Lemmy from Revzilla's LiveWire review

[Jerry]

As for your MV Agusta and Ducati V4's...sure they sell but I'm willing to bet they're selling WAY MORE in Europe than in the USA.

So far, I've seen exactly one Ducati V4 in the wild. Panigale's in general aren't all that common. Lots of Ducati Multistrada's though.
Don't think I've ever seen an MV Agusta. Aprilia's are a bit more common. When it comes to sportsbikes, most that you see out here are old Fireblades, CBR600RR's, CBR600F's, GSX-R's and sooooo many R6's.

 

[miweber929]

I'm not hating on Harley but I bust their chops like many...because it's fun! And many of my Harley-owning friends also make fun of the machine they own!

You said they are "selling just fine". Do you have the numbers to back this up? Not asking to be an asshole but would love to see their numbers on units sold. I just went to the Cotee River bike fest this weekend...walked up and down the streets and not one Live Wire! Daytona Bikefest this coming weekend and I have a feeling there won't be many Live Wire's there either. But I'll see a ton of Road Glides and Street Glides up and down A-1.

As for your MV Agusta and Ducati V4's...sure they sell but I'm willing to bet they're selling WAY MORE in Europe than in the USA. Therefore, there's limited models here in the states. I remember when I got my CTX and got on their forum. Everyone was saying how well the bikes were selling...based on the fact that THEY HAD ONE! Turns out, a great motorcycle but not huge units sold.

Unless there's something going on in the Asian market that I'm unaware of I just can't believe they're a hot seller. I applaud HD for venturing out into areas yet explored and I think it was exactly what HD needed to do when they started the Live Wire project. I just think they should have treaded lightly before they dumped a ton of money into it. Will it sting Harley Davidson? Sure but it's "Harley Davidson" and they're pull through like always.

So again you’re still making a lot of assumptions, one major one because you thought you’d see one and haven’t which means they are not selling. Linking this article:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...riders-with-electric-bike-debut-idUSKBN1WM10N

Most dealerships haven’t seen ANY as of September 30th and only a few saw them as of October 2nd. And now they are halting the sale so you won’t see any until the issue is addressed. So the fact you didn’t see any is not surprising because they’ve simply not been for sale. I’m not saying they are selling like hot cakes, but the simple fact that you personally haven’t seen any meaning they aren’t selling indicates a flop is BS. I’ve seen several, mostly at shows and events as display or demo models strapped to a dyno but guess what, they are around and fo exist.

A second way to support that is you called out on the CTX riders for saying they are selling fine because they have one. How is the inverse any less a false statement? Just because YOU haven’t seen one and enjoy picking on Harley (I get it, I do it too. To a point) doesn’t make them a flop.

A question you levied to me was: do I have numbers to back up my claim it’s not a flop? Answer: no, they’ve not been out long enough for Harley to release anything. However preorder numbers showed OK from what they said in the above article. But since I have no numbers, and neither do you, we are both guessing, I guess.

The last point I’ll touch on and then leave this be is the claim on MV and Ducati. They do sell “better” overseas, but not in the numbers you allude they do. Both are as exotic over there as they are here and are almost as expensive, neither are high volume, high turnover makes so they sell as a premium product in limited numbers. Unlike say Mercedes in Germany where they have pedestrian, economy models they do not sell elsewhere neither Italian marquee do (for now, MV is looking to go that route) so they are a top brand in limited numbers.

But my point was just because I’ve not seen one on the road doesn’t mean they don’t sell.

I guess that’s in the end what I’m trying to get across, you can’t look at other Harley mass produced models that have looked the same since the 60s and say I see those everywhere, don’t see the Livewire so it’s a flop. It’s not meant to be a mass number model with a high volume sale. The article above talked about Tesla selling $100k models to start then selling lower priced models, this is a similar launch. But since it’s Harley Davidson it will always try to be a premium product so you won’t see $6,500 throw always but you will probably see $20k products in the near future.

Harley’s V-Rod was something they dumped a ton of money, time and resources in and never found an audience, so it was scrapped, this may be the same deal, only time will tell. But they see this bike as their future. Either way they are trying something, I give them credit for that. But to say they felt it’s a failure so they created a false problem to dump the model is just plain wrong because they are not that stupid. It would literally kill the company and that’s just not happening.

 

[miweber929]

https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/18/harley-davidson-has-resumed-production-of-the-livewire/?yptr=yahoo