We can hope Erik joins the CVO motor development team!
Why? Newer Buell's are using an Austrian made Rotax engine. Only the older Buell's still use a powertrain made by Harley.
One has to be looking at the entire development at HD from more than one angle.Harley seems to me caught up in a time warp, building bikes for a shrinking demography. That's fine with me, I belong.
But as a company they should also somewhat worry about who is going to buy their bikes in the next three to five to ten years, right? Both, MV & Buell, have a younger demographic, but their sales at about 5k bikes (per manufacturer) annually did not suffice to make an impact on a company positioned to sell 300k bikes per year.
So HD had to face the choice of trying to dramatically expand the MV and Buell lines to, let's say 50k bikes annually per manufacturer, or close or sell. The expansion to meaningful numbers (if at all possible) would have required an investment far larger than HD's cash flow could afford, hence the company would run itself into losses, just by trying.
That would mean the stock price would tank even more, and that would mean any company interested in HD could buy it on the cheap.
Now, with the smaller brands out of the way, HD can concentrate on trying to find a way to grow sales and attract a broader demography. Not easy, and I am not sure, if they have a plan in place for that. Going to India and China is not going to help that much, these markets (from my experience) do not readily support large displacement motorcycles which weigh 800lbs.
Ride safely,
Louis