STURGIS, HARLEY, MV AGUSTA AND THE NEW V-ROD

“Welcome to Sturgis, the City of Riders! Nestled at the base of the northeastern Black Hills in extreme western South Dakota, Sturgis is not only home to the world’s largest motorcycle rally but a growing community with thriving industry and wonderful recreation.”

That’s part of the refreshingly self-serving and predictable greeting on the Sturgis website, www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com.  The mayor of Sturgis, South Dakota, the Honorable Maury LaRue, and his police force, last week welcomed tens of thousands of bikers, hangers-on, TV crews, presidential candidates with Secret Service entourages, and designers and engineers from every major bike-maker in the world on the lookout for that “next big thing” of home-made accessory or add-on which just might become standard in motorcycle-dom. And more than a few engineering-types from car-makers, too.

In 1936, so the story goes, Clarence “Pappy” Hoel purchased an Indian Motorcycle Franchise in Sturgis, SD. That year, the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club was formed. Two years later, the rally begins; The first Sturgis Rally, known as the Black Hills Classic was held on August 14th with a race of 9 participants and a small audience. My, how times have changed …

But what better time to take a look at a great new Harley-Davidson model and let everyone know that the Harley museum is now open on some 20 acres smack in downtown Milwaukee, WI (but bikers already knew that). Get more info on the bike and the museum at www.harley-davidson.com. Before I forget, just another small bit of news: Harley has purchased MV Agusta, makers of bikes so exotic and race-worthy that inexpensive versions of their non-race street versions start at about $25,000.

Click below for more on the new Harley, MV Agusta and the future of that company, now as part of H-D, the Sturgis Rally and more pictures.

Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, John Surtees and perhaps the most famous motorcycle road racer of all time, Giacomo Agostini all rode MVs. (A street version of the MV which is featured in "Batman - The Dark Knight;" Hershey is running several Batman promotions, with this MV F4CC as a grand prize).

While considered the most elegant and fastest motorcycles of their time, the company never achieved the victories in the financial world needed to keep their factory open. Imagine Ferrari as a much smaller company, one which made only race cars, not street-legal cars, wasn’t deeply involved in R&D projects for other car-makers around the world and was constantly losing money. That would describe much of MV Agusta’s history.

The company began a decline in the early 1970s and by the ‘80s, it had ceased making motorcycles altogether. Cagiva resurrected MV in 1991 and by 1997 produced the first of new machines.

Cagiva also owned the Norwegian Husqvarna brand, but, heavily indebted again, MV was sold to Malaysian carmaker Proton, then to GEVI SpA, a finance company, for a token payment of one euro (USD$1.52), excluding debt. In July, 2007, Proton sold Husqvarna to BMW. (MV Agusta Brutale 920).

And then came Harley (how many of you remember NBC’s 1969 series, Then Came Bronson? It starred Michael Parks and his Harley and was sort-of a two-wheel, one-man version of another, earlier NBC hit, Route 66. Then Came Bronson also featured Michael J. Pollard; a great character actor, he played CW Moss, the guy who ratted on Bonnie and Clyde, in the 1967 movie).

A year later, this finance outfit sold MV as fast as Harley could write a check for $39 million and assumed MV’s debt of $70 million.

For their part, Harley says they will keep MV as close to its roots as  possible, with that “going out of business” sign, perpetually hanging in the MV factory window, a thing of the past. We shall see.

Now for the new bike.

A lot of motorcycle engine technologies have found their way into vehicles with four wheels. Two quick examples are fiber reinforced metals, first used on the connecting rods in Honda motorcycles, and five-valves per cylinder, called Genesis when that system was first featured on Yamaha bikes. The story of the new machine includes Roush, Porsche and Cosworth.

In 1995, Harley decided to build a performance cruiser around a derivative of the liquid-cooled, 60-degree V-twin VR1000 racing engine campaigned on the Superbike circuit, originally developed with Cosworth and Roush. Liquid cooling was used, for more power per specific displacement and easier control of emissions and noise.

Harley partnered with Porsche to develop the V-ROD street engine, loosely based on the VR1000 race engine.

Harley's new 2008 VRSCAW V-Rod has more displacement and optional ABS (BMW was first to equip    motorcycles with anti-lock brakes). The 1,250-cc engine makes around 121-hp, according to AutoWeek, and its liquid-cooled, 60-degree V-twin is some of the heft of this 637-lb dry weight bike, almost as much as my 1963 Volkswagen Bug weighed. Quarter-mile times are expected to be in the 11.8 second range, around 114 mph.

I think I spent about $300 for my ’63 Bug in 1971; this newest VROD two-wheeler goes out the door at $16,695. And competitively speaking, that’s not too bad at all, certainly in the right ball park.

Hope all who went to Sturgis enjoyed it, and were able to make bail or were even released on your own recognizance. See you there, in person, next year!

Comments

[harley motorcycles]

Nice thought.
Tia smith

[Layla]

Those bikes are gorgeous. It would be nice to own one of those classics.