Harley kills off the V rod

[Kev m]

I don't think Harley actively courts or dodges the unholy alliance with clubs, not in any actual way other than their capitalizing on it for bs marketing.

[ITSec]

Great engine, generally lousy frame (with some exceptions noted in earlier posts).

Think of this as perhaps the single biggest bad choice ever made by HD management:

Reportedly, Eric Buell asked for the Porsche/HD engine to be added to his portfolio - with the intent of using it in a sport-touring design and some others. HD said no.

Then again, they said no to a lot of his requests, their engineers' requests, and even their customers' requests - and in the end, the V-Rod concept ended up as one of HD's great unfulfilled promises.

[Kev m]

Great engine, generally lousy frame (with some exceptions noted in earlier posts).

Think of this as perhaps the single biggest bad choice ever made by HD management:

Reportedly, Eric Buell asked for the Porsche/HD engine to be added to his portfolio - with the intent of using it in a sport-touring design and some others. HD said no.

Then again, they said no to a lot of his requests, their engineers' requests, and even their customers' requests - and in the end, the V-Rod concept ended up as one of HD's great unfulfilled promises.

As far as I read the reports the motor was originally Buell's idea and request. BUT Harley wanted/needed it too (I believe the OEMs were allowed to build X amount of models that didn't meet EPA standards for X many they built that met them).

The problem was that by the time Harley got done putting their input into the design they wound up with a motor that was too long and heavy for his products and he no longer needed it.

Eventually he got Rotax to build him what he originally wanted, but it was way too late.

Fast forward 17 years they obviously had the sales data to support their decisions.

Since their Touring models were there #1 sellers for about a decade, off the top of my head something like 100-130k units/year you can't really believe their worst selling model's engine in the touring platform would equal a success on the level that Harley requires.

I mean if a single Harley model sells only in the numbers of say everything Guzzi self in a year it's probably a financial flop.

[ridingron]

Several mentions of doing something with the motor. I got the idea a while back that the motor was the main problem. I don't think it was ever accepted by the Harley faithful.

[Kev m]

Several mentions of doing something with the motor. I got the idea a while back that the motor was the main problem. I don't think it was ever accepted by the Harley faithful.

Well sure that's part of it.

Of course expensive valve adjustments aren't part of the faithful's plan either.

And the would be especially bad on a touring bike.

I mean the last stranger I met had 80k on his 2014. That would be 4 expensive valve adjustments on a V-Rod if you went by the book.

[ITSec]

Well sure that's part of it.

Of course expensive valve adjustments aren't part of the faithful's plan either.

And the would be especially bad on a touring bike.

I mean the last stranger I met had 80k on his 2014. That would be 4 expensive valve adjustments on a V-Rod if you went by the book.

There are owners of a number of other makes that accept expensive valve adjustments as a matter of course - often at intervals less than 20k. Not all of these are expensive or exotic makes (think shim under bucket, especially where the frame gets in the way).

[Kev m]

There are owners of a number of other makes that accept expensive valve adjustments as a matter of course - often at intervals less than 20k. Not all of these are expensive or exotic makes (think shim under bucket, especially where the frame gets in the way).

I'm well aware, but I don't think they represent a significant portion of the touring market. Not in comparison to the numbers I quoted. I could of course be wrong, but even if they represent a portion, what even smaller percentage of that portion would Harley have carved out with said product?