HD V-Rod dead ? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

HD V-Rod dead ?

Sad to see the vrod gone. While it's been a long while since I had one, it was a great bike ... had some qc issues, but I expected that buying a harley. I remember once driving past a canadian tire and my shifter just fell off ... fortunate timing for roadside repairs! That beauty bike now resides somewhere off the southern coast of france, retired.
 
Me too. I like and respect bikes that are unique and in some small way changed the industry. I keep a few oldies in the barn, not because they are collectible, but because they were different, I'll add a VRSC-R to my collection someday.
 
Rode them all 18mo ago when I was in the market. It was just "ok". It was the Breakout that had my heart-strings tugging (although it's the only one I didn't ride). Salesman steered me towards a bagger when I said I wanted to 2-up with it for daytrips (and he was right).
Diaval was a much more playful bike and I liked it much better than the vrod.

Ultimately ended up with a bagger and happy I did. Lots of vrods are impulse buys and often remain garage queens (as evident on the super low mileage kijiji adds).
 
I'd also like to add that the Diavel was a much better bike in every sense save build quality/reliability, which was pretty much the same.
 
Motorcycle sales all over North America are slumping. The Baby-Boomers who where the ones who made bike sales explode in the mid/late 90's and into the 2000's are starting to age out of motorcycling all together. When you're 60-70yrs old and have a touch of arthritis or other health problems, riding a motorcycle can be less fun that it once was. Then, take the average late Gen X or Millennials. Many are having a hard time finding full time jobs and if they do find them, they are often temp jobs or contract jobs. Not a lot of disposable income when you don't know if you'll have a job in 6 months. Given that the majority of HD bikes start around the $20k mark, there just aren't many who can afford them. So what do you do if your main demographic is shrinking and you can't bring new customers into the fold? You consolidate your line up. You ditch the models that have slow sales and try to bolster sales of your bread and butter models. As cool as the V-rod is (for a Harley), it's never been a huge numbers bike. Bikes like the Heritage Softail Classic, Road King, Electraglide etc have always out sold the rest of the line up combined. Harley will most likely hang onto the Street lineup for the near future hoping that it might snag a few young riders and hope they "upgrade" to one of their more expensive models down the road, but mostly they will hold onto them as they are poised to do well in India and Asia, where Harley has just finished building assembly plants.
 
Customer: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That motorbike is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.Shop Owner: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.C: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat off his sidestand the moment I got 'im home?O: The V-Rod prefers kippin' off it's sidestand! Remarkable bike, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage!C: Look, I took the liberty of examining it when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its stand in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.(pause)O: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed it down, it would have nuzzled up to those handlebars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!C: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bike wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!O: No no! 'E's pining!C: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This motorcycle is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the stand 'e'd be pushing up the daisies!
'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig!
'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN EX-MOTORBIKE!!
 
It's worth noting that they did build it for 16 years, so it got a fair run. At the end of the day, they were still probably competing against themselves and not say, Ducati, so why bother spending $$$ to update the platform.
 
It's worth noting that they did build it for 16 years, so it got a fair run. At the end of the day, they were still probably competing against themselves and not say, Ducati, so why bother spending $$$ to update the platform.
Yamaha (VMAX) and Suzuki (M109) are the biggest competition, Ducati and Kawi only on papaer -- I've only seen thos bikes in teh showroom, never on the road.
 
They killed the best bike in their lineup, and are now developing an e-bike which will be available for sale in 18 months. A company which makes the loudest bikes is now suddenly switching to market bikes with nothing louder than a faint tire hum? Well that will really kill the brand. Good luck with that. Time to sell your shares in a newly renamed company called "Hardley-Davidson".
 
They killed the best bike in their lineup, and are now developing an e-bike which will be available for sale in 18 months. A company which makes the loudest bikes is now suddenly switching to market bikes with nothing louder than a faint tire hum? Well that will really kill the brand. Good luck with that. Time to sell your shares in a newly renamed company called "Hardley-Davidson".

lol @ "Hardley-Davidson". That HD ebike looks a lot like Diavel to me.
 
They killed the best bike in their lineup, and are now developing an e-bike which will be available for sale in 18 months. A company which makes the loudest bikes is now suddenly switching to market bikes with nothing louder than a faint tire hum? Well that will really kill the brand. Good luck with that. Time to sell your shares in a newly renamed company called "Hardley-Davidson".

The electric brand may actually save them if they can get the marketing right. Boomers are aging out, and the younger generation are all about technology and the environment.
 
Seems like every bike I really love goes out of production from- BMW R1200c, Triumph Thunderbird, VTX Stateline, HD Cross Bones, and now the V-Rod.

All these bikes have one thing in common- the courage to break away from the pack or norms from what the company is built on. Each of the these machines were beautiful and have a strong cult following, they are in the minority but are passionate about their machine. I guess their demise is due to the fact they are the odd ones in their family as the rest don't accept their looks and break away features. Or they are on the high end of cruiser circuit, i.e. Triumph Thunderbird Storm or BMW's first and last foray into the cruiser to Cross Bones odd look in a bagger majority family and V-Rod liquid cooled German design engine.

HD's demise looks near in this already shrinking motorcycle market if they don't replace the V-Rod with something similar to attract the under 50 crowd. The Boomers being their bread and better are aging out of this sport and with no new fresh looking machine to attract the under 40 left. If you look at their website now it looks aged, as if the line up could have been from the 80's. The V-Rod was a gateway drug into the HD world for the new Generation. Now they are left with boomers, I guess their line up of trikes better grow faster in the next few years.
 
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Anyone ridden the vrod? I read it handles kinda awkward. I do like the way they look though.

Is the nightrod just a blacked out vrod?

I have ridden the vrod muscle and it was alot fun for a cruiser style bike. Gobs of torque and great looks including the curved tail light. Just because they stopped making it, doesn't mean you can't get a deal on a good used one and enjoy what it has to offer. I found it a great option for someone looking to get out of sport riding but not yet ready for the older cruiser crowd.
 
I’m quite sympathetic. One of the bikes I’m lucky enough to own is a Harley XR1200, a really fun bike to ride. Harley of course stopped making it, and have for the most part orphaned it. The XR shares almost no parts with any other Harley, and consequently getting parts can be a challenge. My sense is that the VRod was a similar situation. In both cases I think it’s unfortunate, but I guess they weren’t generating enough income to justify the cost of production. Should be interesting to see what happens with the Indian dirt track spin off, if they actually build a street legal version, essentially a XR1200, and see how it sells. Would be ironic if Indian has success with an idea that Harley misplayed.
 
I’m quite sympathetic. One of the bikes I’m lucky enough to own is a Harley XR1200, a really fun bike to ride. Harley of course stopped making it, and have for the most part orphaned it. The XR shares almost no parts with any other Harley, and consequently getting parts can be a challenge. My sense is that the VRod was a similar situation. In both cases I think it’s unfortunate, but I guess they weren’t generating enough income to justify the cost of production. Should be interesting to see what happens with the Indian dirt track spin off, if they actually build a street legal version, essentially a XR1200, and see how it sells. Would be ironic if Indian has success with an idea that Harley misplayed.
I like the idea that Harley experiments with their bikes. Way back I billeted with a Ford marketing executive in Dearborn, he had 2 XLCR1000's that HD had gifted to him, I remember thinking 'someday I'm going to own one of those'.

Never happened, but I will someday own an XR1200. And maybe a VROD.

They're really just novelty bikes. None were designed to compete with anything, they are loved because they are expressions of HD's style and creativity.
 
I actually liked the scout bobber when I saw it at the bike show.
 
I actually liked the scout bobber when I saw it at the bike show.
I agree
Great looking bike
And modernizing with LC doesn't hurt the charm at all

bike gets great reviews
And I hear is selling well
Enough to kill Victory
 
I like the things Indian is doing. If history repeats itself, Indian's actions might wake the sleeping bear inside HD.

Some things I have noticed Indian doing:
1) Elevating the Scout image. The Scout competes with the Sportster & Street lineup but doesn't have the beginner or wife's bike stigma.
2) Gone racing. Indian developed a real racing bike for their flat track team. They hijacked HD's flat track legacy this year.
3) Marketing. They are upping the game on reaching new riders. I like their Flat Track and Super Hooligan sponsorship, I think it attracts a new younger breed of rider. Making your Vtwin 750 kick the snot out of HD(Street/Sportster), Ducati(scrambler), Kawi(Ninja) and Yamaha(FZ) every weekend in front of thousands does add some shine for younger riders.
 
I’m quite sympathetic. One of the bikes I’m lucky enough to own is a Harley XR1200, a really fun bike to ride. Harley of course stopped making it, and have for the most part orphaned it. The XR shares almost no parts with any other Harley, and consequently getting parts can be a challenge. My sense is that the VRod was a similar situation. In both cases I think it’s unfortunate, but I guess they weren’t generating enough income to justify the cost of production. Should be interesting to see what happens with the Indian dirt track spin off, if they actually build a street legal version, essentially a XR1200, and see how it sells. Would be ironic if Indian has success with an idea that Harley misplayed.
I would definitely be taking a look at it if Indian ever released a street version of their flattracker.

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