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[Harleypingman]

Aside from paint and graphics, HD does little to prevent non-CVO bikes from adding CVO features.  Want the '09 SE RG or '10 SESG rear fender/filler panel/LED lights--no problem.  Want the '10 CVO Ultra LED tour pak lights--no problem.  Want the '10 SE SG stretched saddlebags--no problem.  Want the CVO spun aluminum gauges--again, no problem.  The list goes on.

Making so many CVO parts available to non-CVO bikes probably the uniqueness of the CVO bikes and, perhaps, their resale value.  Granted, adding the CVO parts to a non-CVO bike doesn't change the VIN; the non-CVO bike remains a non-CVO bike.  But it seems short-sighted for HD to make some $$$ selling CVO parts to non-CVO owners and diluting the value of the CVO features for the CVO bike owner.  No doubt there are Street Glide owners who thought about buying a SE SG and decided to buy the SG and add the CVO features instead of buying the SE SG.

Foregoing the $$$ of CVO parts sales to non-CVO owners and making CVO bikes significantly more unique by doing so would seem to be a better strategy for HD and CVO owners and prospective owners.

Carl

[Jus Cruisin]

It actually helps to keep our CVO's somewhat affordably priced. If HD had to amortize all the parts, R&D, tooling over the very limited CVO builds the msrp would go thru the roof. It doesn't bother me that the parts are available to non-cvo owners...... as long as they keep the paint schemes limited to CVO.

[Wild Card]

Meh.  I think the inherent stupidity of piecing together a CVO style bike from a standard model, in-turn spending far more than actually buying the CVO model (not to mention that those parts will likely not be insured beyond $3,000), is probably all the protection HD needs!  

And like you said, they can't get our tins!  

[Tbone]

Meh.  I think the inherent stupidity of piecing together a CVO style bike from a standard model, in-turn spending far more than actually buying the CVO model (not to mention that those parts will likely not be insured beyond $3,000), is probably all the protection HD needs!  

And like you said, they can't get our tins!  

I think that's been the concept from the beginning:  Take a standard model, put in a larger engine, open the P&A book and add a bunch of accessories and top it off with custom paint that you can't get from the P&A book.

Bob

[Chains]

Meh.  I think the inherent stupidity of piecing together a CVO style bike from a standard model, in-turn spending far more than actually buying the CVO model (not to mention that those parts will likely not be insured beyond $3,000), is probably all the protection HD needs!  

And like you said, they can't get our tins!  

I agree 100%

[JCZ]

That's been a gripe of ours since I joined this forum in 03.

Yet I was able to buy the rear fender, LED tail lights, saddle bags, etc. off of an 09 SERG at less than half the price that the MoCo wanted......for my wife's 09 Street Glide.  The seller converted his 09 SERG to a trike immediatly upon delivery and I just got lucky.

But for somebody who is going to do all of that and has the money to do it, unless they get real lucky on ebay.......it'd be way cheaper for them to just buy a CVO and start from there.  There have been a few instances where people buy a CVO for the base platform and then take it to another level from there.

When the SEEG came out in 04, Harley had never made another bike that drew as much attention (the 09 SERG is the only bike that even came remotely close).  Yet in just a year or two the MoCo was already selling parts that were particular to that model.  And there were even a couple of "clone" CVOs that ended up on the market but as I recall, they didn't garner the purchase price that would have made it worth it unless they started with a salvaged title bike.

[Fired00d]

Aside from paint and graphics, HD does little to prevent non-CVO bikes from adding CVO features.  Want the '09 SE RG or '10 SESG rear fender/filler panel/LED lights--no problem.  Want the '10 CVO Ultra LED tour pak lights--no problem.  Want the '10 SE SG stretched saddlebags--no problem.  Want the CVO spun aluminum gauges--again, no problem.  The list goes on.

Making so many CVO parts available to non-CVO bikes probably the uniqueness of the CVO bikes and, perhaps, their resale value.  Granted, adding the CVO parts to a non-CVO bike doesn't change the VIN; the non-CVO bike remains a non-CVO bike.  But it seems short-sighted for HD to make some $$$ selling CVO parts to non-CVO owners and diluting the value of the CVO features for the CVO bike owner.  No doubt there are Street Glide owners who thought about buying a SE SG and decided to buy the SG and add the CVO features instead of buying the SE SG.

Foregoing the $$$ of CVO parts sales to non-CVO owners and making CVO bikes significantly more unique by doing so would seem to be a better strategy for HD and CVO owners and prospective owners.

Carl

The original concept of CVO's was to take items from existing P&A book and have them pre-installed on bikes and offering them for sale. The fact that so many of these items still remain for sale to anyone doesn't surprise me at all as it was the intent to sell more of these items after the public was able to see bikes accesorized w/them.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[Heatwave]

Meh.  I think the inherent stupidity of piecing together a CVO style bike from a standard model, in-turn spending far more than actually buying the CVO model (not to mention that those parts will likely not be insured beyond $3,000), is probably all the protection HD needs!  

And like you said, they can't get our tins!  

Well maybe... I was just at a bike night at my local HD Dealer and a guy showed up on a 2010 Ultra that had the exact same tins as the Crimson and Slate flames on my 2010 SE Ultra.

Apparently a dealer had sold an SE Ultra to a customer that immediately switched out the tins. The dealer in turn put the SE tins on a normal 96" Ultra, added heated grips, the SE chrome wheels, painted inner fairing and then sold the bike for $25K. It still had the chrome guard rails around the bags and the normal gauges without garage door opener or XM radio . Less chrome overall but unless you new to look for the 110 you probably would have never known.

[Wild Card]

Well maybe... I was just at a bike night at my local HD Dealer and a guy showed up on a 2010 Ultra that had the exact same tins as the Crimson and Slate flames on my 2010 SE Ultra.

Apparently a dealer had sold an SE Ultra to a customer that immediately switched out the tins. The dealer in turn put the SE tins on a normal 96" Ultra, added heated grips, the SE chrome wheels, painted inner fairing and then sold the bike for $25K. It still had the chrome guard rails around the bags and the normal gauges without garage door opener or XM radio . Less chrome overall but unless you new to look for the 110 you probably would have never known.

Now there's an odd circumstance!  However, there are still only X number of that color CVO tin out there. 

[grc]

I think too many people keep getting hung up on that first word in the title of the little group in H-D called CVO.  These are not custom bikes, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.  Customs don't come in production runs numbering in the thousands, they come in runs of one bike.  Even the paint is not custom, you get a closer to custom experience buying one of the numbered sets from the Color Shop in the catalog (#2 of 150, for instance).

What we all bought is nothing more than a high end option package thrown on a regular Harley motorcycle, using parts and accessories straight out of the P&A catalog or in some cases parts that haven't quite made it into the catalog yet.  It gives us the opportunity to add a bunch of stuff at a lower overall cost than if we tried to add all of it to an existing bike on our own, but the result is no more "custom" than a Limited edition of your favorite brand of automobile.  If I wanted (and could afford) a true custom, I'd take my checkbook to a real custom bike builder, tell him what I wanted, look at a few sketches, hand him a big check, and eventually ride away on a bike that I wouldn't have to worry about seeing a twin of at the next big rally.  If you think you paid a lot for your CVO, wait 'till you write that six figure check for a real custom.  True exclusivity don't come cheap.


Jerry

[lvse110se5]

Maybe a stupid question, but what are the "tins", the tank emblems?

[Wild Card]

Maybe a stupid question, but what are the "tins", the tank emblems?

The tank, fenders, etc...  Referring to the paint scheme on them.

[CVOJOE]

What we all bought is nothing more than a high end option package thrown on a regular Harley motorcycle, using parts and accessories straight out of the P&A catalog or in some cases parts that haven't quite made it into the catalog yet.  It gives us the opportunity to add a bunch of stuff at a lower overall cost than if we tried to add all of it to an existing bike on our own, but the result is no more "custom" than a Limited edition of your favorite brand of automobile. 

Jerry nailed it in two sentences.  In the words of El Hubbard "Thus endeth the lesson". 

[Joelgonia]

Jerry nailed it -- with the addition / acknowledgment of somewhat higher "comfort level" knowing all these extra parts, including th engine and exhaust, have been assembled and tested by a limited number of guys in the CVO shop.. I like to think they take a little different approach to putting our bikes together than the "average" guy out on the larger production lines / models.  Yep -- I admit I'm probably naive.  I have also had minimum mechanical problems with my CVOs compared to non-CVO bikes.  Just lucky?  or are these bikes a step up?

[RedDevil]

Jerry nailed it -- with the addition / acknowledgment of somewhat higher "comfort level" knowing all these extra parts, including th engine and exhaust, have been assembled and tested by a limited number of guys in the CVO shop.. I like to think they take a little different approach to putting our bikes together than the "average" guy out on the larger production lines / models.  Yep -- I admit I'm probably naive.  I have also had minimum mechanical problems with my CVOs compared to non-CVO bikes.  Just lucky?  or are these bikes a step up?

I would like to say a step up, but from some of the things that have cropped up on CVOs that don't show up on production line models, i.e., floor boards barely hanging on by a thread, missing/loose bolts, etc, I have to admittedly say, more lucky than a step up.  Actually the production line bikes are more consistent in their build quality because all the tools that are used on the production line to install/tighten have computer controlled torque, so the tightness of bolts and nuts and screws is consistent across the model line.  Whereas on the CVO line, they use standard hand tools and torque wrenches to assemble the bikes, hence the hand assembled (not to be confused with hand built) "exclusivity" that CVOs get.  However, 2011 may be the last year they hand assemble the CVOs.  HD is moving the CVO assemblage out to the production line and they will be built the same as the non-CVO bikes.