Honda brought the vfr1200x in to the U.S. for 2016/2017 I believe. It’s got not only a shaft but also a SSS, tubeless spoked wheels/tires, available DCT and definitely can eat up the miles in comfort. It’s tall and heavy for some but for me it’s a good fit. Still can be found for sale brand new.....
Interesting that the Africa Twin has a 270 degree firing order, the CX/GL (CXGL500/650) range of bikes from the late 1970s and early 1980s also used a 270 degree firing order and you are probably aware just how good an engine they were.
I just finished reading Harley's Q1 Earnings Call from Apr 28. The new CEO says that they remain committed to the Pan American Adv bike, The Bronx Street Fighter and the Electric bike. Due to the Covid crisis they have simply delayed their launch date. He also said in the future all new product launches would be in Q1 to correspond with the riding season rather than in August as they had been doing previously. Also they have canned the "More Roads Plan" and the new strategy is called "The Rewire Program". It was a pretty dismal call but on a positive note they are flush with cash and if they had zero sales they would still have enough money to get to the end of the year.
Phil is right. Some ladies have short legs too and BMW used to, at least, like Triumph, offer lowered bikes from the factory. I am tall and the African Twin is too tall unless you are I guess a serious off roader. And if it really has "instant flat" tires, it should never be used on the road over 50 mph, in my humble opinion. The day of the tube type tyre without some sort of insert is dead dead dead along with the shoe brake.I'm still waiting for some major manufacturer to go after the huge market in bikes for people with short legs!
You make a good point. At some time here, when bikes are not exactly flying out the door, and cars arent either, the manufactures will have to offer incentives to get rid of inventory....after that doesnt work, then the bikes go to auction...which is how I get many of my bikes....a place in coastal Oregon bought a truckful of Yamaha FJRs, 2014s, from Yamaha and blew them out the door..Dealers bought 2014-15 VFRs at auction and blew them out the door at 6-8 thousand....No sure what Harley will do.....H-D makes more money on the licensing the brand and selling clothing and accessories than selling bikes. It has been like that for a long time. I don't think any other motorcycle manufacture can make that claim.
I'm waiting for my local H-D dealers to get a bit more desperate, I'm getting daily emails with "deals", before I go discuss a Street Rod 750 ABS or a Street 750 ABS. Last time around that weren't hungry enough, I think that has changed a bit.
That also depends on what you want to buy. The 750cc Street series was never well received by dealers or the "faithful". So it has the potential to sell as a much better deal than any other Harley I've owned. But finding one with ABS is a bit of an issue as most dealers don't order the option. I'm watching Ebay as well as there are a lot of well priced, low mileage, Street 750's available if I can find one with ABS.
Around here the vast majority of the dealers are multi-store for both H-D and imports. It is going to be interesting to see how they keep the several dealers, owned by the same parent company, from competing with each other in one metro market.
As far as I can tell it worked. I was referring to most of the dealerships, of any type, are owned by chains. That applies to both H-D and my local "furrin" dealerships. There are three chains of H-D dealers and several big chains, 10 or more dealers, for imports. The day of the independent "Mom and Pop" family dealership are long gone here.
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In 1978, we bought my daughter a bicycle from Sears. She was in the 6th grade and wanted a 10-speed. When we bought it she couldn't quite reach the pedals when they were on the bottom, but the salesman said, "Oh, she'll grow into it in just a few months." She said she wanted it and she'd grow into it in a few months, so we bought it. She still hasn't grown into it and she's 52 years old now. When I started riding a bicycle in '87, I started on her old bicycle. It was an Allstate built by Puch in Austria. For a carbon-steel framed bike, it was pretty decent. I rode it for 2K miles. Then when we taking Kelly (our daughter) to Baldwin City, KS, to start Baker University, I stumbled into a bicycle shop in Lawrence. The owner, who was just about 25 years old, spent 45 minutes "practicing his spiel" on me and then insisted that I take a ride on a $300 Fuji. The Fuji had a cro-moly steel frame and was about 15 pounds lighter and incredibly more responsive. I started saving my nickels and dimes and upgraded from the Puch to a Fuji after Thanksgiving that year. I rode that bike about 15K miles before I bought a Bridgestone RB-T a few years later.
