The Motor Company takes another hit | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

The Motor Company takes another hit

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yup
Scout is selling real well

gets great reviews and is affordable
is a far better motorcycle than a Sportster
and doesn't seem to suffer the same image problem as a sporty

ie:
cheap, not a real bike, for chicks
 
This is just an eye test, but apex is located right next to a harley dealer in Cambridge... been frequenting the dealer a lot lately(test rides, purchases, break in service etc)

See a lot of regulars coming from the HD dealer, not a lot going the other way(apex has Indian, Ducati, KTM, yamaha, honda, but im assuming bubba aint interested in no dirt bikes!)

I was actually considering the FTR as well, but the weird tire sizes are kind of a turn off
 
Chris-CJ said:
a Harley "Revival"?

www.yankodesign.com

Harley-Davidson e-bike with swappable batteries is designed to bond with the millennials! - Yanko Design

Harley-Davidson embarked on their adventurous journey way back in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, managing to make it through the period of the Great Depression, later on, to become a motorcycle brand which is known for its cult following. William S. Harley envisioned a revolutionary design of an...
www.yankodesign.com www.yankodesign.com
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It is somebodies school project. Has nothing to do with Harley.
 
They tried in the past to think outside the box... Buell, V-Rod, and most recently Street. I cannot comment on the Street models but the first two seemed to have some more than good technical potential to me when I looked at them. All had the potential to expand the customer base.

What happened, well too many Harley owners gave out the usual grief and attitude about xxx not being a real Harley, too many dealers treated the bikes like black sheep turning off new customers. Why will the new ideas/bikes be any different? Are they once again shoving beans up their nose but expecting a different result this time?
 
backmarkerducati said:
They tried in the past to think outside the box... Buell, V-Rod, and most recently Street. I cannot comment on the Street models but the first two seemed to have some more than good technical potential to me when I looked at them. All had the potential to expand the customer base.

What happened, well too many Harley owners gave out the usual grief and attitude about xxx not being a real Harley, too many dealers treated the bikes like black sheep turning off new customers. Why will the new ideas/bikes be any different? Are they once again shoving beans up their nose but expecting a different result this time?
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Yup. The tail wagging the dog (HOG).

I suspect the new leadeship team is dealing with this. The just starved many dealers of new bikes, forcing them out of the ‘recycle used bikes’ business. Now the brand has some control, let’s see what they do with it.
 
you cant fairly compare HD with Indian, as already said HD has big production lines to keep moving and Polaris industries are spread across a pretty big spectrum. Even if you did go head to head on just motorbikes, Indian are realistic that building enough bikes to fill the need and not piling them up at dealers is a responsible thing. I think Indian knows enough not to be the F150 of motorcycles.
Killing victory made sense, the cruiser market was full, concentrating on the better bike made sense, they could have tried a sport bike or an ADV bike but seem smarter than that, kill off pontiac and buick to save caddillac
 
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Soulcatcher668 said:
It is somebodies school project. Has nothing to do with Harley.
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More like; somebody's fenderless art project that has a slight resemblance to a real motorcycle.

What is with all these idiots that think fenders are superfluous equipment,
have they never ridden a motorcycle before or are they building **** for indoor use only :rolleyes:

... and they better not take credit for the swap out battery depot idea, I proposed that one years ago :LOL:
 
Trials said:
More like; somebody's fenderless art project that has a slight resemblance to a real motorcycle.

What is with all these idiots that think fenders are superfluous equipment,
have they never ridden a motorcycle before or are they building **** for indoor use only :rolleyes:

... and they better not take credit for the swap out battery depot idea, I proposed that one years ago :LOL:
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The more you look at it, the worse it gets. Brake rotors, hanging engine, front sprocket is also the rear pivot, etc.......
 
Soulcatcher668 said:
The more you look at it, the worse it gets. Brake rotors, hanging engine, front sprocket is also the rear pivot, etc.......
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I think that hanging bit is the battery pack that slides down to exchange. That would be fun when you hit a bump, the crappy retaining system inevitably failed and you drag the battery along the road (or it falls off completely depending on how long the retaining tracks are). What could go wrong?

The whole second small battery that you can charge to get you to a swap station is beyond idiotic. That locks in that this is an art project not an engineering project.

You could have front sprocket as rear pivot quite easily and it solves some geometry issues (belt tension doesn't change with swingarm position.
 
Did I miss something? What is wrong with the brake rotors? Why is a hanging engine a problem? Are you assuming a "crappy retaining system" because it is made by Harley? Would it still be a "crappy retaining system" if Honda made it? What is wrong with a front sprocket as the rear pivot? This is NOT the first bike with that feature. I know BMW/Husky had a bike with that exact design and it does have it's theoretical advantages. Why are you so offended? I'm not a big fan of the look of this bike, but wouldn't have those 3 things on the top of my list of things to change.
 
turbofj6 said:
Did I miss something? What is wrong with the brake rotors? Why is a hanging engine a problem? Are you assuming a "crappy retaining system" because it is made by Harley? Would it still be a "crappy retaining system" if Honda made it? What is wrong with a front sprocket as the rear pivot? This is NOT the first bike with that feature. I know BMW/Husky had a bike with that exact design and it does have it's theoretical advantages. Why are you so offended? I'm not a big fan of the look of this bike, but wouldn't have those 3 things on the top of my list of things to change.
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It is not a harley, it is a design exercise by a student. The badge on the design is immaterial. I dont care who makes it, there were some very poor engineering choices made which may be able to be overcome but you are fighting physics instead of working with it.

Brake calipers are on a very long and spindly caliper hanger(and appear to have no brake lines so it looks better).

Having the battery slide out the bottom means that by necessity, all of the force required to keep the battery on is transmitted through the movable retaining system. If it came in from the side, the dovetails could easily support the forces and you just need a small pin to keep it from vibrating out.
 
In general I like it, there are some fine details that need to be worked out but it is a design concept not a totally production ready finished product. I would love to see someone produce something like it.

BUT as I said, the problem is the culture of the current owners and the dealers (most not all). If they are not accepting of it, it will fail even if it is totally awesome. History has proven this... expect dealers to treat it like a bastard child and the established Harley owners to spiel out the usual not a real Harley blah blah blah. So they might as well spin it off as a new brand, but then again that did not work for Buell either (back to dealer attitudes). Maybe sell these or bikes like it as Tesla (or whatever) Motorcycles by Harley Davidson bypassing the dealer network...


As for Harley and Indian. Indian is just one product line of Polaris and does not make or break the company, nor do they expect or need the market share to make it worth while. Harley IS Harley's product line (well that and brand licensing...).
 
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Wow, you guys are tough.

You are essentially expecting a "student design exercise" to be at a production-ready level which should solve all possible technical and design flaws. Not only that, it should fix all of the biased perceptions of Harley owners and dealers and fix their distribution channel issues. That seems to be a big ask from a student...

And god forbid that it have a 'backup battery'. No motorcycle has EVER had a reserve tank, just in case...

We do agree on one thing though, it is missing brake lines.
 
turbofj6 said:
We do agree on one thing though, it is missing brake lines.
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Maybe the brakes are electric? An Ebike ought to have regenerative braking first, then maybe a hybrid electric/hydraulic system integrated into the front hub?
 
Mad Mike said:
Maybe the brakes are electric? An Ebike ought to have regenerative braking first, then maybe a hybrid electric/hydraulic system integrated into the front hub?
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It stills needs a way to get captured energy back to the battery (or a battery in the hub which is a terrible idea). I think that comes down to form over function design. All the the required things like brake lines and fenders clutter up the clean look the designer wants.
 
Because it's so difficult to undo 4 bolts.

 
turbofj6 said:
Wow, you guys are tough.

You are essentially expecting a "student design exercise" to be at a production-ready level ...
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It's all art and no smarts

It was drawn with massive dual front brakes, is it heavy, or is it planning on going 300kph?
Most of your motorcycles brake force is on the front wheel, this is not news to anybody that actually rides motorcycles or drives cars,
so why would you put your power recovery generator on the rear wheel?
Student needs to read more, ride more, draw less and stop looking at pipe burn bikes.

and why does it have H-D on it, that is equally silly.
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