02-01-2018, 09:46 AM
(02-01-2018, 05:00 AM)peterbaron_imp Wrote:(01-30-2018, 03:09 AM)Guth_imp Wrote: Wow. It's hard to imagine HD making the long term transition from their current old school V-Twin vibe of today to the electric bikes of the future with anywhere near the amount of marketing-driven success that they've enjoyed so far. It seems really weird to even think about to be honest.
+ 1
PB
HD would never have a spot in my garage...if given for free, I would immediately trade it in for Honda or something else...
....prehistoric design, noisemakers...
pb
The point I was trying to make is that HD has done very well selling old-school bikes. One of the reasons for this is because they are able to market their strong tradition in the marketplace. They have a very strong, very long lineage to play off of. Those rumbling v-twins (whether sporting loud pipes or not) is the one of the single biggest components of the HD brand.
I don't have anything against Harley Davidson as a company. I like the fact that some companies still want to manufacture products here in the States. I think about stuff like this because lineage is a big deal to me personally. That's why I'm proud to say that the CB1100 is built in Japan. Even if the bike were of the same quality, if it was built in Thailand for example it simply wouldn't hold quite as much appeal for me. Especially given the specific type of bike it is — a tribute to Honda's heritage.
Even if HD were to build the best electric motorcycles in the world, there is still going to be a large part of their customer base that won't want to have anything to do with such machines. It would simply represent too large of a break from the image that they've worked so hard to cultivate. It will be very interesting to see how they handle such a move.