Fast Motorcycle Industry News

Harley-Davidson Workers Getting Physical Care at Work. More and more companies are offering fitness programs to their workers. Reason is of course the growing number of older plant workers in their baby boomer years getting injured while performing physical work. By 2018, 24 percent of US workers will be 55 or older. Now factory workers can drop by before or after their shifts, or even on their breaks during business hours. All this for the benefit of Harley-Davidson reporting declining numbers of injuries, fewer lost work days and older, more experienced, workers working longer.

2011 BMW Motorcycle Sales Strongest Ever. With a progression of 6.4% over 2010, delivering 104,286 versus 98,047 the former year, BMW reported its record-breaking sales ever. The previous highest year in BMW sales was in 2007 when the German manufacturer delivered 102,467 bikes. I wish that all manufacturers could announce in the next days sales equal or superior to 2007, the year before we entered a long and severe recession.

Polaris Schedules 4th Quarter And Full Year 2011 Financial Results On January 25th. The company will hold a conference call and webcast at 9:00 a.m. Central Time on the same day to discuss the release. The call will be hosted by Scott Wine, CEO, Bennett Morgan, President and COO and Mike Malone, Vice President Finance and CFO. A slide presentation and link to the webcast will be posted on the Polaris Investor Relations web site. To listen to the conference call by phone, dial 800-374-6475 in the U.S. and Canada, or 973-200-3967 Internationally.

5 Responses to “Fast Motorcycle Industry News”


  1. 1 BossHawg Jan 14th, 2012 at 9:18 am

    Cyril,

    With Harley-Davidson Workers Getting Physical Care at Work, we are right there with them. We have Treadmills that we encourage all employees to walk on a minimum of 30 minutes daily during work while on the clock. We also strongly promote stretching at our stretching station along with the use of all dolly’s, back braces, hydraulic lifts and lift-gates and personal lifting devices.

    In turn, we have much healthier – uninjured employees (1 employee is 69) that enjoy working for us, and, of course, we have one of the best EMR (Evaluated Modification Risks) Workers-Comp rates in an industry laden with back injuries.

    Learned something very simple from a dear doctor friend that is a sports practitioner…stretch stretch stretch (watch cats when they awaken….every time….the first thing they do…stretch) and cardio.

    Boss Hawg

  2. 2 Luis Jan 14th, 2012 at 10:16 am

    BMW is eating the Japanese alive w/ the S1000RR.

  3. 3 Kirk Perry Jan 14th, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    Replica 1954-1957 U.S.A. Made Straight-Leg Rigid Frames to Taiwan

    The replica straight-leg frame (51-1000) is now made in Taiwan, and there are currently none in-stock at V-Twin.
    My prediction, based on how their new, 1954, 3.5 gallon gas tanks were “packaged”, is one of uniform perfection; and based further on all of the machined surfaces and the pre-fitment of drive train basics that are built into this frame.
    BUT, it can be viewed two ways, imo, the frames being perfect (as in my case) except for the rear tank/motor mount being 3/8 to 1/4″ too far forward, throws off my tanks mount and questions the forward and back travel of the top motor mount bolt and puts the seat post descent in a bind . So, what good is the frame? Born to a life of UPS journeys?

    Did the Taiwan manufacturer take away the idea and sweat equity of the original builder in the USA? To the fledgeling 16 yr. industry effort? Not if Taiwan can box straight leg rigid frames that are fitment-correct, like they can the 3.5 gallon 1954 fuel tanks. The gas tank cartons are sealed and strapped with no intention or need for the box to be opened by anyone other than the purchasing customer. “Taiwan” has it wired, and the niche OHV industry cannot survive handcuffed to the anchor of “parts returns”, imo.

  4. 4 burnout Jan 16th, 2012 at 8:32 am

    Kirk I have yet to see a frame from anyone ( moco included) that did not need some (re) work somewhere on it. Just me I am sure. peace

  5. 5 Kirk Perry Jan 16th, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Anyone? 🙂 mmmmm (skepticism), but wait – until the first shipment from V-Twin® arrives. The welds will be perfect herringbone, which will set them apart from the stick-weld OEM’s.

    Knuckle frames too. Braze-welded at each saddle-fixture on the support crossbar (behind the seat post) of both frame and fender. 🙂 We’ve seen the “impossble-to-make-by-everyone-else on the entire planet” lower valve springs covers and THOSE braze-welds. So, extrapolate those facts on out….. and you get what?

    That’s right. We can now assume that V-Twin® is actually a “compound within a foreign country” The “Harley-Davidson® repop factory (fragmented across the Republic though it may be). There’s nothing slip-shod about their packaging. Even their scary-setting-questional-lose-sleep-at-night (shaky-stem) tappet guide stem-cups, are (double-wrapped) carefully packaged, as if that’s all they ever made.
    V-Twin’s goal, imo, is to eventually eliminate all human contact with their dealers, by providing engineered, site of manufacturing quality-controled parts that are as uniform as a box of Hershey Bars. “Returns” will dwindle.
    No, my friend…. V-Twin® is the non-stoppable machine, that’s quickly out-pacing their bad rep, imo.

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Cyril Huze