THE FUTURE OF HARLEY-DAVIDSON—The Freedom Machine must live on into the Future.
We are reaching out to readers for their suggestions for the future success of
Harley-Davidson. We will collect notes and suggestions from brothers and sisters until we build a solid list of suggestions. Then we can share them with the factory.
Let’s try to stay positive, no complaints about the factory or their newest models.
If you want to chime in, drop me a line to
1.One of my first notions included the factory mantra. This is a current consideration for the many companies and our country. The company needs to adapt a slogan or refurbish their old slogan of Freedom Machine.
If they adopt an open dialog about climate change and global warming they might discover that the notion of the Freedom Machine is needed now more that ever.
What if the settled scientist are all wrong? What if science is never settled? What if we’re in a cooling trend and CO2 is falling in the atmosphere and we need fossil fuels and more CO2 for the life on Earth to survive. Suddenly the notion of flying down the highway on your air-cooled V-Twin becomes paramount. We need our Freedom Machines!
2.The one thing that always energizes the Harley-Davidson brand is a new cool movie or TV series. Of course, I have some suggestions. –Bandit
3.Keep the Sportster, but carefully make design changes to make it easy to modify and work on. Develop a large line of custom products to allow guys to learn and be able to easily modify Sportsters. Foster competitions.–Bandit
4.Open the factory to the aftermarket. Allow and foster lines of products such as for the Sportster. Study how other manufacturers have developed relationships with the aftermarket and how you can support one another. Both will profit.–Bandit
5.Work with Racers from flat track guys to Bonneville teams. Learn and support teams. Relish in the publicity and excitement. The factory needs an open relationship with customers and the industry. –Bandit
6.And along with the Sportster effort could be a program to support the builder. Bring back the reman program. Start to manufacture a line of products, which allows guys to repair and rebuild. They might even bring back a vintage Harley, like ford did. Build a Panhead again.—Bandit
7.Improve dealer/factory relationships. Make it a success partnership. Harley-Davidson represents so much more to the employees than just a job. Harley-Davidson represents so much more to the rider that just a product. The lifestyle represents so much more to American than just another corporate name.
There’s the lucky 7. What could be better.–Bandit
From Readers:
RE: Future of Harley Davidson – It’s no big secret, Harley can put good people up against a bad design, and the bad design will win every time. Nothing more discouraging that looking at a $45,000 motorcycle, with a compensator design that won’t make it 15,000 miles without crapping out. (Stop laughing over there Rogue – I see you laughing over there Rogue!!!) My last screaming vulture compensator grenade wiped out my entire primary system too – E.S.P. was out about $4,000 – Yes Rogue – my next one compensator will be a Baker.
That being said – Rogue – I’ll be glad to read one of your step by step instructions on how to shoehorn in an M8, in place of my Twin Cam when time comes…..asking for a friend.
–Doug
Buchanan, MI
1)Move the decimal point on your CAD for a Sportster or Big Twin engine and make one that is under 650cc. Then do the same to the chassis. And whammo you have a real Harley with the sound and an entry level bike at an affordable price. All the techs will know how to work on it too.
2)Focus on weight reduction. This will solve 2 things. Easier to ride and a faster bike. We really don’t need a swingarm that weighs 75lbs.
3)Focus on bicycles/electric and standard that are affordable so kids start learning the “brand”.
4) Demo fleet and rider training at factories. Make a deal with the HR dept. Let’s us come to you and we’ll donate to a charity of your choice etc. If the people that are interested are too afraid/intimidated to come to the store have the store go to them. This solves: a) Even if people aren’t interested in pursuing this hobby, they become more aware and may pay attention to us on the road and b) Gets those that are on the fence a push in the right direction.
Here’s Some Supporting evidence:
I just ran across Patrick Moore’s latest paper on: The Positive Impact of Human CO2 Emissions on the Survival of Life on Earth
Patrick Moore recently wrote a book called, Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom. I bought two immediately. He sent me this video link of a lecture: https://www.thegwpf.com/video-of-patrick-moores-gwpf-lecture-should-we-celebrate-co2/
Executive Summary
•This study looks at the positive environmental effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a topic which has been well established in the scientific literature but which is far too often ignored in the current discussions about climate change policy.
•All life is carbon based and the primary source of this carbon is the CO2in the global atmosphere.
•As recently as 18,000 years ago, at the height of the most recent major glaciation, CO2dipped to its lowest level in recorded history at 180 ppm, low enough to stunt plant growth. This is only 30 ppm above a level that would result in the death of plants due to CO2starvation.
•It is calculated that if the decline in CO2levels were to continue at the same rate as it has over the past 140 million years, life on Earth would begin to die as soon as two million years from now and would slowly perish almost entirely as carbon continued to be lost to the deep ocean sediments.
•The combustion of fossil fuels for energy to power human civilization has reversed the downward trend in CO2and promises to bring it back to levels that are likely to foster a considerable increase in the growth rate and biomass of plants, including food crops and trees.
•Human emissions of CO2have restored a balance to the global carbon cycle, thereby ensuring the long-term continuation of life on Earth.
•This extremely positive aspect of human CO2emissions must be weighed against the unproven hypothesis that human CO2emissionswill cause a catastrophic warming of the climate in coming years.
•The one-sided political treatment of CO2as a pollutant that should be radically reduced must be corrected in light of the indisputable scientific evidence that it is essential to life on Earth.
Something to think about…
