Harley Street 750 reviews are starting up again...
- Thread starter CafeRay
- Start date
Meh, for me I guess the only cruiser I would be caught on is a Harley. Anything else doesn't look or feel right. Japanese products by far are more reliable but, they have the character of an accountant.
As for the new HD, it looks cheap. Those mirrors an an after thought and look like junk.
I guess they have to start somewhere? But this looks like it will be a short intro run. Unless they follow up with a 1200 or 1300 cc liquid cooled step up.
toshison
Well-known member
The story is this. When Harley appointed the now current CEO several years ago, he looked at the all the business units and one thing was absolutely clear: The ROI on producing HD's is FAR greater than the ROI on producing Buells. The question was then, why spend money on Buell when the return for every dollar invested is greater when spent on the Harley-Davidson brand? So,they shut down Buell and sold MV Augusta (that they basically just bought and did nothing with and focused on HDs. Some people then say,"well why didn't HD just sell Buell instead of shutting it down?" The answer there is that Buell uses the same distributon network as HD and they did not want to open that up to any other company that could of bought buell.
First time I've heard that particular version of events
That is exactly how it went down as I know it.... I was just questioning going after the youth market (as the post I was referencing inferred) with an all new, less traditional HD approach, a mere 5 years after shutting down Buell. Was that not Buell? Sure, the Buell could/should have been slightly less radical, but it's not like HD gave the marketing their best either. Anyway, don't see how these will fair any better. New and different things confuse and alienate the HD faithful.
TorontoBoy
Well-known member
Thanks for the link to this review. While the price tag seems very high, the bike has all the right numbers for what is today a beginner's bike: 50hp, <500 lb. There is very little on the cruiser side for new riders, so the 500 and 750 will be interesting. The low seat height is also a bonus. For a new rider that wants into the HD lifestyle, it might be appealing, provided that they are accepted by the rest of the family.
The 883 is low but it is heavy. Shaving 80 lbs off with the 750 seems like a bonus.
I really think that Honda has gotten lazy with their cruiser offerings, simply rehashing the old with minor changes. The need a good motorcycle boot to the kester, HD branded or not.
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D-MAN
Well-known member
Might be aimed at the Harley guys girlfriend or wife even kids maybe......i know a few guys who are die-hard HD and their ladies want to ride too but want to have a Harley as well, for some even the 883 is a little too big and heavy for them. I've always wondered why they wouldn't come out with a baby harley for such reasons.....might be a seller??
That liquid-cooled motor will sound nothing like a traditional Harley which is one of their selling features.
There were also political issues with Eric Buell and his bizarre personality. Publicly crushing unsold Blasts didn't help his cause, neither did his pricey recalls.
In this month's issue of Motorcyclist, who's editors have been cheering on Buell for the last year, they finally test the EBR 1190RX. Even from the typical cheerleading perspective of this magazine, you can read how disappointed and frustrated they were with the bike and the conclusion is that EBR is more of less the same as Buell, so the problem was not HD.
They complain about the bike running hot and blowing hot air on rider, 6,000 mile valve adjust intervals and the f---king thing started blowing oil after a single dyno run, which ended the whole test prematurely. Worst new bike review I have ever read.
Went to the ride day at Barrie HD over the weekend to check it out. Bikes extremely small! Not meant for any person over 5ft...
Ride was okay, nothing that would make me want to write a magical review or throw on some little girl pants and make a review. The foot pegs were in the same spot on the bike and after riding for about 15ish minutes, I had to stretch out my bad knee.
Still don't see how they can charge someone 9K+ for a 750CC bike and then turn around and say well for the same price, here's a 900CC. I know the engine is different, but just don't see the worth in this bike.
All the hype was lost for me once I took the bike out.
I would rather take a Scout over this any day.
Ride was okay, nothing that would make me want to write a magical review or throw on some little girl pants and make a review. The foot pegs were in the same spot on the bike and after riding for about 15ish minutes, I had to stretch out my bad knee.
Still don't see how they can charge someone 9K+ for a 750CC bike and then turn around and say well for the same price, here's a 900CC. I know the engine is different, but just don't see the worth in this bike.
All the hype was lost for me once I took the bike out.
I would rather take a Scout over this any day.
sid_for_speed
Well-known member
are you sure? watch the video between 50 seconds and 56 seconds...
he says 44 horsepower and 41mpg
I wouldn't count on that. You can count on me never, ever buying any traditional H-D product ... largely because you can count on me never, ever buying a traditional cruiser-type motorcycle of any brand. I won't tolerate the engineering compromises that have been made in the name of appearance.
No need to go all the way to a "crotch rocket" in order to not have the compromises of a cruiser. For most people, a standard-ish or sport-touring-ish-type bike (Z1000 or CB1000 or FZ-1 or Suzuki Bandit etc) will serve better. Better suspension travel and geometry, better weight distribution, more functional riding position than either a full sport bike or a cruiser, etc. It can even be argued that a good many of the "adventure-tourer" style bikes in vogue now (BMW flat twins, KTM adventure bikes, V-Strom, etc) are "standard" bikes in disguise - even if they're too heavy to really be off-roaders.
For me, the number one enemy is weight, and that reason alone means I will never buy a traditional H-D nor a traditional touring bike.
H-D by no means has the "old mans bike" market locked up. Far from it. A significant number of current riders will never buy one. H-D will not reach those riders with their current product range.
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
First time I've heard that particular version of events
Here ya go. 2.3 BILLION dollars from the US Government.
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/568/8...ey-Davidson-Loaned--2-3-Billion-from-Fed.aspx
I read it somewhere that Buell was making money, albeit a tiny amount (under $250K a year profit). Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it at the moment. Oh well, no big deal. Company is done and over with. Used to have an 1125r that I loved until it was ran over while parked.
The bailout was not what I was questioning. Granted I could have been more clear.
Maybe you wouldn't count on that but looking around it seems fully 50% of riders make choices not based on sound engineering principles. That's a large market segment. Then you have the wildly over powered engineering wonders that don't make sense and the very heavy and tall ADV bikes that will never be used as "intended". Want to make money in North America in motorcycles? Cater to the ego. I hear NC700 sales are thru the roof in Europe. I might see one a month here.
That's getting into some tricky territory. I don't think it's so benign. Maybe this isn't the best place to rail against North American culture so I'll just leave it be but just suffice to say standing on the sidelines watching the freak show go by can be disheartening.
Any US bailout money required restructuring from advice from analysts. This is why GM culled Saturn and Pontiac divisions. Turns out, not one wants to buy crap cars.
Of course, all that changed nothing, GM is now up to 29 deaths on the ignition issue, and sales are never better.
Yeah, it was a crap review by an idiot. Journalism in 2014 means getting it out fast and wrong, fix it later.
