Ick's Corner

Originally posted by Silent E (Sorry from Tech support)

With the purchase of Italian sport bike manufacturer, MV Agusta, it looks like HD might be trying to add a bit bit of technology to it’s line of technologically inept, less one, line of motorcycles.

From JSOnline:

Harley said Friday it had agreed to buy MV Agusta for about $109 million. Under the agreement, Harley will make additional payments in 2016 if certain financial goals are achieved.

The Italian company produces a line of premium sport motorcycles under its brand and a line of lightweight bikes under the Cagiva brand. One of the MV Agusta bikes, the F4CC model, is a limited-production machine that has a top speed of 195 mph and sells for $120,000.

Each F4CC comes with a special boxed certificate of origin and an expensive Italian wristwatch.

MV Agusta describes the bike this way: “Its elegant black dress underlines the elegance and sophistication of a beautiful woman in a ‘little black number.’ . . . It doesn’t matter if the ignition keys are never turned in the lock, if the bike rests on a stand in someone’s home, or if it only does the occasional mile or two to ‘give it a run.’ What does matter for a true enthusiast is to possess just one of the 100 models made and to treat it as if it were a priceless painting worth millions.”

Much less expensive, the remainder of the MV Agusta lineup falls in a price range of about $15,000 to $30,000 — more expensive than some Harleys but comparable with other European sport bikes.

It’s a small company when measured against Harley-Davidson, the world’s largest manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles. The Italian firm produced about 5,800 bikes last year, compared with 330,619 that Harley shipped to its dealers.

The bikes are a bit pricey but it will give them a few more options. The Cagiva brand produces a kind of Beemer GS type bike and the MV bikes will give them great performance which is not a Harley trait. Harley can make this a good purchase for themselves if they let the MV Agusta name remain and inject some cash in it so that they can boost sales in the US. Adding more bikes to the MV line won’t do much in the States when you can by a Ducati or Honda that can compare to or outperform the MV’s but at a lower price. HD will need to look at MV to make a cheaper sportbike alternative to compete.

Another thing HD should look at is the possibly of borrowing some frame, suspension, braking system and engine ideas from the nice folks at MV.

Here’s the $120,000 195mph SUPER bike

HD was basically run out of AMA road racing due to its inability to compete. It would be nice to see the American company use MV’s superior technology to get themselves back into the road racing fray.