Jamie Robinson and Wes take bananas to a gunfight, entering 9hp Honda CRF100F and XR100 trail bikes in The Hooligan Derby’s “Run Whatcha’ Brung” flat track race at Ventura Raceway. It’s their first time on a dirt oval. :continue:
So Harley just slapped some different gewgaws on a Sportster and called it a new model. Not notable in the least, right? Well, they did do one thing right. In a world where every other OEM creates at least one or two products capable of appealing to under-49 buyers, but is unable to market them properly, Harley does the opposite. Its products suck, but its marketing is, occasionally, brilliant. Here, chasing those damn under-49 kids, Harley contracted filmmaker Benedict Campbell to pimp its new 72. The result is great, perfectly ticking all the vacuous youth culture boxes. It’s enough, almost, to create a hankering for assless leather chaps and a beer belly. :continue:
Today, Harley-Davidson is announcing year-on-year third quarter sales are up 5.1 percent worldwide and 5.4 percent in North America, beating the 3.7 percent growth for heavyweight street bikes industry wide. But, even as the company begins to recover from the recession, it’s looking for ways to pursue a new audience. “We can’t survive on our core customers alone,” stated CEO Keith Wandell, going on to announce a new effort to reach young and beginner riders.
Photo: Loomis Dean :continue:
The other day when JT Nesbitt was frothing at the mouth over Indian being bought by Polaris he said, “The continued Harley/Indian wars would have produced some amazing motorcycles, and the American motorcycle landscape today would be far more sophisticated. There can be no argument that competition, especially in motorsports results in superior products.” Sadly, Indian went out of business, and it’s been a long time since Harley built a bike with anything more than branding in mind. But back in 1968, they hadn’t quite given up. This 1968 Harley Davidson KRTT is owned by Yoshi of Garage Company.
Photos: Sean Smith Video: David Diamata-Stacey
So you’re a salesmen tasked with selling someone a product they don’t need, that they can’t afford, that isn’t competitive with rivals, that isn’t new and won’t make buyers stand out or demonstrate unique taste. How the hell do you do that? Don’t worry, the official Harley-Davidson test ride manual is here to help.
Photo: Killboy :continue:
Only sexy panties mind you. Shovelhead, as his forehead tattoo denotes, says he was quite picky about the 58 pairs of women’s unmentionables he used in his artwork. “I don’t want them cheap, dollar store, not-sexy-farm-girl panties,” the artist explains. “I want classy.”
Photos: Danny Henley :continue:
A resident of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, inspects his 1950s Harley-Davidson which was washed away along with his home in the tsunami that followed the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on March 12.
Harley has donated $250,000 to relief efforts in Japan.
Photo: David Guttenfelder
“The bike was originally going to be called ‘the transient’ with a bunch of hand painted homeless dudes painted on a super narrow stretched tank,” says Andy Carter from Pangea Speed. “After staring at it for a long time I started to change my mind on it and want to do something a little more out there. I started sketching some wild looking stuff, this is what I came up with.”
Wild is right. The Zion Express blows the archetypal chopper formula out of the water by juxtaposing art deco bodywork with traditionally narrow, stretched proportions. This is Andy’s personal bike and, yes, he does ride it. :continue:
Potato, potato, potato. That’s the sound of Keith Wandell paying himself a $6.4 million bonus for Harley’s worst sales year since 1999, a year in which it was also disclosed that The Motor Company accepted a secret $2.3 billion bailout in 2008. HD actually turned a $146.5 million profit in 2010, up from a $55.1 million loss in 2009. 2010 was a big year for Harley, new union contracts saw a total of 2,300 job cuts in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin plus reduced wages and benefits for the remaining union employees, for a total cost saving that will eventually add up to $50 million annually. How do you like dem potatoes?
Thanks for the tip, guy who would be fired if his evil corporate overlords found out he sent this to us.
ATK is a tiny, Utah-based dirt bike company trying to facilitate a huge shift in American motorcycling. It’s doing that by putting realistic learner and entry-level motorcycles into Harley dealers, something The Motor Company itself is spending $60 million on. But where that single baby Harley won’t arrive in dealers for at least three years, a whole range of ATKs are available right now. ATK is hoping its bikes will provide a lifeline for Harley dealers who suddenly need new customers, but don’t have the right bikes to sell to them.
Photos: Grant Ray
