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Harley, why no Chopper?

ultra pearl

ultra pearl

Member
I was wondering, with the big demand for custom choppers, and given the success of the Honda Fury, why Harley has never made an oem chopper of similar style. Or is the Rocker C their answer.
Any thoughts?
 
Ultra Pearl,

I am guessing marketing. I have a 25 year old nephew who is selling some 650Triumph rocket so he can get a Blacked out HD. Not sure the model but he says it is exactly what he wants. Kid lives in S.Cal and I am guessing HD is trying to capture younger riders. Looks like they are starting. Me I like long haul and Touring is al I can use...600 miles is a short day.

Dusty82
 
ultra pearl said:
I was wondering, with the big demand for custom choppers, and given the success of the Honda Fury, why Harley has never made an oem chopper of similar style. Or is the Rocker C their answer.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Dusty82 said:
Ultra Pearl, I am guessing marketing. .. .. .. .. .. .. Dusty82
Click to expand...

To a certain extent the Rocker C was a shot in that direction, though I heard they were discontinuing it due to lack of sales. Honda had some success with the Fury, but would have had much more if they did something with that rear tire (totally ridiculous for a chopper) and the tank is just too small for functional riding (even for a chop).

I'm agreeing with Dusty on this one, HD seems to have their marketing spot on as to what will move and what won't. If Honda and Kawa could ever get their style design marketing going as well as HD then they would have something then.

There is a small market for chops though, even more so if you can produce one cheap enough.
 
Rocker and CVO models are MOCO attempt to address "special" concerns...! Their marketing response probably is the reason why no activity in such a specialized area. Sportster was the result of owners "chopping" (modify with idea that less is more...hence the name chop). Eventually it gave way from the minimalist approach to an aritisan approach...adding the chrome and custom paint crowd, then the performance and function tech. The chopper has evolved into a custom...so full circle, now that the new age "black/dark" custom has become the new standard. Chopped now means "basic"...all the other stuff is added on by the owner...H-D has stepped back and opened the door to accessories and aftermarket mods! :s
 
A big part of owning a chopper is having something that nobody else has. If you make a cookie cutter chopper, you end up with a gimmicky harley. Not very geniuine to either Harley Davidson or choppers.
 
True choppers are built by their owners, not cookie cutter "custom" bikes turned out by a shop that does nothing else.
 
It's true that chopper's look cool but they are just not practical to the typical motorcycle rider. In fact if you plan on riding much at all common sense will tell you not to get a chopper. I also agree that the whole appeal with a custom chopper is that it is unique and not turned out of a factory. Personally I hate the Fury. To me it's just Honda turning out a mass produced piece of junk with a cool paint job. If you want a custom chopper either build one yourself or hire somebody to build it. Otherwise I say stick to something more practical.
 
ultra pearl said:
I was wondering, with the big demand for custom choppers, and given the success of the Honda Fury, why Harley has never made an oem chopper of similar style. Or is the Rocker C their answer.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you look at some of the Vintage type bikes Harley has sold lately and in the past that are really cool bikes and discontinued them due to lacking sales. I do not think a chopper that would meet Harleys quality would be at all affordable to sell or market.
 
I believe Harley offered a custom chopper and only high volume dealerships were granted the ability to sell them to the public. The chopper was called ThunderMountain. The whole bike was 98% harley, the only item not a harley part was the custom paint job. The choppers came with the 103 motor.

the little detail that the dealer left out is the owner can only get the thundermountain serviced at dealerships that sell the thundermountain. This may have changed over the years but I ended up with a 85 mile ride just to get it to an approved dealer. I actually went to local dealers and they said no way are we working on that, they said their lifts were not long enough. I had mine for 2 years and was glad to get rid of it the chopper did not hold up as well as regular harleys do.

my .02 cents.
 
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