Fast Motorcycle Industry News

cyril-Huze-fast-news1328Harley-Davidson Has Indicated That More Than 60 Acts Will Perform At Its 110th Anniversary Celebration. The company released a list of 28 of those bands, Harley-Davidson added Toby Keith and Aerosmith with Steven Tyler to headline the Marcus Amphitheater respectively Aug. 29 and 30. Tickets for both shows, as well as Kid Rock’s, go on sale at 8 a.m. May 6 at Harley 110 Tickets . Prices for the individual shows have yet to be disclosed.

Yamaha Plan To Develop and Manufacture The Cheapest Motorcycle In The World Costing Only 500 US dollars. To be produced in India and exported globally with China being a priority. The unveiling of Yamaha’s plans comes amid stiff competition and challenges in the motorcycle sector as well as India’s wider motor vehicle industry. India is the second-largest market for motorcycles in the world after China.

BMW To Manufacture Motorcycles With Indian Company. German auto manufacturer BMW which also makes big cruisers, announced an agreement with India’s TVS Motor Co. to produce small-engine motorcycles. “The aim of the cooperation is to join forces to develop and produce motorcycles in the segment below 500 cubic centimeters,” the German group said in a written statement. TVS Motor Co. is one of India’s largest motorcycle manufacturers, producing annually 2 million vehicles and with a turnover of more than $1 billion.

8 Responses to “Fast Motorcycle Industry News”


  1. 1 Rodent Apr 12th, 2013 at 8:27 am

    At least “Bill Graham Presents” never made motorcycles!

  2. 2 Matt Apr 12th, 2013 at 9:19 am

    Haha, that 3rd headline definitely got a double take.

  3. 3 Kirk Perry Apr 12th, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    ~ Old Iron ~

    Old News:
    Apr 11th, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    ~ V-Twin® Rigid Frames ~
    Update:
    Calling for an RA number to return a couple of parts for exchange, I asked Linda if there was any news on the knuckle and pan frames. She said, “They’re talking about the expected arrival of frames, and mentioned knuckle, if that’s the one you’re talking about.”
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
    Nu-News: April 12, 2013
    Update:
    There’s two knucklehead frames listed on cyber V-Twin, with a retail price differential of $559.26 between the two identical E46-1947 “bull neck” frames.

    http://www.vtwinmfg.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/VTwinHome_10101_10102_-1

    I asked parts rep. Marilyn in Newburgh, and she said she’d investigate. Four hours later Darin (tech) called to report that his inquiries to parts manager Gary, revealed that both frames had identical side-car loops, seat post, and other cast parts, but that one knuckle frame (51-1947), $1,782.14, was made entirely in Taiwan – and the other knuckle frame (51-1020), $2,321.40, was assembled from Taiwan parts and welded in the *USA.
    And in passing, Gary mentioned that they’ve already created a second purchase order for the knuckle frames.
    No word as to their ETA, but obviously in the pipeline, if not already in the cold hold of a ship.
    • *Many years ago while in the import business, I was contacted by the government about “Free Zones” within the USA in places like abandoned salt mines, where parts can be imported duty-free and then assembled in the free zones and taxed on the way out.
    • These frames may logically be assembled in Delaware. Hey Don! Welcome back!

  4. 4 Kirk Perry Apr 12th, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    I have a (51-1020) frame back-ordered for a customer.

    • Darin made it a point, that he has a live-screen console behind him, with updates every morning about which back-ordered parts have arrived, at which time he calls the dealer immediately.

  5. 5 Kirk Perry Apr 12th, 2013 at 4:27 pm

    I was in Stett’s this morning, picking-up a V-Twin 4-speed transmission – and depositing (in my trusty, wooden-slat, 7-Up® Bottling crate – filled with yet-another OEM 4-spd trans. from garage-fresh, 1991, Lakeside Bill (r.i.p) and destined for a re-manufacturing with a needle-bearing [an FX mod] Andrews MDG, by a [shipyard] marine machinist using a 12 ft. lathe and finished with a 4 ft. diameter, ID grinder 🙂 ) ……. and was stopped in my tracks by a spaghetti-thin, red-frame K-model build, with an equally thin profile, chrome Paughco spring fork, which a lady had recently commissioned from Stett to restore, eye level on the table, and thought:

    This is a project worth dropping-in on. I supposed there could be a traveling video-orgapher that visited shops on-call [hauling two light boxes & a *SonyPJ (internal projector)] to create a short U-tube “nickle tour” of what’s being built by whom and where, with what parts. [* The Sony PJ projects the video on a wall up to 20 ft. away, so the near-finished video can be viewed and accepted by the builder/shop right on the spot].
    Something like this would standardize a weekly update on what’s being built in our fragmented domain.
    So, if Cyril (there IS no body else) collected these clips, and then published them whenever he had collected enough to warrant a post, it would bring a bunch of builders together in one box of highlighted url’s to click-on and comment.

  6. 6 David Apr 12th, 2013 at 11:52 pm

    We will all be riding those $500 Yamaha’s if we dont stop all of Obama’s regulations and get him and his cronies out of office.

    SSDD:David

  7. 7 Mark Shubin Apr 13th, 2013 at 9:18 am

    @Rodent, Bill did it right!

  8. 8 Kirk Perry Apr 13th, 2013 at 11:40 am

    ~ Notice to Aftermarket Harley Parts Manufacturer’s ~

    • Get with the times. It’s 2013 and nobody wants to ride a primary chain clanking, oil dripping, p.o.s.
    • Rivera-Primo, BDL, Karata, Andrews and probably J.C. Whitney all produce belt-drive primary assemblies. Most of those are of the 31/47 motor and clutch tooth pulleys. Fine, but it was never a perfect ratio. Perfect enough that the ratio didn’t eat belt alive, but the ride in 4th gear was still not a satisfying as it would have been in 5th, if there was a 5th, but there isn’t.
    • Then quietly in 2009, Rebel Gears in Tennessee made an aluminum 50-tooth rear sprocket with a 5,000 mile expected life, and THEY perfected the 1936-64 OHV Big Twin ration for belt primary and chain final-drive. (Special thanks to John @ Color-Wright Paint for discovering the 50-tooth gem or I’d never have known about it.)
    So today, the perfect ration for 1st thru 4th is a 31 tooth motor pulley, 47-tooth clutch pulley, 25-tooth trans. sprocket, and 50-tooth rear wheel sprocket. 31/47/25/50.
    • Nice, but there are no 50-tooth rear drums from either Paughco or V-Twin.
    • If we want a 50 tooth rear sprocket, we have to buy a 51 tooth rear drum, grind the dowel pins and rivets out, might need a new dust ring, and re-rivet the dust ring and 50-tooth sprocket on to the drum.
    • Either make us a 50 tooth rear drum or sell a pre-drilled sprocketless rear drum and let the customer rivet on his own sprocket, but we have a market bottleneck here, so please fix it.
    • Belt primaries are here to stay. Get with the program or perish.

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Cyril Huze