Trump Trade War Hits Harley Davidson, Wisconsin

This week marks the first in which American motorcycle icon Harley-Davidson has to face stiff trade tariffs in EU markets. It’s a move that’s being called a retaliation to Trump administration tariffs on European aluminum and steel that sees a 25% import tariff on large motorcycles coming from the US.

“Large”, in this case, references motorcycles whose engines displace 500cc or more. That means the new 25% tax will hit both Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycles, but won’t impact electric brands like Zero. To quote Asphalt and Rubber, “the (EU) is adding the 25% tariff to the goods that fall under HS code 87114000 & 87115000 on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System,” which state:

• 87114000: Motorcycles, incl. mopeds, with reciprocating internal combustion piston engine of a cylinder capacity > 500 cm3 but <= 800 cm3
• 87115000: Motorcycles, incl. mopeds, with reciprocating internal combustion piston engine of a cylinder capacity > 800 cm3

There is speculation that this move is intended to specifically target Harley-Davidson, rather than Indian.Harley has received some Trump flavored love recently, and just so happens to be based in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is the home of Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of US Representatives and Republican Party big shot. Harley sold roughly 40,000 motorcycles in Europe last year compared to a handful of Indian bikes as that company still seems focused on building out its US-based business.

What do you guys think? Is the EU specifically targeting a GOP stronghold and a largely conservative base of Harley customers with this move, or is Harley just getting caught in the crossfire of a bigger issue? Is “Trump Flavored Love” the worst thing Stormy Daniels you’ve had to think of today, or do you kind of like the sound of it? Let us know your thoughts on these and other pressing matters of national importance in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Trump Flavored Love

Sources | Images: the EU, via Asphalt and Rubber.

Self Balancing “Ride Assist-e” Motorcycle From Honda

A motorcycle is one of the most efficient transportation devices available, especially in the world’s increasingly crowded cities. Although it uses a gasoline engines, it tends to spew out fewer emissions per mile than any automobile. But beginning motorcycle riders have a problem keeping their machines upright when stopped or at very low speeds.

Once the wheels get turning, they act as gyroscopes to keep the motorcycle upright, thanks to a phenomenon known as precession. It’s the force that keeps tops spinning, enables inertial navigation, and makes it possible for 600 pound Harley Davidsons to motor serenely along while on the superslab, unfazed by frost heaves, wind, or the occasional armadillo carcass.

Motorcycles are attracting lots of first time riders, many of whom are not yet adept at the art of keeping the machine upright at stop lights or moving slowly in traffic. Honda thinks it has the answer for such newcomers — Ride Assist-e. It’s not an electric motorcycle; it’s a motorcycle with an electric assist feature.

The company hasn’t released many details as of yet. A full introduction is scheduled for the Tokyo motor show that kicks off on October 27. This latest offering from Honda features an unusually low ride height for a low center of gravity. The low seat also makes it easier for riders to reach the ground.

The self-balancing mechanism — whatever it is — seems to be packaged at the front of the bike, although the extra heft built in to the single sided swing arm suggests some technological wizardry in that area as well.

A motorcycle needs to lean in order to negotiate turns and curves in the road. Riding a bike that refused to lean would be a very weird and unnerving experience. Not to worry, says Honda. Its Ride Assist-e system only operates at “very low speeds,” which makes sense. Once road speed increases, the rotation of the wheels themselves do all the stabilizing necessary.

The photo of the electronic dashboard shows the bike in “Mode 4.” By lightning like calculation, that suggests the Ride Assist-e system has at least four levels available. Presumably, the rider can select the level of assistance that is most comfortable for his or her riding style and degree of experience. A lean angle indicator also hints at the ability to program the system to the riders tastes.

Will the new Honda with Ride Assist-e be able to stay upright at a dead stop with no rider aboard as long as the engine is running, like Luke Skywalker’s land speeder? We should know more in about a month.

Source: New Atlas

Harley Davidson To Make Electric Motorcycle Within 5 Years

Sean Cummings is senior vice president of global demand for Harley Davidson. That means his job is to accurately predict the future so the company has the right products on offer at the right time. He told the Milwaukee Business Journal this week that Harley Davidson will produce an electric motorcycle within five years.

Harley Davidson excited the world of motorcycles 2 years ago when it created its LiveWire electric motorcycle and sent it on a tour of the US to judge people’s reaction. Those who rode the concept bike loved it, but Harley owners are traditionalists in a way that is unusual. For them, a motorcycle has to look and sound a particular way. Loud is better in Harleyland. The $50,000 list price wasn’t all that appealing, either.

Several years ago, Harley Davidson introduced the V Rod, a thoroughly modern rethink of the traditional V twin theme. It featured an overhead cam shaft, 8 valve engine developed in cooperation with Porsche. Most testers reported it was a superb motorcycle, but few people bought one. More than anything else, the V Rod just didn’t sound right.

It had none of that classic “potato, potato, potato, potato” sound at stop lights. And when you fitted it with shotgun pipes, it wasn’t loud enough to wake the dead at wide open throttle. Buyers sniffed around it, but most opted for traditional Harley Davidson machines. The V Rod was a sales disaster.

Harley has a problem, though. The average age of its customers is rapidly trending toward Buick territory. It desperately needs to attract younger buyers who aren’t yet ready for Social Security. And it has to be aware that attitudes toward electric motorcycles are changing.

Victory Motorcycles is grabbing headlines for its electric Isle of Man and Pikes Peak racers. Energica has two electric road bikes on sale. Zero Motorcycles has an array of electric models available. Harley has to get with the electric motorcycle program or risk being left behind.

Apparently, it has decided a business case exists for an electric motorcycle with the HD logo on its flanks. Two years ago, such a thing was the stuff of fantasy. Today, it seems inevitable. The change in attitudes in the marketplace is accelerating faster than most believed possible when the LiveWire was unveiled in 2014.

Source: Asphalt and Rubber   Image credit: Harley Davidson

An Electric Harley Should Be Here Before 2020

Harley Davidson’s new CEO, Matt Levatich, tells the Wall St. Journal that an electric Harley isn’t coming “in the next couple years but it’s not past 2020 either, unless we run into some impossible barrier.”

Harley Davidson built 3 dozen LiveWire electric motorcycles last year and let almost 7,000 people test them during a nationwide tour. The response was overwhelmingly positive, which is a bit surprising since the LiveWire is mostly silent and the average Harley rider likes his bike LOUD!!!! You don’t see many “Loud pipes save lives” bumper stickers on cars owned by Honda Gold Wing riders.

What appeals to people about the LiveWire is the same thing that appeals to many electric car owners — torque. Gobs and gobs of pavement wrinkling torque. You think the regular Harley has torque? Hang on, brother. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

What’s holding up the electric Harley? After all, companies like Zero and Brammo have been selling electric motorcycles for years. The future for electric bikes is so bright, Polaris just bought out Brammo and is selling its electric bikes under the Victory label because forecasters say millions and millions of electric bikes will be sold in the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, Harley Davidson is content to stay on the sidelines. Levatich told Jalopnik recently that his company has such brand equity that it can afford to let others take the lead and catch up whenever it wants. “Will we get to that Nirvana that customers say they want? Probably not,” he said. “Will we get close enough? I believe we will.”

The issue is the same one keeping electric cars from going mainstream — range and cost. The LiveWire only had 50 miles of range and was projected to cost $50,000.

Harley is content to let battery technology come to it, rather than investing its resources to find the next great breakthrough. Light weight, fast charging, inexpensive batteries with high power density are coming. And when they get here, an electric Harley will hit the streets. The only question is, when will that happy day arrive?

Harley-Davidson LiveWire To Star In Next Avengers Movie

The ink is barely dry on the announcement of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle, but already Road & Track is reporting that the LiveWire will have a starring role in the new Avengers movie next summer. Filming is underway in Seoul, Korea at this very moment and observers report seeing a stunt double for actress Scarlett Johannson riding a wicked looking black and red Harley LiveWire on the set.

Even though the announcement of Harley’s new electric bike just happened earlier this week, it is not unusual for companies to arrange product placement opportunities for new models well before the general public is aware of them. And while it’s unlikely the LiveWire will launch as a production model in its current guise, it seems like the Milwaukee motorcycle maker is committing to an electric model.

Look for a major promotional campaign from Harley and the studio leading up to the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. Harley also plans a nationwide tour for the LiveWire in the coming months to get reaction from Harley fans. Some of that feedback may influence any future EVs from Harley.

The only way I could be more excited about for the next Avengers movie would be if Diana Rigg were appearing as Emma Peel in a cameo role.

Source: Gas 2.

Harley-Davidson testing electric motorcycles

Would a Harley still be a Harley if it didn’t have that out-of-my-way rumble and those fat, hydrocarbon-belching exhausts?

Motorcycle enthusiasts are about to find out as Harley-Davidson rolls out an electric bike — a sleek, futuristic version that sounds like a jet airplane taking off.

The public will get its first look at handmade demonstration models at an invitation-only event Monday in New York. The company will then take the models on the road for riders to try and provide feedback. Harley will use the information to refine the bike, which might not hit the market for several more years.

Harleys have long been the bad-boy bike of choice with an image associated with motorcycle gangs, even though most riders are middle-aged and middle-class. The new venture is a departure from Harley’s mainstay touring bikes and presents an added risk because currently almost no market for full-size electric motorcycles. The millions of two-wheeled electric vehicles sold each year are almost exclusively scooters and low-powered bikes that appeal to Chinese commuters.

This Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo shows Harley-Davidson’s new electric motorcycle at the company’s research facility in Wauwatosa, Wis. The company plans to unveil the LiveWire model Monday, June 23, at an invitation-only event in New York. (M.L. Johnson/Associated Press)

But those focused on electric vehicle development say Harley has the marketing power to create demand, and its efforts to lower costs, build charging stations and improve technology will help everyone involved.

“It does validate what we’ve been doing; it adds additional credibility to it. It is certainly going to draw more people’s attention to electric motorcycles. The marketing horsepower of Harley-Davidson is going to be able to do things for us that we can’t do on our own,” said Scot Harden, vice president of global marketing at Zero Motorcycles, the top seller of full-size, high-powered electric bikes.

Zero expects to sell 2,400 electric motorcycles this year, a drop in the bucket compared with the more than 260,000 conventional motorcycles sold last year by Harley.

The new LiveWire won’t make the distinctive “potato-potato-potato” chug that Harley once tried to patent. Its engine is silent, and the turbine-like hum comes from the meshing of gears. But electric motors do provide better handling and rapid acceleration — with the electric Harley able to go from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. LiveWire’s design places the engine at the bottom of the bike.

“When you ride a motorcycle, it’s the movement of the top of the bike side-to-side that gives you agility in regard to making turns. So, if I put weight low in a motorcycle, I can turn faster. I can drop the bike down and make quicker moves,” said Gary Gauthier, of NextEnergy, a Detroit-based nonprofit with expertise in electric vehicles.

Jeff Richlen, Harley’s lead engineer on LiveWire, put it this way: “Some people may get on it thinking, ‘golf cart,’ and they get off thinking, ‘rocket ship.’”

One hurdle Harley and others have yet to address is the limited range offered by electric motorcycles. Batteries typically must be recharged after about 130 miles, and that can take 30 minutes to an hour.

Harley President Matt Levatich said he expects technology to improve and the company is less interested in immediate demand than long-term potential.

San Jose State University police Capt. Alan Cavallo helped his department buy two Zero motorcycles and said officers have been “super happy” with the quiet, environmentally friendly bikes made nearby in Scotts Valley, California. But he said American riders who like to hit the highway would likely lose patience with the technology as it exists today.

“That’s the deal with the cars; you can’t jump in a Tesla and drive to LA, it won’t make it,” Cavallo said, adding later, “People want the convenience of ‘I pull into a gas station, I pour some gas in my tank and I go.’”

Source: Washington Post

To Mr. Santa Clause - Please leave me a big ole' Honda Ruckus

Dear Santa,

You’ve been very good to us already this year, what with the new turbocharged, 4-cylinder 2015 Ford Mustang and the 50 MPG Honda Accord- not to mention the slick little Motoped 50 that just reached its Kickstarter goal … but let’s get serious.

What we really want for Christmas isn’t a Harley-stomping Honda Valkyrie or even a roughnecked little Grom. What we really want for Christmas is the same Sam Gilmore and the guys at Grape Street Garage want for Christmas: a 150 cc Honda Ruckus with VTEC and a 13,000 RPM redline.

SO SWEET

Sam describes the thing as a Honda F1 motor in a Ruckus- or, maybe a single Honda F1 cylinder, but that’s close enough, right? Surely you can make a few up from spare McLaren MP4/4 parts and make something happen in the next week or so, yeah?

Thank you, Santa, in advance. Also: when you get to my house, in lieu of cookies and milk I will leave whiskey, prostitutes, and fine cigars- as per usual.

Image: Sam Gilmore, via Grape Street Customs.

I Can’t Decide How I Feel About the New Harley Street Bikes

The new Harleys are global products with cleaner emissions, better gas mileage, more recycled materials, and a lower price than the current ‘Hogs, but I still can’t get behind them. From the cheap, aftermarket-looking air cleaner to the rubber sleeves on the front forks to the JC Whitney-spec heat shield on the exhaust, the newest bikes from Harley-Davidson seem to scream “budget bike”.

Mind that that, in itself, is not a bad thing – in fact, I happily owned one of Harley’s last budget bike offerings, a Buell Blast with a 500-ish cc air-cooled single that was more than a match for Florida’s A1A and occasional trips up to Orlando. Despite the plastic body panels and suspicious-looking welds, though, I never felt like the Blast was cheaply made.

These new Harley Street 500 and 750 models, though? Take a look at those wires behind the headlight for yourself and tell me what you see. I’ll wait …

… to me, that looks like a big ‘ol rat’s nest of wires. Granted, these are pre-production bikes that the Motor Company trotted out for photos, and aren’t necessarily what we should expect once the bikes hit dealers early in 2014, but if you were introducing a whole new line-up of bikes that utterly up-ended your target demographic and seemingly spun your corporate design philosophy 180 degrees the other way, wouldn’t you want to put your best foot forward? Even worse: what if this is as good as it gets?

Getting back to that design philosophy thing, you might have noticed something in that photo up there that you don’t regularly see on Harley street bikes. I’m talking, of course, about the Street 750′s radiator, which seems hastily bolted in front of the frame tubes and not at all “integrated” into the upward bend/slope of the tubes. The fact that it’s there at all, after more than a century of predominantly air-cooled Harley-Davidson motorcycles, is a big deal that would probably turn off Harley’s traditional clientele. The fact that it looks like an afterthought, though?

Not good.

Harley Street 500/750 is Made in India

Another thing that bugs me about these bikes is the fact that they’re made in India. I know, I know- I can already hear you crowing on about “they’re assembled in ‘Murica!”, but what does that mean? Only some of Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing jobs were outsourced to India? Is that something to celebrate these days?

I can’t bring myself to get excited about the new Asian Harley-Davidsons. Fords built in Turkey, Chevys made in Korea, and Chryslers made in Italy I can somewhat get behind, if only because those are global brands that don’t trade on an all-American image. Harley, though? Where would Harley-Davidson be today without the Hell’s Angels and the myth of the American motorcycle outlaw?

In the dustbin of history as just another company that got out-Darwined by Honda, Yamaha, et al., that’s where.

As for these new Harley-Davidson Street 500 and 750 models, I’ll reserve my final judgement until I’ve ridden one. Still, the reports coming in from those few who have ridden the new Harleys are far from positive. What do you think, dear readers? Are these new Harleys going to be the brand’s saviors, or the straw that finally breaks this Baby-boomer-driven camel’s back? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.

Sources | Photos: Harley-Davidson, RideApart.