Harley's marketing people must be the dumbest MBAs on the planet, they went through the "scrambler" craze with what is basically a modern version of an original scrambler dressed up with skulls and slammer shocks. All they needed to do was put taller shocks onto the sportster and a bench seat and price it competitively against the triumph and ducati scramblers and they would have sold a ton and gotten a bunch of people who would never buy a Harley in the door.
The XR1200 was a good looking bike and probably rides great, but it's too street-bikey in appearance (and came our right after the damn '08 crash). Lawdy if they'd bothered to make a proper flat tracker with a 19" rear wheel (and leveraged some tire manufacturer to start making a decent street 19" rear tire) they wouldn't be able to keep them in stock. Now that they've killed the Evo motor it's a done deal, but imagine what could have been with a factory Hooligan flat tracker.
There's some great sportster scrambler builds over on advrider.com, too. Check out Phil Little's tracker parts: https://phillittleracing.com/motorcycle/xrx-sportster-street-tracker-kit
Of greatest note is the steer tube insert he sells to steepen the head angle to 27.5*, seems very cool.
They had Buell for a while, which kind of did just that. Then Harley shut them down, and sealed their own fate. The Harley owner demographic is aging steadily, and now they're starting to go for trikes instead of bikes - which Harley can do of course, but it doesn't bode well for the future.
Edit - I just looked them up, and Buell are now developing new models under new management! I'll be interested to see what they come up with next.
The new Buell company is doing some interesting (but expensive) stuff, it would be cool if they can do something fun and not as expensive as a new sedan though. Erik Buell s doing an electric bike thing called Fuell now.
Harley's marketing people must be the dumbest MBAs on the planet, they went through the "scrambler" craze with what is basically a modern version of an original scrambler dressed up with skulls and slammer shocks. All they needed to do was put taller shocks onto the sportster and a bench seat and price it competitively against the triumph and ducati scramblers and they would have sold a ton and gotten a bunch of people who would never buy a Harley in the door.
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The XR1200 was a good looking bike and probably rides great, but it's too street-bikey in appearance (and came our right after the damn '08 crash). Lawdy if they'd bothered to make a proper flat tracker with a 19" rear wheel (and leveraged some tire manufacturer to start making a decent street 19" rear tire) they wouldn't be able to keep them in stock. Now that they've killed the Evo motor it's a done deal, but imagine what could have been with a factory Hooligan flat tracker.
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There's some great sportster scrambler builds over on advrider.com, too. Check out Phil Little's tracker parts: https://phillittleracing.com/motorcycle/xrx-sportster-street-tracker-kit
Of greatest note is the steer tube insert he sells to steepen the head angle to 27.5*, seems very cool.
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:stalin-approval: :sicko-biker:
They had Buell for a while, which kind of did just that. Then Harley shut them down, and sealed their own fate. The Harley owner demographic is aging steadily, and now they're starting to go for trikes instead of bikes - which Harley can do of course, but it doesn't bode well for the future.
Edit - I just looked them up, and Buell are now developing new models under new management! I'll be interested to see what they come up with next.
The new Buell company is doing some interesting (but expensive) stuff, it would be cool if they can do something fun and not as expensive as a new sedan though. Erik Buell s doing an electric bike thing called Fuell now.