Harley and the Davidsons Discovery Mini Series

[cook_dw]

I think Ill pass.. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[Xplantdad]

HD's marketing department is crazy good at what they do. I was able to attend a symposium at SEMA a few years back where the head of their marketing department spoke. It really opened my eyes at to what works and what doesn't.

[markinnaples]

Bruce, Anything you can share here? I have a small business on the side that I want to grow into my full time gig, so any help is greatly appreciated, thanks. Oh, here's our site:
www.thetwistedfin.com

[Xplantdad]

I've got detailed notes at home....I will find them and email them to you!

[TimG]

I never liked Harleys growing up, had a 900 Kawasaki that was fast for its day. I know a Harley exec and he showed me their '48 Sportster. I traded in my 2011 for a 2015 last year and it's a blast. Very retro looking bike that's fun to ride for short blasts.

[BJCHEV396]

HD was in financial dire straits when owned by AMF.Didn't AMF make bowling balls?Were not a lot of HD's up here when I grew up in the sixties.We were into Nortons,BSA's and Triumphs.

[Canuck]

Harley had a lot of dark Years through various owners. The company is currently run by MBA's who have no knowledge of the industry.
A good friend of mine was the COO for the Canadian Distributor, a relationship that existed between the Deeley Family and HD for nearly 100 years. 2 years ago the MBA's terminated the relationship and are now running the company according to the Harvard, Wharton, Kellogh and Stanford rule books for MBA's.

[70 copo]

Watched the all three parts. Owned HD as a kid. The knuckle head and the shovel were rough to kick, and I had two of the Aermacchi HD's both SX 125's.

Then I discovered I liked LT-1's better....so the bikes were sold.

I would like to see the story told through the early 80's. They should continue the mini series.... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[markinnaples]

Agreed; the ending point was kind of random. I'd love to see the progression of the company to where it is now.

[HawkX66]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: markinnaples</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Indian has been through so many owners now it's certainly not what it was back then. And now that Victory owns them, it's a completely different ballgame.</div></div>
Agreed, but I'm one of those principle guys. It's a PITA..., but I &quot;try&quot; to base some of my decisions on how a company came about and how they've made some of their decisions. After the bailout I wouldn't buy another Govt. Motors product. The end doesn't always justify the means. There's nothing wrong with struggling for a while. Mitsubishi is another example. Mitsubishi class Zeros killed a lot of Americans. I know the arguments going the other way too... I'm just not a big forgive and forget kind of guy and I certainly don't like to reward.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Canuck</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Harley had a lot of dark Years through various owners. The company is currently run by MBA's who have no knowledge of the industry.
A good friend of mine was the COO for the Canadian Distributor, a relationship that existed between the Deeley Family and HD for nearly 100 years. 2 years ago the MBA's terminated the relationship and are now running the company according to the Harvard, Wharton, Kellogh and Stanford rule books for MBA's.
</div></div>
You can bash those MBA's all you want, but HD isn't exactly hurting for business are they? $23k+ for a Streetglide and how many do they sell each year? I don't see HD dealers closing, only opening. I don't like a lot of their decisions either, but I guess I'm not the guy they're marketing too.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 70 copo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Watched the all three parts. Owned HD as a kid. The knuckle head and the shovel were rough to kick, and I had two of the Aermacchi HD's both SX 125's.

Then I discovered I liked LT-1's better....so the bikes were sold.

I would like to see the story told through the early 80's. They should continue the mini series.... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]</div></div>
I'd like to see a continuation also. It was pretty well done. That could have been a much longer mini series. They really didn't get into many details.
I've built three Harleys (Iron Head, Shovel Head and an Evo) and have had a ton of Japanese bikes including a Hayabusa. Their technology and value can't be disputed. I paid less than $10k for the worlds fastest straight line production bike brand new in '07 to say a big screw you to a Harley friend that killed himself.
For anyone that cares, here's a few of the bikes I've built and had:

I built this one to embarrass all my friends that were shelling out 10s of thousands of dollars on their &quot;fast&quot; new Harleys. It would walk right by them and I built it from the frame up.



I restored the XLH 1000 after riding it in a surprise snow storm back in 98. All the chrome had gotten destroyed after a 3 hr ride and having to follow a snow plow/salt truck up a highway. I took it down to the frame and rebuilt the motor, re-chromed and re-painted everything except the tins. Luckily it had real nice factory paint and it didn't get damaged. That bike went to SoCal and back to Mass with me.