Interview Erik Buell in the January edition

Erik stated that HD never wanted to go head to head with the Japanese by building a fully faired superbike. This is such a strange position for HD to take, seeing that they bought Buell (a sport bike company)in the first place – although nothing that HD does surprises me anymore.

Putting aside the financial debacle they got themselves into in 2008-09, I think HD missed a huge opportunity to develop an American sport bike company. A large percentage of motorcyclists who ride sport bikes, would love to own an American built superbike - as long as it was competitive with the Japanese and European bikes. Look at the massive amount patriotic support Harley enjoys being an American built motorcycle. As well as brushing their American sport bike customers aside, they literally gave up on the world market too. Stunning ignorance. The Harley brand name isn't successful because it says Harley Davidson on the tank, but rather because it's an American company, building an American motorcycle. This fact should be spelled out to the blockheads running this company who seem confused as to the reason why people buy their motorcycles. And no, it ain't all that chrome.  

What's his face? that new CEO, who had never in his life ridden a motorcycle until after he was employed by HD, referring to sportbikes, said something like "Why would anyone ever want to ride one of those things?"

Earlier, their CFO had to know that borrowing short term to lend longer term was a formula for disaster . . . . yet they did it anyway.  Yeah, financing sales of their bikes by borrowing at a low rate for one year to lend it to customers at a higher rate for five years seems like a good deal, so long as the lenders are willling to roll over and refi those one year notes four more times.  What about whwhen they get worried and say "Uh, no, we don't want to refi again, we want our money now." The customer has the bike, maybe he's paying, and HD has to pay its side of the loan NOW!?

Then they overpaid for MV and dumped Buell at a loss, just when the investment is paying off - winning an AMA championship for C****'s sake.  It's as if they wanted to fail.  

I think I remember reading that they bought MV Augusta, not to diversify their product line by adding one of Europe's oldest and most famous motorcycles to their line up, but to gain access to the European market where they could put Harley davidson bikes in european showrooms.

It's frightening that they could not even see the benefit of diversifying their business segments. I understand that their core business is the Hog, but this company's future is quite scary if they keep going in this direction.

I can't believe the CEO of HD said that? It's almost comical if it weren't so tragic.  

When H-D purchased Buell in 2003, Jeff Bluestein was CEO of Harley. James Ziemer succeeded him in '04, and both were very supportive of Buell. The problem was that there a lot of committee management going on at Harley when it came to Buell, and the problem only got worse when Keith Wandell took over in '09. Wandell came from Johnson Controls Inc, a huge industrial technology conglomerate, and he was chosen because Harley couldn't figure out how to do it from within their own ranks, and didn't have the foresight to look within the motorcycle industry itself. So Harley actually paid a headhunter firm to look for a new CEO to replace the retiring Ziemer. Wandell reportedly didn't want to leave Johnson Controls, so H-D had to entice him with a HUGE salary compensation package (reportedly worth $6.5 million for 2010 alone, while H-D rank-and-file employees were being cut by the hundreds).

One of the more famous gaffes under his tenure came when Harley celebrated its centennial at the factory. One of the events was a concert by a "special guest". Everyone was excited, figuring it was going to be an American rocker like Bruce Springsteen or Jon BonJovi. When the curtain went up, all of the blue-collar Harley faithful were treated to the sight of......Elton John. Needless to say, the concert didn't go off all that well...  

I remember that colossal mistake - one for the records, they walked out in droves. When you look at all the blunders HD has made over the last decade, you do begin to wonder if they are trying to fail. Elton John? A $6MM CEO from Johnson Controls? Shut down Buell? Give MV Augusta away for free? They need to get rid of that CEO and the executives who hired him. Wasn’t there talk about closing the Milwaukee factory recently? Maybe this CEO wants to move production to China!!  

One thing that Harley Davidson always had going for them was the notion that the experience of riding an American cruiser was unlike anything else. They could have done the same thing with the Buell sportbike. HD never gave Buell the chance to fully develop into it's own special character, but the bike was well on it's way to becoming an alternative to a cookie cutter Japanese bike.

Racing wins and the steady improvement of the brand would have soon brought it
in line with the likes of Triumph and Ducati as enjoyable sportbike alternatives.
In many peoples minds it was already there.

They could have developed a truly American identity for both their cruisers and sportbikes combined. Instead they bowed to shortsighted corporate pressure.
What ever happened to their daring rebel "going to do it my way" persona that they tried to market as part of their character? Someone has truly been "asleep at the handlebars" during the last few years at HD.  
Ride Proud, Ride Safe, Have Fun.

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