[FT BSTRD]

I've SOLD both the sportbikes and the Chrome Couches. Completely different cultures with completely different needs.


HD isn't that different than the Big Four in the way that they progress. When was the last evolutionary leap you've seen in sport bikes?

Even the crossplane crankshaft has been met with resistence.

I remember the hue and cry when the new Ninjas came out and how "ugly" they were. Really? It was hard to even tell them apart.


Harley is the same way. Rarely do they come out with anything "new". The last two "new" things were the V-Rod and the Rocker. Both have been unmitigated failures in the eyes of HD. Are they bad bikes? No. They are just outside the small box of what the typical HD buyer wants.

From the outside, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a 1987 Sportster and a 2010 Sportster, between a 1995 Electra Glide and a 2010 Electra Glide. Mechanically, they are vastly different. Visually, they are virtually identical.

Is there really THAT much difference between SV650 model years? You'd have to go pretty far back to have an R1 look THAT different than the current model.

The difference is in what you find "interesting". It didn't matter what Buell did, your average HD rider wasn't going to find it "interesting" (or at least interesting enough to plunk down the green to buy one).

Buell didn't "fail". It was closed by HD because it wasn't part of the core business. You will probably also see some HD models "die" because they are not part of the core business. The core is Big V-Twins. Period.

That is not a bad thing for HD. They do that very well. The question is whether there are enough people to last to keep them afloat. Yes the Baby Boomers are dying, but that dynamic is in effect for EVERY business model.

There were only 135,000 Buells manufactured since 1987. Buell was never going to stem the tide of Baby Boomer death. HD made a decision to begin to prune its branches last week. More cuts are to come. York, PA is about to be closed.

HD has $1B in debt that will need to be refinanced. The $30M Buell could generate wasn't enough to matter. MV was a black hole.