M
Magz™ AMCNAS leader
Guest
...other companies? Harley Davidson copied Indian for the first thirty years of their history, copied Germany during the next ten years, copied Europe during the next ten years then after two decades of poor decisions and bad management (Holiday Rambler), Harley had to resort to copying the Japanese during their eighth decade all in order to both win sales back from the Far East and to finally clean up their own muddled house in regards to management and production. I can’t help but laugh at Harley Davidson and just how inept of a company it really is. What did Harley Davidson do for the last two and a half decades? They spent those years copying Avon and Amway and morphing from a total failure as a small time motorcycle manufacturer into a full blown tacky fashion retailer and make-believe lifestyle provider.
Why?
okay chunkie, let's spell it out...
I'm sure that you are familiar with the Harley Davidson Sportster. When the Sportster was first introduced in 1957 it was such a direct copy of then-popular European muscle bikes of the time that the gear shifter was mounted on the opposite side of the rest of the models in the Harley lineup (but the same side as the European motorcycle models that it copied). The DynaGlide of the 1980's copied its unique styling from the Japanese power cruisers of the time in an effort to try to win back some of HD's market share that had been lost to newer, more modern looking, better built bikes from abroad.
and if you want to go into further history...
Do you remember the "XA" model Harley Davidson military bike way back in 1942? The U.S. Army asked Harley-Davidson to produce a new motorcycle with many of the features of the BMW's R71 side-valve engine and shaft-drive (mainly because even though thousands of HDs were going to Europe our boys chose to ride German motorcycles instead (when they could get their hands on them from fallen Nazis). Harley largely copied the much better built and more powerful BMW R71's engine and drive train and produced the shaft-driven 750 cc 1942 Harley-Davidson XA. Due to the superior cooling of the opposed twin's design the Harley's XA cylinder heads ran about 100 °F (55 °C) cooler than its own in-house designed V-twins. The XA never entered full production. To this day, the BMW R71 copy inspired XA remains the only shaft-driven Harley Davidson ever made, one of the best Harleys ever made during the first 50 years of the company's life, and a testamen
a testament to the fact that the only really good Harley Davidsons are the ones that are copies of bikes that other manufacturers produce.
Okay FTW, want to go back to the beginning?
In 1902, Indian introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. In 1903, Harley Davidson introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. Coincidence? Probably not. In 1907, Indian introduced their first V-twin powered motorcycle. The first practical Harley air cooled V-twin engine didn’t appear until nearly four years after Indian had introduced their own air cooled V-twin engine.
There's no engineering, no innovation, just xeroxed body designs, and copycat technolology...
when was harley davidson EVER innovative? THey just got around to putting EFI on their bikes, and that was a STANDARD back in 1999 (very few carbed bikes from anyone else at that point)
FTW, IF harley produced the first v-twin motorcycle, or even the first "american" vtwin motorcycle, you MIGHT have half a leg to stand on with that statement...
However, you don't, If anybody is copying anybody, EVERYONE copied Indian...
mad jack, not obsessed, just extremely annoyed by the misplaced fascination
andy andy andy, regardless of our disagreements, I'm not a report monkey, indianjohn, snoop, maddog, and law can attest to that (and they disagree with my stance on harleys)
Why?
okay chunkie, let's spell it out...
I'm sure that you are familiar with the Harley Davidson Sportster. When the Sportster was first introduced in 1957 it was such a direct copy of then-popular European muscle bikes of the time that the gear shifter was mounted on the opposite side of the rest of the models in the Harley lineup (but the same side as the European motorcycle models that it copied). The DynaGlide of the 1980's copied its unique styling from the Japanese power cruisers of the time in an effort to try to win back some of HD's market share that had been lost to newer, more modern looking, better built bikes from abroad.
and if you want to go into further history...
Do you remember the "XA" model Harley Davidson military bike way back in 1942? The U.S. Army asked Harley-Davidson to produce a new motorcycle with many of the features of the BMW's R71 side-valve engine and shaft-drive (mainly because even though thousands of HDs were going to Europe our boys chose to ride German motorcycles instead (when they could get their hands on them from fallen Nazis). Harley largely copied the much better built and more powerful BMW R71's engine and drive train and produced the shaft-driven 750 cc 1942 Harley-Davidson XA. Due to the superior cooling of the opposed twin's design the Harley's XA cylinder heads ran about 100 °F (55 °C) cooler than its own in-house designed V-twins. The XA never entered full production. To this day, the BMW R71 copy inspired XA remains the only shaft-driven Harley Davidson ever made, one of the best Harleys ever made during the first 50 years of the company's life, and a testamen
a testament to the fact that the only really good Harley Davidsons are the ones that are copies of bikes that other manufacturers produce.
Okay FTW, want to go back to the beginning?
In 1902, Indian introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. In 1903, Harley Davidson introduced their first single cylinder motorcycle. Coincidence? Probably not. In 1907, Indian introduced their first V-twin powered motorcycle. The first practical Harley air cooled V-twin engine didn’t appear until nearly four years after Indian had introduced their own air cooled V-twin engine.
There's no engineering, no innovation, just xeroxed body designs, and copycat technolology...
when was harley davidson EVER innovative? THey just got around to putting EFI on their bikes, and that was a STANDARD back in 1999 (very few carbed bikes from anyone else at that point)
FTW, IF harley produced the first v-twin motorcycle, or even the first "american" vtwin motorcycle, you MIGHT have half a leg to stand on with that statement...
However, you don't, If anybody is copying anybody, EVERYONE copied Indian...
mad jack, not obsessed, just extremely annoyed by the misplaced fascination
andy andy andy, regardless of our disagreements, I'm not a report monkey, indianjohn, snoop, maddog, and law can attest to that (and they disagree with my stance on harleys)
