Armen
Serious Thumper
Online
Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey
Posts: 1452
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My guess is that they were looking for an excuse to build in Europe to cut down shipping costs, and perhaps local tariffs. They have factories in Brazil, Tailand, and India already. In the 90's I took a tour of the HD factory in York Pa. The tour guide proudly recited that the bikes had been more than 50% foreign made in the dark days of AMF, but now they were over 95% made in USA. Hmm, I thought... The forks and shocks were made by Showa in Japan. The starters by Hitachi in Japan. Carbs, Keihin, Japan. Wheels, Australia. Brake rotors and switch gear, Japan. Pistons, Mahle, Germany. Relays, Bosch, Germany. And so on. Seemed like a lot of parts to only make up 5%, either in quantity, weight, or value. In those days I was still writing for the bike magazines. Asked my bud, the editor how HD could spew such manure and get away with it? Seems they used 'fuzzy math'. Counted the forks as 1 part, counted each bolt on the motor as individual parts. Makes me laugh when people get upset that the bikes aren't 100% American. They haven't been for many decades.
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