Harley To Build New Street Bikes In America

Good news Milwaukee faithful, Harley’s new line of 500 and 750 “Street” motorcycles will indeed be built right here in the U.S. of A, Kansas City Mo. as a matter of fact. And you just can’t get anymore ‘Merican than that my friend.

 

Harley's new Street looks every bit the badass

It looks like production is slated to begin late this year or early 2014 depending on how quickly the Motor Company can get the line up and running. First years production of HD’s new Shadow, er, Street (come on, you were thinking it too!) should be in the neighborhood of 7,000 to 10,000 units world-wide. Harley’s production facility in India will produce the new wet H-D minis for domestic consumption, avoiding the former colonies onerous tariffs on imported motorcycles.

While we’re going to reserve judgment on the newest branches on the H-D family tree until we have an opportunity to throw a leg over the pint-sized pretenders, we at the Asylum are genuinely stoked that the Motor Company honchos decided to build the bikes here.

Too many companies trade on their “origin equity” as though they were so many carbon credits. If you’re playing the “authentic”, “made in America” card as the foundation of the brand, it’s not enough that the headquarters finds itself on U.S. soil, or that the models in your ads hail from fly-over states. What you build, your product, the reason you do business, better have a real deal pedigree too. Harley knows that they need to connect with a youthful demo, while at the same time staying true to the core values of the brand. An Indian built imported H-D would have stretched the Motor Company’s credibility thinner than a pair of Kim Kardashian’s workout pants.  Maybe even too cool for school hipsters have an “authenticity threshold”, Chuck Taylor’s from China OK, Harley’s from India, not so much. At least it appears Harley thinks so.

Could they have sold a foreign built bike? No doubt about it, Harley’s marketing prowess is second to none. But the long-term opportunity cost associated with the perception that H-D had finally “sold out”, might have been a little too much to risk, at least for now. Let’s hope it stays that way for a very long time.