Posts Tagged ‘harley davidson’
One Brand Triumphs in 2009 Motorcycle Sales
January 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: You guessed it: Triumph Motorcycles, LTD. managed to stay on top of the heap while other bike manufacturers took a beating in the world wide economy of 2009 (relatively speaking).
While Triumph could still end up in the woods like everyone else, the independent British company rescued from obscurity by John Bloor reportedly has managed to post higher comparative sales percentages than the vast majority of their competitors and opened 39 new stores in the past year. As usual, the famed Bonneville and its various incarnations deserves a lot of the credit.
Also deserving of credit for the world’s eldest motorcycle marque’s incredible resurrection is the innovation and flat-out overkill of dreams pushed into reality like the Rocket III. Yours Truly happened upon this monstrosity by happen-stance after being directed away from various Harley Davidson and Victory dealer sites. A friend notified us of the current line-up from Triumph and after one look at the Rocket III the legacy American icon and it’s recently birthed domestic competitor from Polaris was forgotten.
The Motor Company, with it’s stores that seem to push branded T-Shirts, coffee mugs, and pet apparel as much as it’s bikes, has nothing as outlandish or gigantically “American” as the Rocket III from Great Britain…or the newly minted 2010 Thunderbird – a name, by the way, which Ford had to lease from Triumph in order to apply it to their famous fifties automobile.
Bloor’s little company has begun anew the great rivalry between American V-Twins, British parrallel twins and her in-line triple cruisers.
While the sport bikes Triumph produces have long been admirable and held their share of respect among the potential buyers from Italian and Japanese maker markets, the Motor Company’s dominance of the cruiser world is suddenly teetering, with Victory chopping away at the die-hard V-Twin aspect and Triumph offering, as Monte Python writers would put it, “something completely different”. The whirring of chains on internal spinning timing gears, the thunder of a superb acoustically tuned 1600 parallel twin, or the jaw-dropping speed and intimidating presence of the asymmetrical Rocket III…any of them will instantly turn heads from a rumbling V-Twin that has become a boring, common, and sometimes annoying lazy thump.
It’s no wonder Triumph Motorcycles have done well.
They’ve blown our minds with their seemingly juxtaposed outer restraint and blisteringly unorthodox internals of the 2010 Thunderbird. They’ve taken the Rocket III to a new level with the Roadster by adding more horsepower (Why? The same reason they built a 2300cc triple to start with…because they refuse to accept boundaries) and the funnelling of those three ports into two symmetrical throaty pipes as if to say, “it’s always had the fury, now here’s the sound”.
There’s a point at which you’ve outdone yourself, and once you’ve achieved the mountain top, you must stay put or else descend.
Has Triumph reached that lofty height? Or can they conceivably ascend to higher planes yet? Or will they simply maintain their current status by having so far outstripped all others in imagination, quality, and price?
I can’t think of any way they can do better…
But I’m breathless in anticipation of being pleasantly surprised by their next move.
Posted in Motorcycles | 
Tags: 2010 thunderbird, harley davidson, the motor company, triumph motorcycles, triumph thunderbird, v-twin, victory | 
3 Comments »
Harley Davidson Keeps Owner Groups Active
About an hour’s drive from Beirut, over two-hundred Harley Davidson riders checked into the InterContinental Mzaar Lebanon Mountain Resort and Spa recently. They were gathered for a motorcycle rally and tour sponsored by the local H.O.G. (Harley-Davidson Owner’s Group) chapter.
Yes, I said “Lebanon”, and yes, I also said, “About an hour’s drive from Beirut…”.
It is apparent that the fraternal order of Harley Davidson fans and the successful marketing machine of the marque reaches even the most unlikely places. I presume Lebanon has regained some of it’s old glory as a hot vacation destination for Europeans; I just didn’t realize it would extend to the biker crowd so soon…even the European biker crowd.
I also may be making a wrong assumption that these are vacationers for the most part. Perhaps most of them are native Harley owners. If that’s the case, even more kudos are due the solid American motorcycle brand for some incredible outreach. The investment of time and attention by Harley Davidson for it’s owner’s groups is highly commendable.
One of the things that I had looked forward to after purchasing a Triumph motorcycle back in July was admission into rather cool sounding R.A.T. (Rider’s Association of Triumph).
Alas, after several weeks of trying to get into the R.A.T. website and getting a standard reply of “it must be your browser” from whoever Triumph has outsourced their IT business too, I have given up on ever uncovering the benefits of being a R.A.T. member. From what I see in forums and just by eavesdropping on conversations at bike shops, Harley-Davidson pours a lot of effort and funding into making sure the H.O.G. chapters across the globe are active, vibrant, and have plenty of cool things going on year-round. Triumph apparently just touts R.A.T. membership to new owners as a means of collecting email addresses for future spam opportunities.
It isn’t surprising that there are a bunch of Harley riders blazing trails through the beautiful mountains and seaside roads of Lebanon.
Now I’m wondering what the H.O.G. chapter in Baghdad, Iraq is up to this week?
Sick of Harley Davidson
I rented a Hardly-Did-It-Son Fat Boy several months ago. Liked it. Fair power, well balanced, nice running machine. I was thinking about buying a Harley.
Who could have blamed me? I personally can’t recall anyone in the last decade telling someone “You shouldn’t have bought a Harley.”
Motor officers in law enforcement divisions across the nation depend on Harleys. The Hell’s Angels depend on Harleys (even if they don’t care much for the HD corporate entity). With a spectrum of users like that, how can there be anything wrong with buying a Harley Davidson motorcycle? I ended up with a British bike instead, because it just happened to fit all my criteria, from power to styling to price. It had nothing to do with any failure in the quality or design of the HD.
Nevertheless, I’m sick of seeing and hearing all things Harley Davidson. I look for motorcycle rags and books and everything is divided into two piles: 50% HD, 50% metric. I don’t even know where British bikes fit. Of course they have metric bolts and nuts, but “metric” bike rags all seem to focus solely on Asian bikes.
I pass HD riders on the road and some of them have their noses turned up so far they’d drown if it started raining.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some newb who waves frantically in a desperate attempt to make sure that the rider approaching me knows I’m riding a motorcycle too and therefore we are automatically in a close-knit fraternal brotherhood with secret handshakes and sacred underwear. I just give the casual gesture of the left hand out to the side in a calm, indifferent and unobtrusive twitch to say, “Yep, we’re both riding bikes past each other.”
A few Harley Davidson riders wave back or even initiate this time honored rider greeting. But many simply ignore any other rider on the road who isn’t riding the holy grail of motorcycles. Virtually every rider on a metric or Europeon bike is willing to partake in this simple exchange, but too many HD riders would rather behave like popular high school girls.
The HD snobbery and overwhelming marketing is simply getting to me. I have nothing against HD riders who realize they aren’t any better than any of the rest of us. It’s the ones who haven’t come to that realization that are getting on my nerves. With so many other great choices out there, and a growing selection of American made alternatives as well, isn’t it time HOG members toss out the false impression that they’re the only game in town?
After all, riding a bike that has to have a $4,000 engine upgrade just to get it to perform well enough to keep up with an equivalent sized off-the-rack metric bike wouldn’t be anything I’d be all stuck up about. But I like to focus on power. Harley makes a great looking and sounding product. They have an awesome marketing department.
It’s just a percentage of their customers who are jerks.
I like the attitude in this 2009 Triumph promotional video much better…and the ColdPlay song is a perfect fit:
And here’s a top ten list some anonymous person came up with on why Harley riders don’t wave back:
10. Afraid it will invalidate warranty.
9. Leather and studs make it too heavy to raise arm.
8. Refuse to wave to anyone whose bike is already paid for.
7. Afraid to let go of handlebars because they might vibrate off.
6. Rushing wind would blow scabs off the new tattoos.
5. Angry because just took out second mortgage to pay luxury tax on new Harley.
4. Just discovered the fine print in owner’s manual and realized H-D is partially owned by Honda.
3. Can’t tell if other riders are waving or just reaching to cover their ears like everyone else.
2. Remembers the last time a Harley rider waved back, he impaled his hand on spiked helmet.
1. They’re too tired from spending hours polishing all that chrome to lift their arms.