Harley’s Making Moves

Harley-Davidson is going through some serious restructuring, and the company has had to make plenty of tough decisions. It announced its Rewire strategy, and that entailed some shakeups on a global scale and some reworking of its lineup. As of now, the company will close up shop in India and it will pull the Sportster lineup from Europe. 

Actually, about a dozen models will leave European shores due to the fact that Harley won’t upgrade the engines for Euro 5 emissions standards.

The intention behind this move is to save money. Moto Station reached out to Harley-Davidson France. A company representative noted that the Sportsters weren’t selling well enough to warrant the upgrade to Euro 5 standards. In 2021, European riders will see the last of the Harley Sportster.

That’s not to say Harley doesn’t have a replacement on the horizon. There’s always the chance that the company will add another, similar bike in the future to the European market.

As far as India goes, the company will stop all production, sales, and operations there. The move will “boost restructuring expenses this year to about $169 million,” according to Bloomberg.

Again, this might not be forever. Once Harley gets its feet back under it and has things rolling along well, it may re-think about entering the Indian market. It could even do so with its Chinese-made small-displacement bike, the 338R.

Needless to say, Harley is struggling, but it seems to be trying hard to right the ship. Let’s hope it can do what it needs to do.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

Making Dreams Come True

Anne Turner was able to get one of her bucket-list items checked off recently when her daughter put the word out that Anne wanted to sit on a Harley-Davidson. 

Anne is a 83-year-old living in England. She is terminally ill, and when the motorcycling community heard of her wish, they showed up. A group of bikers showed up to grant Anne her wish. Not only that, but she was outfitted with a leather jacket and a helmet and was given a ride on a Harley Fat Bob.

“I’m one of them now,” she told the BBC.

This is a clear indicator that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you can get joy out of motorcycles no matter the stage in your life. for Anne it came at 83 years old.

The BBC did a good video of the experience that you can check out below. It’s a heartwarming story and one that I think we need more of in 2020. Sometimes its the little things in life, like getting to ride your dream bike around the block.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

Electric ADV

The Harley-Davidson LiveWires that were used in Long Way Up were a long way from stock LiveWires, so don’t think you can just take your $30,000 electric machine off-road without issues.

According to RideApart, the underpinnings of the motorcycle remained the same, but the bike was heavily reworked to make the trip possible. Ewan McGregor reached out to Harley long before doing the run while the LiveWire was still in prototype form and Harley worked with the production team to make a bike that would do everything that was needed.

“(…) the engineering team combined the dynamically capable on-road performance of the LiveWire model with adjusted geometry and suspension based on the upcoming Pan America adventure touring model to shred dirt roads, single track, and desert trails while maintaining its on-road handling prowess,” Harley’s PR manager Paul James wrote in a statement regarding the company’s involvement in the project.

RideApart actually reached out to Harley-Davidson to see if there was an electric ADV bike in the works. The response the publication got should not surprise you. It was typical of Harley.

The PR person for Harley, Jennifer Hoyer, said she couldn’t comment on future product options. That, however, is not a denial. And she made a point of saying that the parts came from existing prototypes (most likely the Pan America).

Still, the point stands that Harley has done it before for the show, and could probably do it again if there was a serious call for an electric ADV from buyers.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com