Is this old news? It is the first I have seen it. http://motorcycle-intelligence.com/h...und-honda/684/

This is a pretty cool sight to browse around on anyway.

 

It's BS. HD can't "License" their sound to anyone since it is not owned in the sense of a trademark or intellectual property. The article is full of cr@p.

 

Back in the mid 90's Harley sued to trademark its sound. That started a lot of rumors to the effect that the sound is trademarked.

To the best of my knowledge, Harley withdrew the suit several years later, believing it couldn't win in the end.

I "think" the sound is about having a single crank pin, and about both cylinders firing on the same revolution, a split second apart, and then both idling through the next revolution. That makes the engine sound almost as if it's missing - running rough - at idle.

Thus, the "potato potato" sound. ??

I sure could be wrong about that.

The last I knew the sound wasn't trademarked. Honda made a few bikes with this design in the late 90's.

It might be that the reason no one else used the design is because the competing designs simply run/idle more smoothly.

??

$.02

 

Maybe you missed it, but I tried explaining that to you in another thread.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...ml#post4893705
Pay attention Baker

 

like the article said ( on this first day of april)

 

I will have to admit that I did not catch that. LOL, Duh for me.

 

Most folks that are going out to buy a Honda motorvcycle are probably purchasing one for the very fact that it does not sound like a Harley.

 

Honda would be smart to quit trying to take Harley's piece of the pie.

When I first heard about the fury, I thought it was a good idea. Honda producing a chopper, I thought they would retro the choppers from the seventy's. Like the Mustang's, Challenger's, and Camaro's.

Then I found out it was just a shadow with some rake, and a tall price tag.

Honda has their own place in history with the inline four cylinders. The cb750 chops from the seventy's look cool, and sound good in their own way. Why doesn't Honda take advantage of their own success?

If the fury would have been an air cooled inline four cylinder retro-ed to look like an old school chop, and priced under ten K, I would have been interested. But their Big Dog wanna be does nothing for me.

 

Japanese cruisers sell so little in comparison to H/D that it's almost an afterthought. That's why Suzuki doesn't even attempt to compete anymore. They just build there cheapo fugly looking bikes.

Yamaha is the only one that even TRIES anymore. And still, there sales are dismal in comparison to H/D.

Honda only cares about cars nowadays.

Harley is going to be in BIG trouble in a few years. Young guys for the most part don't like H/D's. It's us old guys that still know what a deuce coupe is that really like 'em.....and we are getting old quickly.

~Joe

 

Around here I see a LOT more Japanese "cruisers" than Harleys, they are everywhere.
We have four guys at work with Jap cruisers, I'm the only HD and mine isn't a cruiser, it's totally *** backwards.
Funny thing is all four of them have HD stickers of some kind on their cage and I don't.