Up Shift – 1,000,000 BMW GS Motorcycles

The one millionth BMW GS adventure Motorcycle has rolled off the assembly line! This motorcycle, built in Berlin, is the culmination of work that started it run in 1980.

The millionth model, an all-black BMW R1250GS  may also be one of the last R1200’s as the new 1300GS is getting close to production.

My Take – Congrats to BMW, this is a major milestone that should be celebrated.  The boxer engine still has life!

*****

Hitting Neutral – Harley Davidson 440X coming to market soon.

The 440X motorcycle is the “only in Inda” bike, made by the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world HERO.  A few years ago, Harley Davidson struck a deal with HERO to produce a motorcycle that can compete in the Indian market.  It appears that HERO did all the work and Harley supplied the name.

This new bike is propelled by a 440cc single cylinder air cooled engine. It appears that this bike is designed to compete with both Royal Enfield and Bajaj.

My Take: Harley Davidson tried to crack the Indian market on it own with the Street Models, it did not work.  Working with HERO to develop and build an “up-scale” motorcycle for that market is a good idea with little risk to the company.  Basically, they are leasing the HD name to HERO.

Like the Chinese Harley Davidson motorcycles, I doubt we will see these bikes in the American market.  They may, eventually, make it other markets in Asia. 

I went with “hitting neutral” because, while I think this might be a positive for the bottom line, I worry that if the quality standards are not maintained the name Harley Davidson will be globally tarnished.

Ride on, Ride Safe