After a 17-year run, the Harley-Davidson V-Rod is finally going to the great motorcycle rally in the sky, as the Bar & Shield brand is quietly dismissing the V-Rod from its 2018 motorcycle lineup.
The V-Rod has always been the black sheep in the Harley-Davidson motorcycle offering, with the motorcycle featuring a high-tech liquid-cooled engine that was developed in collaboration with German automaker Porsche.
The problem with the V-Rod was also its biggest strength: it was unlike anything else in the Harley-Davidson lineup. The Harley-Davidson V-Rod line eschewed everything that was central to the core Harley-Davidson product attributes.
If you were a motorcyclist that wasn’t already interested in the 31 flavors of cruiser that Harley-Davidson has built its core business around, then it provided a performance-focused entry point into the Harley-Davidson brand.
However as we can see from the 2018 Harley-Davidson motorcycle lineup, the Bar & Shield brand has doubled-down on selling us the same “new” motorcycles that it has built its business around for the past several decades.
With sales dropping, and interest in Harley-Davidson motorcycles dying off with the Baby Boomer generation, it is interesting that Harley-Davidson is going back to the well for its product portfolio. Time will tell how that works out for them.
So long V-Rod. We shall miss thee.
Source: Cyril Huse Blog
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