What Do You Think? Manufacturing Quandary
- Thread starter savatage1973
- Start date
y2keglide
Super Member
I would just about have to give mine away at 194,000 miles,good thing I have no plans to sell it.
The main reason for that was Harley was the only one making bikes of 1000cc or more.
Pio1980
AK Member
Ha!
Pio1980
AK Member
There was that, Vincent HRD was long gone. However, the Munch Mammoth was there with iirc a one litre ohc four in 1966.
604man
Super Member
Back in the 70's I knew a guy that had one of those 350 Aeromacchi pushrod singles he really liked it
and he could beat his brother up to about 70 mph who had one of those honda 350 fours.
But the Japanese ended that with bikes that had lower cost / more features .
Djcoolray
Addicted Member
Your right...
604man
Super Member
A rare bike only made for 2 years.
y2keglide
Super Member
Yup but the Munch was never really much in the way of a production motorcycle, if I remember right it used an NSU car engine or something like that and was very low production. The Munch was more like todays Boss Hoss V-8 bikes, more of a novelty that a serious motorcycle offering.
Vincent was long gone as was Indian Super X and all the other big displacement bikes by '72 leaving H-D the last one standing.
y2keglide
Super Member
Yup,less that 500 ever made over almost 10 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münch_(motorcycles)
y2keglide
Super Member
Because they were a real slug, I've ridden one owned by a friend so I know.
I had a couple of the 350 twins and they would run away from the 350 Four.
I also owned a 500 Four,it was a bit of a turd as well but faster than the 350's not that that's saying much. lol
Pio1980
AK Member
Sort of the Zephyr V-12 of motorcycles, smoooooth, but gutless.
A sweet little jewel of engineering nonetheless.
y2keglide
Super Member
Exactly, you could barely tell it was running.
The real multi cylinder marvel of engineering from Honda came a few years later with the CBX 900 six.
That thing was smooth and fast albeit a bit of a brick handling wise and awfully wide.
Pio1980
AK Member
If Honda ever made a "Goldilocks" motorcycle, in my experience, it was the 1980s Sabre V45.
I knew of the Sprints, which is why I said "... mostly 2 strokes" -
I find the earlier Japanese Harleys much more interesting!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikuo_Motorcycle
1957 Rikuo RQ750
One of the first motorcycle manufacturing companies in Japan. In the early 1930s Rikuo operated under the license and name of Harley-Davidson, using their tooling, and later under the name Rikuo until 1958. During the Great Depression of 1929 Harley-Davidson was on the verge of bankruptcy. Having lost much of their overseas sales to the British Commonwealth nations, Harley-Davidson looked to Japan to make up for their losses. Harley-Davidson themselves did not publicize this Japanese connection because the Japanese were helped in developing mass-production techniques by the introduction of this factory into Japan just prior to the Second World War. The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (in Japanese) rates the 1935 Rikuoh Large Motorcycle as one of their 240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology. In 1950 Sankyo sold Rikuo to Showa (the same company that supplies parts to HD today) Rikuo manufacturing stopped in 1959 with operations going into bankrupt in 1960 and the brand ceased to exists by 1962
And about those Honda 6 cylinders?? They were preceeded by the Benelli Sei - a series of motorcycles produced by Italian manufacturer Benelli, and masterminded by automotive designer Alejandro de Tomaso, from 1973 to 1989. The 750 was the first production motorcycle with a six-cylinder engine. The later 900cc version had an original MSRP of $3,995.
and then, there is Harley Davidson ...
Yeah, I had a coworker with a V-rod, and know about their modern engineering.
But still, a Harley is a statement piece, not much more. I do hope they survive.
My Dad, checking out a 1924 Harley at a Virginia airshow 10 years back ...
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2011etec
Super Member
Had a couple of those bennys in town back in the day and the honda six also.Me ,I had their bigger brother ,the 1300 cc kawi six .My kz 1300 had a custom 6 into one header and was a much faster bike in all respects than the other 2 sixes.It also had front and rear air suspension.It was a great long distance cruiser.Man I miss that bike.As for Harley to me it makes sense to build bikes in the far east as that's where interest is now .
y2keglide
Super Member
I knew of these but have never seen one except in pictures, they built only the Flatheads but interesting none the less.
I would have to disagree with this statement, simple and reliable IMHO is not a bad thing.
A Harley is infinitely rebuildable ,you can ride one forever and it will still hold some value.
A Japanese bike not so much,when something goes wrong inside the engine or trans they are off to the junkyard.
The cost to repair far outweighs the value if you can even get the parts.
You can still get parts for Harleys made 50-90 years ago and even older , there are many examples of bilkes that old still being ridden.
A trans problem on a Japanese bike even a minor one means completely tearing the engine down in most cases,not so with a Harley.
I've been riding the same Harley for over 18 years now and it has never made me walk or call a tow truck.
That says something in my book as the bike nears 200,000 miles.
and my magnas, especially the V65s were 'rumpity rumpity rumpity' but most harley owners would never know cuz they only saw tailights ;-)
drifting a bit: I have only ever owned japanese bikes, and while I hate no brand (well ok, mebbe I hate suzuki) I made a hobby for many years restoring hondas - 90cc to 65 inches. the quality on build construction was evident even back on the 60's models. things that were thought of that to date, no american manufacturer has covered. Case in point, I was at a builders center yesterday getting a thing when a guy was there asking the owner of the store about a bolt. a hex socket cap screw.
says it was from the foot peg of his harley. he took it on vacation and hooked the strap to it, hit a bump with the truck and SNAP goes the bolt
(sidebar: A) big no no, never strap to the pegs, too low, strap to the handle bars and any luggage rack b) WTH kind of bolt are they using on FOOTPEGS????)
so they thot it was stainless. was not, I said that looks like grade 2 (it we are lucky) ZINC. ZINC? on a cycle? ZINC?
I say, is that 3/8s-16? they thot it was metric, off to the parts bin, 3/8-16 nut fits (grandad was a machinist for westinghouse for almost 35 years so I learned how to size and grade SAE at a glance as a kid...) so bingo, AND they owner had one in stock. 2 in fact, identical, grade2 zinc hex head socket cap screw.
that all being said, harley has always, IMO, skimped greatly on quality for the price and even the 'redesign' was lacking compared to japanese makes. they survive on panache and the illusion that owning one makes you SAMCRO or equivalent. moving out of our borders even more that now? being the future, I predict AMF2. Its ripe for the picking by a foreign manufacturer not unlike FCA.