Harley-Davidson World

It's the night of August 22nd in 2017. All the Harley Davidson dealers It was that time of year again, at the end of s The environment was buzzing. There were a ton of r Everyone knew the 2018 model year marked the 115th anniversary for Harley Davidson. There were a lot of r It was the second year of Harley Davidson's new big twin engine, the Milwaukee 8, so there were r With all the r I arrived in Los Angeles The 2018 model year was without a doubt the most significant model year launch in recent For a lot of reasons, there were a lot of amazing bikes launched that year, but also because a huge, quickly growing subculture mostly surrounded by dyno riders was majorly disrupted. For about 26 years, Harley Davidson produced the dyno and the soft tail side by side. The soft tail was launched in 1984, then the dyno was launched in 1991, and they were both launched for different reasons to address two different styles that motorcycle riders were choosing at the time. However, as time went on, they were both mid-sized cruisers and they served a lot of the same purposes. There was a lot of overlap between the two models, and the technology on both the soft tail and the dyno chassis was getting long in the tooth. They were both due for an upgrade, but instead of redesigning both the soft tail and the dyno chassis, they decided to put all their eggs in one basket and just develop one mid-sized cruiser chassis. And here's where arguably the biggest marketing blunder of all time was made. They decided to call it the soft tail, w You have It looks But by choosing the soft tail name over the dyno name, Harley Davidson decided to throw away all that brand equity. All those dyno bros whose identity was wrapped up in the D word. Dynna. It wasn't until moments after the show ended and the smoke cleared that I realized the dyno was gone forever. I don't feel great about no new dyno's guys. I'm a little bit sad, but I'm going to reserve my comment about the dyno's until I actually ride the new bike. I'm t I there's no more dyno. I that night the dyno nation became un A social media s I'm going to go back to the dyno line to combine many of the dyno's with the soft tail line. So meaning there would be no more dyno miles. They'd all be converted to soft tails. Now as you would expect the dyno community And it was a pretty major commotion. Anyone who had a dyno or Everyone had somet The dyno's are gone. Can you believe that? It's gone. There are no more dyno's. Just that entire family or line is not going to be there from 2018 anymore. And yeah really that'shocking isn't it? I started noticing the dyno's rise to stardom around 2010. For a long time the dyno was just another mid-sized cruiser where if you didn't want a sportster and you didn't want a big bike But then around 2010 a lot of the famous freestyle Moto X riders that were real popular in the late 90's and the early 2000'started moving over to the dyno platform. The dyno started getting popular in Hollywood with shows Before. You don't ever sit on another man's bike asshole. Where you had it? No place special. Me too. What's often times referred to as the dyno bro culture was really rapidly rising at t It was t And all of t It wasn't because of an ad campaign. It wasn't a planned targeted customer by the motor company. It was just grass roots naturally happening. And it was around they weren't doing enough to target the future generation of riders. And then t Retro style FXRT fairings. Retro style FXDXT T Sport fairings. Tall Moto style risers and bars. Aftermarket T Sport bags. Step up seats. Two into one pipes. And then you combine that with the Americana of the V twin sound look and feel. You have a winning formula. You combine that with a lot of the freestyle Moto riders coming into the Harley Davidson world and the introduction of social media You had every dyno bro that knew how popping wheelies and doing burnouts on social media. So the culture and the style just started to grow And then in 2016 Harley Davidson made a big move to tip their hat to they came out with what I feel The low rider S. The low rider S was named Motorcycle Cruiser of the Year by many of the motorcycle publications Dealers And so right when the dyno craze was peaking and it looked Yes, you read the title correctly. Harley Davidson has killed the dyno. Who can say where the road goes? They're all soft tails now. First let me just say they are all ugly as hell. I know most Harley's are ugly stock but the only one that's kind of hard for me to hate is the fat bob which b 2017 to me looked It was looking On the surface level, I t It looks like Harley Davidson dyno was building moment But I the wheels were put into motion to design the fact of the matter is the new soft tail platform that came out in 2018 is far superior to the dyno in every way. It's on average 30 pounds lighter, it's way more powerful, puts out less heat, it's 90% stiffer than the old dyno frame so it handles better, it So overall, you can't see it here but of course if you're on t It is hands down the best cruiser lineup that we've ever built. Awesome, so the dyno guys will be okay then, is that what you're saying here? The dyno guys have not I know it's kind of a regional t What I would say is it doesn't say dyno on it and it doesn't have exposed rear shocks. If you can get past that and I can get your butt on a seat and take t And if you're wondering if these bikes will do wheelies, yes they will. And now that we're seven years removed from the death of the dyno, I think a lot of the would be dyno buyers have gotten over the fact that the name is no longer there but the DNA that started with Willy G's 1971 Superglide is still in bikes But at the time, in 2018 and 2019, it didn't really matter. The damage had been done. After the 2018 model year announcement, the used dyno market went ballistic. Used dyno's were selling way over the original MSRP. It wasn't uncommon to see dyno's going for over $20,000 in the used market. But And unsurprisingly, t When the FXR first came out, people said it looked too Japanese. And then when the dyno came out, they said that it wasn't as good as the FXR. And just And we all know some riders who are a little salty. You are a little salty. They ride a Harley-Davidson to express freedom in her respect. Through style, through performance, through an expression of pure individualism. What do they ride? Well, let'start with Lowrider. I've asked myself personally over the last seven years, what would I have done differently? And although I've lost a lot of sleep t Harley-Davidson went with the rip the Band-Aid off as quickly as possible, but there aren't a whole lot of good options. Do you call it a dyno instead of a soft tail? The elements of the frame really have not There's no external shocks. So then I asked myself, well, should they have produced the dyno side by side with the new soft tail frame? Much Maybe, but I don't know what the internal costs are of the motor company. Was it too expensive to run both of those production lines side by side? And when the dyno guys discovered that the new soft tail frame was way better than the old dyno frame, would they have bought soft tails instead? Is it in Harley-Davidson's best interest to produce an inferior product that has a lot of overlap in its use case? Right next to their brand new product? Personally, I don't I t So then you ask, should they have upgraded the dyno chassis and made a brand new dyno and made a brand new soft tail and sold them side by side? But once again, I'm not a bean counter and I don't know what the financials look And so I just don't know how t But the legacy of the dyno lives on. I still have people coming into the shop today asking for a dyno. And a lot of times that's the word that they use to reference the new lowrider S or the term they use to reference the street bob. The word dyno has kind of taken on a new all-encompassing meaning, much The word dyno kind of refers to a badass mid-sized Harley-Davidson cruiser. So now that the past is the past and Can the dyno be resurrected in some form or fas I personally feel What that would look Does that mean Harley-Davidson needs to build a new frame with two outboard external shocks? I'm not an engineer and I'm not in charge of the books. But all I do know for sure is Harley-Davidson shouldn't sleep on all the brand equity they've built up in the dyno. The dyno nation is hungry and you gotta bring it back.