HAS HARLEY GONE TOO FAR?

I admire, respect, ride and enjoy all kinds of motorcycles. If it’s got two wheels and a motor, I’ll probably find something to like about it.

Additionally, I’m an advocate for greater brotherhood (and sisterhood) between riders of all kinds of bikes, the world over.

However, I can’t say I think Harley’s latest agreement to license their unique sound to Honda Motor Company is wise for Harley or good for the global motorbike community.

Now don’t get me wrong. Even though Harley and Honda are the two titans in the motorcycle making game, and even though I do not begrudge any company for licensing their logo to motorcycle apparel and gear makers, or anyone else, for the purpose of satisfying customer brand loyalty and increasing company profits, I just think that Harley has gone too far.

For many years, Harley was easily identifiable by its unique and classic cruiser “look.” At least up until Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha started making their own clones of the American cruisers. Within a few years after that began, it became increasingly more difficult to differentiate a Harley from any of the other major manufacturers. (Notwithstanding the price, quality, performance, or value items, which favor the Japanese).

HARLEY SOUND

But at least the American Motor Company has had their signature “Harley Sound,” which might be described as a choppy “potato-potato” rhythm.

Regardless of what percentage of the motorcycle public might actually be able to differentiate the “Harley Sound” from a Honda or any other cruiser with a V-twin engine, the very notion of the Harley sound has still served as an aural trademark of American tradition.

By licensing away their sound to Honda, Harley has sold off the last tangible item that identifies their machines in the world as the King of cruisers.

Although I believe all motorcyclists should respect and celebrate the global brotherhood of bikers, I also believe we should respect and celebrate the differences that each kind of bike offers in our world. In my humble opinion, Harley has not only sold its sound for corporate profit, but it has also sold off part of the soul of the international motorcycle community.

I’ll still continue to ride Harley, Honda and every other kind of motorbike, but this first day of April may perhaps be recalled long into the future as the day a disturbance was felt in the “force” of our motorbike universe.

The North American debut of the new Harley Davidson XR1200 motorcycle was featured at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, CA, on December 5, 2008.

The XR1200 is a unique machine for the Motor Company in two distinct ways:

• It is not a cruiser
• It is the first bike in Harley’s history (over 100 years) that has not been launched on US soil.

The all-new Harley Davidson XR1200 had its world debut in Europe earlier in 2008.

I took the bike out for a test ride and found the upright ergonomics comfortable, and was impressed with the low-end response.

This is a “performance” bike – at least for Harley – although it is not to be compared with any modern sport bike from any other manufacturer: Harley is positioning the XR1200 in the “standard” category of motorbikes, which is a fair placement.

The XR1200 design is based on Harley’s famous XR750 racing bike manufactured in the 70′s and 80′s where it was a prominent figure in dirt-track competitions (and still is to this day).

I like the bike, although I would like it even better as a smaller and lighter machine, with a 750 motor: not to emulate its race-bike heritage, but simply as an around-town playbike without any pretensions of being performance oriented – since there are other manufacturers and machines that fulfill that need more aptly.

I agree with the assessment of Harley’s Paul James, that this is a “fun” bike.

Further to that, Paul says sales are doing well for HD in Europe and the initial pre-sales of the bike in the United States indicate success here at home. North American MSRP for the XR1200 is $10,799. This is a great addition to the Harley lineup and presuming it does well here in the US, it could signal a new direction of expansion for the Motor Company.

Cycle World Magazine’s International Motorcycle Show (IMS) wrapped up its 28th expo this weekend (Dec 5-7, 08), just outside of Los Angeles, and as usual, right on the ocean, in the Long Beach Convention Center.

This year’s annual show started its United States tour in October and will be running through to February 2009, making the following 13 stops along the way: Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, San Mateo (outside of San Francisco), Novi (outside of Detroit), Washington DC, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, and in South Carolina, all in addition to this stop in Long Beach, which is typically one of the largest of the tour.

55,000 MOTORCYCLE ENTHUSIASTS

The 55,000 attendees were crammed everywhere, exploring all things related to motorcycles, but the show’s two most prominent areas of interest were the motorbikes inside the exhibition hall and the demo rides offered outside.

INSIDE IMS: THE MOTORCYCLES

Most visible in this 3-day Long Beach show were the major motorcycle manufacturers, including: Aprilia, BMW, Buell, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Hyosung, Kawasaki, KTM, Kymco, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta, Piaggio, Star, Suzuki, Ural, Vespa, Victory and Yamaha. The expo showcased many of the latest street bikes, dirt bikes, cruisers, ATVs, personal watercraft and an ample array of motorbike apparel for on- and off-road riding.

HARLEY DAVIDSON XR1200 AMERICAN DEBUT

Highlights of this year’s show included Harley’s US Debut of the XR1200. As a side note, this is the same Harley Davidson XR1200 that had its world debut earlier this year in Europe – which was a first in HD’s history. Yep, the bike’s initial unveiling was not launched on North American soil at all. Why? Simply put, the XR1200 is NOT a cruiser, making it a distinct departure from the famous line of bikes that have made Harley Davidson an international icon.

Harley’s Director of Product Communications, Paul James, told me that the XR1200 has done well in Europe, as expected, since the European market has a strong sport-bike orientation. Paul noted that the strong pre-sales of the 750 available XR1200s for American dealers bodes well for the launch of the bike for the 2009 model year.

OUTSIDE IMS: DEMO RIDES ON THE MOTORCYCLES

The motorcycle demo rides are always a hit, and over the years there has been a growing presence of more and more manufacturers driving into Long Beach with the big trucks to present their latest motorbike offerings for the crowds to test.

Throughout America, there are limited opportunities for motorcyclists to test ride their next potential motorbike. And here in Southern California, this show has become THE best place to get a chance to test out any single bike, let alone, choose from many of them. In fact, this is such a popular part of the expo that potential demo riders are advised to get in line early in the morning, BEFORE the show even opens, to ensure a chance to test out a bike of choice.

Over the years I have found that demo rides are usually completely booked before mid-morning on both Saturday and Sundays, and this year was no exception.

TIP: MOTORCYCLE DEMO RIDES

Even if the rides are completely booked when you get to a manufacturer’s registration area, get signed up for “standby” status. In the afternoon, a percentage of registered demo bikers do not make it back on time for their assigned rides, and if you are there, and registered for “standby,” you’ve got a good chance at getting on a bike, depending upon how many other “stand by” riders are there ahead of you.

Example: I was #22 for standby on the Ducati Hypermotard for the noon ride on Sunday. Noon is about the earliest time you can hope for a standby ride, because a portion of the crowds have gone to lunch, and in this particular case, one registered rider was a no-show and another was disqualified for not having a full-face helmet (apparently Ducati’s insurance company rules). The two available slots got filled by another rider and myself, who were the lowest numbered standby riders present. (Obviously, the majority of standby riders had gone to lunch, as well).

MOST MOTORCYCLE DEMO RIDES

This year was one of the best-ever for the number of choices of different bikes to test ride in Long Beach: Aprilia, Buell, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, KTM, Star, Yamaha, Victory, Kymco, Moto Guzzi, and Vespa were available, as well as the most unique machine on the demo circuit, the Can Am 3-wheeled Spyders. All were offering demo rides.

WORST MOTORCYCLE DEMO RIDE EXPERIENCE

However, Can Am won the dubious honor as the recipient of the “2008 Motorcycle Intelligence WORST Demo Ride Experience.” That honor was not bestowed as a result of the machine itself, but as a result of the unnecessary time-consuming process Can Am put the demo riders through, which ultimately resulted in a ridiculously short time riding the machine. According to Todd, who was in charge of the Spyder rides, Can Am opted to supply quantity of rides at the expense of quality of rides. (I would say their Marketing Director must not be a motorcycle rider). Compared to all the other manufacturers, Can Am offered the least value in exchange for the greatest amount of tester’s time. After being put through about an hour of the Can Am registration, pre-sales, marketing and qualifying gauntlet, each rider rode the Spyder for about 5 minutes. A potential rider happened to ask me about my experience on the Spyder while I was getting off, and I relayed that the experience was a waste of time: he thanked me for saving him the time and declined the ride. I only wish I had access to the same info earlier….

As a point of comparison, each of the other manufacturers offered about a 15-mile group ride, which generally lasted about 20-30 minutes, depending upon the route taken and the group leader’s inclinations to give his group a spirited experience. Almost all the manufacturer’s rides began exactly at the scheduled time, except Can Am, where I was asked to arrive at 2:45 for a 3:00 ride, which didn’t actually begin until close to an hour after I arrived.

BEST MOTORCYCLE DEMO RIDE EXPERIENCE

Conversely, Harley offered the best sign-up process this year. First, they had the largest staff to handle registrations, and second, they used license-scanning machines to speed up the registration process itself. Third, unlike each other manufacturer who required rider’s to register at the beginning of Saturday AND Sunday, HD honored Saturday registrations for Sunday rides (saving rider’s time). That was enough to grant Harley the “2008 Motorcycle Intelligence BEST Demo Ride Experience.” However, they aced the experience altogether when I realized that they were letting a number of riders go on their own individual rides, in addition to the group rides they offered.

NOTE: In all fairness, their largest registration staff was actually a result of shared staffing with Buell (an HD subsidiary), which was right next to Harley. This efficiency still resulted in the fastest registration process.

NOTE ON BUELL DEMO

Overall, the demo riding experiences are usually a pretty good time for all riders – well, the vast majority of riders. I understand that at least one demo rider landed a bike inelegantly without getting hurt enough to require an immediate trip to the hospital.

Having said that, I was surprised by my Buell experience, which I will pass off as a quirk.

As it turned out, the very last group ride of the weekend was at the Buell tent. All the other manufacturers had shut down their rides and some were even taking their tents down. Buell was calling off the names of the final riders (about a dozen), and for the only time of the weekend, there were merely three (3) riders present.

Hence, this was the easiest standby opportunity I have seen in years.

I made my request to go with the group as a standby rider and was declined. That made no sense, so I asked again, and even a third time, but was told they did not have a standby status(?) and the group took their last ride, leaving a bunch of lonely bikes and at least two standby riders rebuffed.

For years, including this weekend, I have observed the demo staff of every manufacturer do their very best to ensure that each demo ride is full, and that as many riders as possible get on their bikes. Since I have experienced great service at the Buell tent in the past and since I had interacted with some of the Buell staff over this weekend, I will just guess that this guy was tired and grumpy – although he should really be a back-line employee and not interacting with public, since he was obviously oblivious to the fact that he was getting paid to let riders try Buell bikes so they might buy them.

MOTORCYCLES MISSING IN ACTION

Amongst the biggest manufacturers offering demo rides, most notably missing were BMW, Honda and Suzuki.

BACK INSIDE IMS: THE MOTORCYCLES

It was apparent that Honda and Suzuki spent their show money on their exhibit space inside the IMS instead of outside for demo rides. (However, note to Honda and Suzuki Marketing: I would more likely buy another Suzuki and/or Honda if I could DEMO RIDE them, rather then sit on them in the exhibit hall, which I can also do at any authorized dealer….)

BEST MOTORCYCLES EXHIBIT

Suzuki commanded the biggest exhibit space and Honda won the “2008 Motorcycle Intelligence BEST Overall Motorbike Exhibit” with all their featured machines prominent on the most conspicuous yellow carpeting of the event, all the while lighting them up with the largest array of custom lighting this year. Even if you wandered into the exhibit hall dazzled and confused by the hundreds of shiny bikes and thousands of people, without knowing the difference between Harley Davidson and Kymco, at the moment you set foot in the Honda exhibit you KNEW you were viewing a whole bunch of bikes from ONE manufacturer.

MOST CONSPICUOUS MOTORCYCLE CUTBACK

Oddly enough, BMW not only didn’t offer their bikes for demo rides outside this year, they also cut back on their inside exhibition space and number of motorcycles on display, opting for the least prominent exhibit space for a major manufacturer, especially for BMW. Heck, they didn’t even display their second best-selling RT sport-touring bike, or their LT full-luxury tourer. BMW seemed to be signaling that they are buttoning down the hatches for the global economic slowdown, while the other manufacturers offered a more optimistic presentation for their future and for motorcycling in general.

SUMMATION: 2008 INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE SHOW

I look forward to the IMS every year and this year was another great event. Whether you are general motorcycle enthusiast, or a narrow-niche zealot, both inside and outside the motorcycle show you are sure find something that will inspire your motorbike passion. This article could not cover all that could be seen or that happened over the weekend. Be sure to visit MotorcycleShows.com for more info and make a mental note to attend the 29th annual International Motorcycle Show in December 2009.

Harley Davidson XR 1200

Harley Davidson has resurrected its legendary XR 750 dirt-tracker from the 70′s and 80′s into the reincarnated body of an XR 1200 for 2008. And if you want this modern spirit in your garage, you will have no problem if you live in Europe.

Ummmm, that’s right, this incarnation is not available in North America. It’s the first time the celebrated American motorcycle maker, with over 100 years of manufacturing to its credit, has launched a bike elsewhere than the US of A.

“You could say the XR 1200 was born in Milwaukee but bred in Europe,” said Bill Davidson, Head of Product Planning, XR 1200.

The apparent reason is that European HD dealers have “demanded” such a bike for years. In support of that, Euro riders are known for their sport-bike enthusiasms.  So, let’s be clear, the XR 1200 is NOT a cruiser.  In fact, the XR 1200 is an HD anomaly, a bike with pretensions in the performance motorcycle arena. Although I’m sure there are no Asian or European motorbike execs quaking in their boots in response to anything Harley Davidson would proffer to the performance-oriented riders of the world.

Also, one could suppose another reason Harley might avoid a home turf debut would be because they did attempt a similar “American” launch in the early 80′s, with their XR 1000 – which was also based upon the XR 750 (but more loosely). The result? It didn’t sell. On the other hand, it became a collectible as soon as they stopped making them. So, are Americans ready for a Harley Davidson XR 1200 that is “not” part of its long-term success?

Stated differently, the XR 1200 is so distinct from the HD “cruiser” tradition that although it could pull a new crowd of performance-oriented buyers into the HD Brotherhood, one could also surmise that this bike may not likely experience strong favor amongst long-time HD worshipers.

My bet is that the XR 1200 will do well enough in Europe that the bike will be made available in America. And if HD can manufacture the bike to the relative standards they have been making their cruisers for the last several years, the HD prestige alone will capture a new market of buyers for them. (Granted, it’s a bit inconceivable that an HD will ever be “competitive” with any other manufacturer, but they have long proved that they don’t need to be).

On top of that, bear in mind that the legend of the earlier XR 750 is established upon the bike’s success on the flat track racing circuit, and as the early bike of choice for several MotoGP stars before they moved into higher-profile motorcycle racing.

And of course, good old Evel Knievel’s motorcycle antics of jumping, flying and crashing XR 750s brought the bike a good amount of media attention back in the 20th century, as well.

So, the all new XR 1200 does behold a renowned lineage. That it was made available via European dealers last month and not in America will likely only help to stir up additional interest as the bike hits the streets.

However, regardless of the publicity, is the darn thing any good?

Technically, the bike does feature high-performance Showa suspension and Nissin brakes. As well, the 1200cc engine is more powerful than its sister XL1200R Sportster engine, tested earlier this year, according to Cycle World magazine (August 2008).

Blake Conner, who wrote the Cycle World article, rode the XR 1200 at Harley’s “secret 530-acre Florida Evaluation Center.”  His summation is that, “The XR 1200 is without a doubt the best-handling production Harley to date.” That’s certainly an encouraging note, although the article respectfully does not compare the bike to anything else near its class. (Actually, this bike is arguably in a class of its own).  Further, he writes, “This bike is a rider’s bike, all about go and less about show,” further remarking that this is not a conventional Harley.

Tor Sagen of motorcycle.com, who rode it in Spain as part of the official HD media launch, wrote a Harley Davidson XR 1200 review and concluded “The XR1200 can’t really compete on the edge with other European streetfighters, but it’s a huge step in the right direction should Harley ever wish to do so.”

Personally, I’m glad to see HD taking a swing into other markets. As a “business” decision, it just makes sense. The Big Four manufactures have been making cruisers for a long time now, capitalizing on Harley’s styling and the American love affair with cruisers (and those clever Japanese can make ‘em more reliable, better performing and for less money). Therefore, if HD can capture even a small amount of another market than their primary one, they will likely do wonders with their brand recognition alone.  (Bear in mind that there are a number of HD aficionados that would consider some other of the “modern” Harleys to be a different market altogether, too.  For example, the V-Rods).

I, for one, will be looking for an opportunity to ride an XR 1200 when it comes to North America.  And regardless of how well the bike sells, my wish is to see this offered as a brand-new XR 750: Could you imagine a light and nimble (relatively speaking) HD midsize playbike?  Such a modernized retro version of this American classic would compel my ownership regardless of any practical considerations.  (And isn’t lack of “practical consideration” the essence of what has made HD the great brand that it is?)

UPDATE 12-13-08: See the North American Debut of the Harley Davidson XR1200 in Long Beach, CA at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show.