Milwaukee Mini's To Be Born In The USA

Sharp eyed fellow Chromies will remember waaaay back in 2011 (April 11 to be exact) that we reported on a plan by the Motor Company to build the Buell Blast's replacement in the land of curry and outsourced call-centers and import them to the US badged as "real" Harley's. Ah, sorry Sally, not so fast. What a difference nearly a year makes.

While enjoying beers and brats on Main St. in Daytona I had an opportunity to chat up some folks well connected at the highest levels of Harley-Davidson (these people know what they're talking about my brothers, so much so, that I'm not free to quote them by name) and they told me that the plan to import fully assembled motorcycles from India is dead, at least in the near term. Not gonna happen, not now, maybe not ever.

So why the 180? To recap, Harley needs to develop a bike that can take over the late and unlamented Blast's role as small displacement training machine for the Rider's Edge program. The specs state that the bike needs to be no more than 500cc, which puts HD in a rather tough spot given the fact that Milwaukee's most diminutive machine crashes the party at well over 800cc's.....uh oh. Couple that with the fact that while most of the Harley Faithful are willing to accept, however grudgingly, some level of foreign content in their beloved Hogs, the notion of a machine branded with the bar and shield being built entirely overseas like some, God forbid, Honda was simply too much to swallow.

The simple truth is, the "Made in America" component of the narrative that is Harley Davidson is still sacrosanct. It's the third rail of HD brand folklore, tamper with it at your extreme peril. No matter how tempting the additional margin dollars that a foreign built would undoubtedly fetch, the suits in Milwaukee aren't willing to risk sending their loyal customer base running for the exits, a sure way to tank profits. No bonus, no bueno.

So for now, it looks like we're likely to see a petite pig coming out of the Kansas City plant sometime next year. What it'll look like is still a mystery, but we're pretty sure it will be offered in two displacements; 650cc and 500cc (the latter so it conforms to Riders Edge requirements). The key here is that it will be US built, as real a Harley as any rolling off the lines today. That's the Motor Company's story, and they're gonna stick to it, until they don't.