BMW/Harley

[jm21ddd15]

So, I have a few friends that ride BMW's, and are members of the BMW Owners group, that publishes a monthly BMW magazine. They usually give me the mags, when they are done, as sometimes there are interesting articles. So, I just read with astonishment, in the April 2020 issue, BMW AG, has recently purchased "a majority stake" in Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Apparently, with Harley struggling financially, and their stock being low, BMW saw an opportunity, to purchase at low cost, and this gives BMW a significant opportunity, to increase there sales and distribution, thru the existing Harley dealerships, world wide. I never saw this coming, and many BMW owners didn't either.
The article goes on to say BMW has met with Wisconsin Governor, and is building a new corporate office, in Wisconsin. Further in the article, It quotes Hans Gruber, BMW's director of acquisitions, says the move will allow BMW to control the future of Harley, by limiting the production of competing models, as those seen to be direct competition to BMW's upcoming R18. Also, the possibility of the Harley "Pan American", a powerful bike that could ruin the BMW R1250 GS sales, that BMW officials were ready to do anything necessary to stop that possibility form happening.
So, maybe some of you already knew this, but it was news to me. So, sometime in the future, BMW's , will be in Harley shops. Never thought I'd see that.

[billsim]

Looked for the news and found that this has been an April Fools item since 2011.
Not saying it won't happen, but it has not happened yet.

[DaWadd]

Wow, that's interesting. :shock:

[Jhox]

It quotes Hans Gruber, BMW's director of acquisitions, says the move will allow BMW to control the future of Harley, by limiting the production of competing models, as those seen to be direct competition to BMW's upcoming R18. Also, the possibility of the Harley "Pan American", a powerful bike that could ruin the BMW R1250 GS sales, that BMW officials were ready to do anything necessary to stop that possibility form happening.
So, maybe some of you already knew this, but it was news to me. So, sometime in the future, BMW's , will be in Harley shops. Never thought I'd see that.



Hans Gruber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Gruber_(character)

[jm21ddd15]

Looked for the news and found that this has been an April Fools item since 2011.
Not saying it won't happen, but it has not happened yet.

Well, you may be correct, however, it IS published in the BMW owner of America magazine. Sure sounds authentic.

[jm21ddd15]

So, I'm curious
where you saw it was an April Fools prank. I just did a google search, and there were several articles about it. Time will tell.

[xgringo]

Hopefully Bilism is right. Here is a post from 2011 on a Bmw Forum.


https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?52167-BMW-announces-takeover-of-Harley-Davidson

[billsim]

It appears in a forum for BMW owners back in 2011, but nothing in the regular news or the company websites indicating such a major acquisition.
Would think that this would be a major story and would be headlines everywhere.

[Travelor]

It appears in a forum for BMW owners back in 2011, but nothing in the regular news or the company websites indicating such a major acquisition.
Would think that this would be a major story and would be headlines everywhere.

OMG, Bilsim is right. It's an April Fools joke. BMW MOA does one every year. I mean, really, think about it. Why would one of the few (if not the only) motorcycle manufacturer who is actually growing sales want to get involved with H/D? H/D dealers around me are struggling big time - one large group of dealers is laying people off and closing stores. Way overextended. The K1600B and Grand America is BMW's biggest success story in years, and the majority of the sales of those bikes are to H/D riders.

[rdbonds]

Ah, good one by the BMWOA folks. :)

In a former life I worked with some pretty Die-Hard (pun intended) Harley guys...HD Bar and Shield tattoos, the works. We'd occasionally draft up news articles claiming that Honda had bought into HD and leave them laying about. We would even draw up "Honda Davidson" tattoo edits as ideas for the guys, much to their chagrin. It never failed to get a good rise. All in good fun.

[jm21ddd15]

Ya, could very well be a gag. Doesn't really matter to me, I don't have a Harley or a BMW, and have no plans to get either one. Just was an interesting article.

[1911]

Yeah, Hans Gruber was a Bad Ass, he had an H&K P7.

[OlyF6B]

"Hans Gruber" is the big tip-off... reminds me that I should go back and re-watch "Die Hard' (for the million'th time)

[unsub]

If the story were true it would mean Harley Davidson would go from expensive and unreliable to expensive and unreliable to the 3rd power with a German twist. All that marriage would produce is a BM...with no Winners

[valkmc]

Harley actually built a BMW copy during WWII. The military wanted a shaft drive motorcycle. I got the chance to see one once. An older gentleman I worked with for a while had one. Harley only built 1000 and supposedly stop building them because of the success of The Jeep. Here is a pic of one.
7419 7421

The one I got to see was reconditioned in original form and actually ran quite well. The old guy told me he would go into biker bars and start talking about HD's with shaft drive and make a few bets for beers then take the crowd into the parking lot and drink for free. Of course, he always had the bike on a trailer but would start it up for everyone. Sorry if this is off track for the thread. The history teacher and bordem of teaching at home made it hard to resist.

Edited to add a pic of the HD XA reconditioned!

[1911]

If Harley built a water-cooled shaft drive, they'd start making money..............

[woody]

Here is a link that show's one running. It also says that they sold some to Russia. this could explain why Russia does not get along with the west. Like many people it was probably their first and last HD buy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxbTq5ttWY

[valkmc]

Here is a link that show's one running. It also says that they sold some to Russia. this could explain why Russia does not get along with the west. Like many people it was probably their first and last HD buy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxbTq5ttWY

That's funny!!!:cheers:

[Travelor]

Harley actually built a BMW copy during WWII. The military wanted a shaft drive motorcycle. I got the chance to see one once. An older gentleman I worked with for a while had one. Harley only built 1000 and supposedly stop building them because of the success of The Jeep. Here is a pic of one.
7419 7421

The one I got to see was reconditioned in original form and actually ran quite well. The old guy told me he would go into biker bars and start talking about HD's with shaft drive and make a few bets for beers then take the crowd into the parking lot and drink for free. Of course, he always had the bike on a trailer but would start it up for everyone. Sorry if this is off track for the thread. The history teacher and bordem of teaching at home made it hard to resist.

Edited to add a pic of the HD XA reconditioned!

They have a BMW look alike from WWll at the H/D museum in Milwaukee.

[Az Wingrider]

In regards to the Harley Davidson XA. At the beginning of our involvement in WWII the army felt they needed a desert warfare motorcycle. The Army gave Harley and Indian contracts to build and develop a desert motorcycle. Harley's effort was the XA. It was a horizontally opposed flathead twin with a foot shifted 4 speed transmission, shaft drive and a plunger rear suspension. Harley admits this was a close copy of the BMW R-71 that the German army was equipped with. By the time got the XA in production things had changed, the war had left Africa and moved on to Europe and the Army had decided the jeep was better suited to their needs of a light duty utility vehicle, the Army no longer wanted a desert motorcycle. The Army took the 1,000 that it had contracted for and total production was 1,011 units. This was the only Harley ever with a shaft drive and the first Harley with a foot shifter and the first Harley with a rear suspension but not the first opposed twin. No XAs were shipped overseas.

Harley did build approximately 90,000 motorcycles during WWII. The vast majority of these (about 80,000) were the WLA and WLC models. The WLA was a 45 cubic inch flathead V-twin with a 3 speed transmission, a tank shifter and foot clutch and no rear suspension. It was a very durable motorcycle and had a compression ratio of 5 to 1. It would run on very poor gas and even kerosene. 27,670 of these bikes and enough spare parts to build 5,000 more were sent to Russia under the Lend Lease Program. Since USSR has opened their economy in the early 1990s a large number of WLAs and parts for them have shown up on the market.

As regards the URAL motorcycle currently made in Russia it is also a close copy of the BMW R-71. In 1938 Russia purchased 5 R-71s in Sweden and reverse engineered them to create the URAL. In 1944 URAL changed from a flat head to an overhead valve configuration. After the war they began civilian production and although the still look very similar they have been modernised and upgraded a lot in the last 10 years

If you would like to see a Harley XA look me up the next time you come to Phoenix, we have a very nice one in the Buddy Stubbs Museum.

Regards
Az Wingrider