. I don’t eat it. My family don’t eat it. It’s not because “I see how it’s made” it’s because we don’t care for it. We do eat competition food sometimes, because it is a different flavor.I need the ceo and board members to hire the correct people to make a world class machine. I don’t need them to ride 1000 miles a day with me drink beer and get into a fight with someone. That’s foolish. Good management is good management whether they use the product or not. That is childish fantasy and the knight in shining armor is gonna ride in on his 42 Harley into the board meeting with his face covered in mud and oil and say “boys let’s figure out how to do this again”. Revs it up burn out and ride so to the sunset.

 

I think they need to spray more flat black; maybe come up with flat black denim brake discs; flat black seat covers, flat black gas caps, etc. You could also hacksaw some more off of the ends of the front and rear fenders of each model. And what about being the first in the industry to produce an exhaust system that forms a complete square knot! And you HAVE to add a few more green shades to the color choices. A few more stick-on skull logos and viola!

 

Yeah, the 15-year continuous production run failure that was the VRSC.