[shark nose]

I just got back from HOT or Harley Officer’s Training in Las Vegas, NV. They showed the production line of the Harley Street being built. And said that Willie G Davidson has taken a Street off the production line and is going to ride it to California as to the tradition of Harley to is to every new bike model. I believe it was Harley Davidson facility in York, PA.

o~\o

 

[harleyhoonigan]

I think thats where i heard it will be built, still can't confirm it. But at least American Streets are being built in the U.S. and not elsewhere.

 

[Livin On]

you sure shark?

That’s partially true. But let’s be perfectly clear: All Street 750s and Street 500s for US and Canadian consumption will be built in the Harley-Davidson Vehicle and Powertrain Operations plant in Kansas City, Missouri, where there is a manufacturing line dedicated to producing the liquid-cooled Revolution X engine, a new 60-degree V-twin featuring chain-driven single overhead camshafts.

WHERE IS IT MADE? 2014 Harley-Davidson Street 750 and Street 500

Granted that article is from November '13 just after EICMA, but I thought Kansas was the narrative...?

 

[gregsfc]

Now HD is stating K.C. and York for the Streets. Originally, the narrative was only K.C.

 

[shark nose]

I think it’s very cool that Davidson’s have a tradition of taking a new bike off the production line and ride it a cross country, even a small bike like the Street.


o~\o

 

[fkystreet]

where is york?

 

[harleyhoonigan]

I think it’s very cool that Davidson’s have a tradition of taking a new bike off the production line and ride it a cross country, even a small bike like the Street.


o~\o

Thats what you get when you buy an american built bike

 

[Desert Tortoise]

where is york?

York Pennsylvania. The site is the former Naval Ordnance Factory York PA. Harley's previous parent company, AMF (American Machine and Foundry) was a major defense contractor. That site had been a Naval Ordnance Factory since the late 1800s. In WWII the plant made copies of the Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun that pretty much every ship in the Navy mounted.

AMF needed to expand Harley production from the old factory in Milwaukee on Capitol Drive and built an assembly line and test track on the property of the Naval Ordnance Factory, while still building bomb casings for a particular air dropped bomb used by the Navy and Air Force, as well as the rocket motor for the Beech-Raytheon AQM-37 supersonic target in other buildings on the site.

Harley Davidson inherited the site and their military production when the management bought the company from AMF in 1982 and it has since become one of the biggest Superfund hazardous waste clean ups in the nation. It is no longer an active weapons production site to my knowledge.

 

[harleyhoonigan]

Someone said parts will be made in india and the bike assembled in the U.S.
not liking the sounds of that

 

[fkystreet]

ahh thats good to know. thanks for sharing desert.

 

[Desert Tortoise]

Do you remember the over 700 cc tariff from the Reagan administration years? Bikes over 700 cc were taxed more than smaller displacement bikes. The reason? The DoD suddenly lost the big contractor who had operated their Naval Ordnance Factory for so many years, replaced by this brand new, cash starved start up (up-start) company. No one in the DoD could be sure Harley as a stand alone firm would survive and be able to run the military side for them, so the tariff was enacted to provide them some protection from competition and buy the DoD some time to let Harley succeed or find another contractor to run the place if Harley started to fail.

 

[Desert Tortoise]

Someone said parts will be made in india and the bike assembled in the U.S.
not liking the sounds of that

"Someone said". Eh, lets see what really happens. I cannot think of even one motorcycle where the OEM produced every part. Harley buys a large proportion of it's components from vendors, many of which are located in Japan, Germany, Italy and China. The same is true of BMW, KTM and pretty much every other brand of motorcycle.

If Harley replaced it's Chinese suppliers with Indian ones it wouldn't break my heart. I would rather see my money go to India rather than to China.

 

[gregsfc]

Someone said parts will be made in india and the bike assembled in the U.S.
not liking the sounds of that

Total hogwash..This same, untrue rumor came up on another forum. People start bad mouthing companies and the people who work for companies just because they are cynical and like to spread cynicism, even when they have no real information to base their cynicism. I'm not stating that the poster started this crap but someone did, and that person or persons were just starting a bunch of crap to create a reaction.

On that forum, someone who actually works at the K.C. plant chimed in and stated that the K.C. plant will not just be an assembly plant. It will be a manufacturing plant.

This does not mean that none of the parts will be made in India. Parts will be made all over the globe. That's the only way a large manufacturer of vehicles can stay in business, and it's smart business to allow all suppliers, from everywhere, to bid contracts. But it absolutely will not just be an assembly plant for Indian-made bikes, and that's directly from someone who will be helping build them.

 

[stude]

Do you remember the over 700 cc tariff from the Reagan administration years? Bikes over 700 cc were taxed more than smaller displacement bikes. The reason? The DoD suddenly lost the big contractor who had operated their Naval Ordnance Factory for so many years, replaced by this brand new, cash starved start up (up-start) company. No one in the DoD could be sure Harley as a stand alone firm would survive and be able to run the military side for them, so the tariff was enacted to provide them some protection from competition and buy the DoD some time to let Harley succeed or find another contractor to run the place if Harley started to fail.

Yes, I think it must have been 1984 that it started. Bikes that were typically of the 750cc variety (like my 83 Yamaha 750 Maxim) were then only 700cc's. My new 87 Honda Shadow was 700. I also had an 84 Honda Magna that was a 700. Not for sure when it ended, around 1990 maybe?

 

[Desert Tortoise]

The tariff lasted five years beginning in 1983.