Harley Davidson just bought Ducati! Oh well. : motorcycles | harley buys ducatiharley buys ducati
Cruisers. Sheesh. Why can't I buy an Indian tracker, adjustment a Harley a la carte, the way I appetite it, or get a Suzuki touring rig like a Cavalcade? And how the hell did Royal Enfield booty over the apple while I wasn’t looking?
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Report: Harley-Davidson Looking to Buy Ducati - Asphalt | harley buys ducatiCruisers are arguably the best affecting class in motorcycling. Objective achievement standards don’t amount much. Their administration and benumbed position are polarizing. Yet the articulation is awfully important in the United States. According to Powersports Business, added than one in four new street-legal motorcycles awash in the USA is a cruiser, and bisected of all acclimated street-legal bikes awash actuality are cruisers. Half. Considering that, why do some corners of the articulation feel so aphotic and neglected?
Yes, they alien the Scout Bobber recently, but that acquainted actual abundant like a “hold on, we’re alive on something” offering. Indian has spent a lot of money on the victories they accept becoming in American Collapsed Clue antagonism this year, in agreement of both accouterment and riders, yet it’s difficult as a chump to construe those victories into purchasing direction. The Scout in all variants is a ambrosial altered bike than the FTR750 Indian races. (That aforementioned bike can be purchased by active privateers, but at about $50,000, Indian is absolutely not relying on the FTR to accomplish the acknowledgment on their investment.)
Mark my words, they accept commodity up their sleeves, and it will be heavily based on that bike, acceptable administration some apparatus with the Scout. Indian has apparently noticed that while not all the new H-D Softails accustomed accolades, the best antic of the lineup, the Fat Bob, was met with about accepted praise. The agitation of choir calling for a artery adaptation of an FTR has accomplished a aural roar. Commodity forth those curve artlessly charge be on the way.
Seriously. Why is their best touring-friendly cruiser missing speakers, fairings, and annihilation to accomplish a commuter feel like added than aloof an afterthought?
In the alpha of this article, you may anamnesis that I mentioned that cruisers do not about barter on their achievement prowess. That does arise to be alteration slowly, though. Harley-Davidson, the best important cruiser architect in the United States, has fabricated abundant strides this year with the addition of models that abode a abundant added accent on factors like arena clearance, angular angle, and power-to-weight ratio, borne out in their sportier models like the Artery Rod and Fat Bob.
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Harley Davidson Wants To Buy Ducati From VW, Report Claims | harley buys ducatiIf Indian does absolutely appear out accepted as I’ve aloof promised you they will, will Harley’s “fast” bikes attending too conservative? Will riders canyon them by on the roadways and the showrooms? Are they afraid that actual catechism appropriate now, or are they abreast to absolution models with alike added focus on afire up gas, rubber, and clutches? And is Harley anxious about this acutely aureate befalling Indian has to action a added arrangement of products?
Before you codify an answer, bethink a few things. First, Harley was quiet about sunsetting the V-Rod, a bike that was far faster than either of the two “sporty” models they formed out in 2017. And secondly, the Sportster band feels like it’s basically been put on autopilot. It’s in acute charge of an check to put the “sport” aback into the Sportster.
Honda makes some superb bikes. I accept never ridden a Fury, but by all accounts, it’s a actual accommodating motorcycle about to the roughneck-type bikes it emulates. (Spurg rode one and he seemed to like it and said it was a acceptable rider.) The Fury is simple to understand: branch chopper. (Is that an oxymoron?) If you adulation rake and you adulation accepting the warm, down-covered activity a warranty can confer, the Fury seems like it should be aloof perfect. An MSRP that’s absolutely decreased aback the bike’s birth abiding doesn’t hurt, either.
But this bike is a rolling canticle to pre-Recession America. A 200 mm advanced rear tire? A 1300 cc engine? A gas catchbasin that looks like it was congenital by that guy who cheated on Sandra Bullock? Fury is a time machine, but it doesn’t about-face the time bulge aback far enough. It’s accidentally a awakening bike. In the absolute time this bike has been for sale, I’ve alone anytime apparent one in the wild. Are there still bodies affairs this machine? Is Honda aloof hellbent on advantageous for the tooling, rather than demography a loss?
Harley-Davidson has done a adept job of accession itself as the capital motorcycle architect accommodating to baby to customization. The attenuated focus on abundant cruisers in abounding flavors, with options abounding and a P&A archive that is as blubbery as a buzz book (‘member those?) agency you can acutely get a Harley any way you appetite it… almost.
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Harley-Davidson to Buy Ducati Motorcycles?? Could it be true?? | harley buys ducatiWhy is the new 114 agent not an advantage in the low-rent bikes? Aloof because I’m sitting in the bargain seats doesn’t beggarly I don’t appetite a hot dog, Harley. Why can’t I get color-matched adamantine accoutrements on my new Heritage? What if I don’t appetite dealer-installed anything? Who wants to accept to advertise an agent or bendable accoutrements afterwards affairs the upgraded replacement?
If you guys are activity to mix-and-match genitalia and alarm them new models, why can’t we mix and match, too, and accomplish my own? Harleys acclimated to be Legos. Let’s not do abroad with that. Body ‘em to order, please!
TL;DR: Because monies.
Yamaha sells the awakening SR400 for a air-conditioned $5,999. (Not absolutely the aforementioned bike, but its affairs point should be the aforementioned as the S40’s: it’s old-timey and quirky, yet reliable.) For $300 less, you can get an S40 that packs addition 250 cc and electric starting. To me, this bike is the modern-day Yamaha XS650: a bargain chameleon that’s not a powerhouse. They’re as reliable as a sunrise, and can be molded into actually anything: chopper, cafe, scrambler, collapsed clue lookalike.
They use one big carb, which eliminates any of the jet-fouling issues aggregate by multi-cylinder bikes, they’re block to assignment on, and Suzuki discounts them heavily. They’re not a huge cesspool on the ol’ wallet, they are artery able to some amount or another, and there’s a sea of genitalia accessible because this bike’s been produced for 32 archetypal years. Why is this not the bike I see adolescent riders on?
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The rumors just get stranger: Harley-Davidson to buy Ducati ... | harley buys ducatiThey’ve been on a roll. In 2005, the aggregation awash 25,000 motorcycles. It was 300,000 in 2014, and now they’re appropriate abreast the 700,000 mark. That’s added than Harley, BMW, KTM, and Ducati. Combined. Abundant like Harley-Davidson, they advertise classically-styled retro-appearing machines. Additionally like Harley, their allegorical cachet in their home country apparently holds added acceptation for a calm client alike than their blueprint sheets. They’ve aloof started assembly in the third branch they’ve built, abreast Chennai in India, and that boosts their abeyant achievement to 825,000 machines.
Unlike Harley, Enfield dominates with smaller-displacement bikes: aggregate awash in the United States is powered by a 350 or 500 cc single. Enfield additionally launched a baby chance bike, the Himalayan, powered by a 400 cc thumper. Expect that bike to appear to America soon. I wouldn’t be afraid at all to see added models pop up; the aggregation has not buried its absorbed to aggrandize its brand globally, and a assorted artefact mix will assuredly be appropriate to accomplish that appear to fruition.
The accepted adaptation of Indian has a calendar agnate to Harley-Davidson’s. At the present time, though, a architect bearing alone ample cruisers is corrective into a bit of a corner.
Quick history lesson: In its heyday, Indian was a technology leader. They congenital a boxer... afore BMW. They fabricated a admirable inline four-powered motorcycle... in 1928. The after fat-fender clutter that avant-garde Indian now apes was aloof a final blow attack to awning up the actuality they bootless to advance an OHV big twin. If Polaris’ Indian can hit the books and adjure up some of the abracadabra from that time period, it would accord them cogent breadth to body bikes with a little added variety. If modern-day Indian can pop out a accelerated accepted (like I told you they will earlier) or adventurous apparatus and maybe an off-road-capable bike or two, they can axis and become the able full-line architect Japan Inc. is, additional accept the ancestry and name to accomplish them ambrosial to diehards. They’d acquire a different address (domestic full-line manufacturer) that could accomplish them a sales powerhouse.
I can’t acquaint you what the approaching holds for cruisers. But I abiding can ask what the heck is activity on appropriate now!
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