• In early 2020, with the company under stress from Wall Street and with a demographic challenge looming as it struggled to attract new riders, Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich stepped down, replaced on an acting basis by board member Jochen Zeitz, who eventually was named CEO.
• Zeitz swiftly moved to replace Harley’s growth strategy with a retrenchment around core products.
• Harley has been here before, and Zeitz’s strategy — “Rewire,” as he calls it — could work, but it isn’t without risk.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Former Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich had an impossible job — and now no longer does, replaced earlier this year by Jochen Zeitz, onetime CEO of Puma and longtime Harley board member.

He wasted no time first as interim CEO, when on a first-quarter earnings conference call with analysts, he abruptly reversed course on Levatich’s “More Roads” transformation plan.

“We’ve continued to move forward with the highest potential elements of More Roads, but our strategy must be reassessed,” Zeitz said.

“As a result of my observations and assessment, I’ve concluded that we need to take significant actions and rewire the company now in terms of priorities, execution, operating model and strategy to drive sustained profit and long term growth. We’re calling it The Rewire and it is our playbook for the next few months, leading to a new five-year strategic plan which we’ll share when visibility to the future returns.”

Soon after, the Harley board made Zeitz’s appointment permanent.

Here’s what Harley’s new direction means for the American icon:

Harley-Davidson has been building motorcycles in the USA for 117 years. In many ways, it’s the definitive American company, with a product that combines both its own values and America’s.

Former CEO Matt Levatich hoped to ensure that heritage for another 100 years, so he undertook a transformational plan that would increase ridership, expand to new markets, and attack new opportunities.

There’s more at Business insider at YahooNews. So much for doom and gloom. Harley will be back as the country comes back stronger than ever before. Hell, drive-in movies are back, cruise nights and girls on roller-skates delivering food. This is too cool.–Bandit

from https://www.gurufocus.com

SVP & CFO of Harley-davidson Inc (30-Year Financial, Insider Trades) John A Olin (insider trades) bought 13,500 shares of HOG on 05/13/2020 at an average price of $19.02 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $256,770.

Harley-Davidson Inc produces and sells heavyweight motorcycles, as well as offers motorcycle parts, accessories, and related services. It operates in two segments, Motorcycles and Related Products, and Financial Services. Harley-Davidson Inc has a market cap of $3.01 billion; its shares were traded at around $19.66 with a P/E ratio of 8.48 and P/S ratio of 0.58. The dividend yield of Harley-Davidson Inc stocks is 7.66%. Harley-Davidson Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 8.70% over the past ten years. GuruFocus has detected 2 severe warning signs with Harley-Davidson Inc.

Directors and Officers Recent Trades:

• Chairman and Acting President Jochen Zeitz bought 51,020 shares of HOG stock on 05/13/2020 at the average price of $19.52. The price of the stock has increased by 0.72% since.
• Chairman and Acting President Jochen Zeitz bought 97,850 shares of HOG stock on 05/08/2020 at the average price of $21.26. The price of the stock has decreased by 7.53% since.

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com

At the beginning of April, Harley-Davidson announced the winner of this year’s King of Kings competition, a mashup of the best 15 previous winners of the Battle of the Kings. Its name is Apex Predator, and with it we’re kicking off a series that will bring to light over the following days all the participants.

Known in the industry as BOTK, Battle of the Kings kicked off in 2015 as a custom build competition for Harley dealers worldwide. It is, if you like, a competition of ideas Harley itself was incapable of having, but recognized by the bike maker as possibly game changing for the custom industry.

The rules of the competition are simple: the base motorcycle needs to be a Harley-Davidson bike, the customization must not cost over €6,000 ($6,500) and must have at least half of the parts used taken from the Harley inventory, and the final bike must be road legal.

Over the years many competed in the Battle of Kings, but in April 2020 Harley crowned one of them ruler of the pack. And as fate would have it, that King of Kings is the Apex Predator.

Built by a dealer in Mexico called Harley-Davidson Queretaro, the Apex is based on the Sportster XR1200 with the stock engine, and it is supposed to be a “retro-futuristic XR-based track monster meets street fighter.”

Featuring custom parts like front fork covers, dual air intakes, and wave-style brake rotors, the bike does not shy away from making use of materials not often used in the motorcycle industry, like the Alcantara on the seat.

Aside from the visual upgrades made to it, the Sportster also got a full color TFT Bluetooth instrument panel, and a hand built 2-1-2 exhaust system.

As for the Sportster line, it was introduced by Harley back in 1957 and has been produced continuously ever since. The XR1200 has been around globally since 2006. We reckon not many would mind if it were to sell in the Apex Predator configuration.

Our Team at Redmond HQ and our partners around the world have been super busy, remain healthy and continue to take the necessary precautions to operate safely. We hope you and your close ones are weathering these times as well as possible and finding those silver linings along the way. 🙂

Here’s the latest news:

The factory in Irbit is reopening this month and will resume production with initial shipments to Europe and Japan.
Ramping up will take time and  the first shipments heading to US will be arriving sometime mid to late July. US and Canadian dealers currently have good inventory levels but by mid June we expect some pre-order situations. The sooner you let your dealer know what you are looking for, the more precise we can plan production and get your bike delivered quickly. Please plan ahead. Dealers have never been set up better for remote orders and safe deliveries!

May retail registrations in the US have been very strong, almost the same level as last year. This is great news! It’s great that folks are feeling optimistic and plan on riding. As a result our New Jersey warehouse bike inventory is quickly thinning.  We have  approximately 15-20 day supply to support back-to-normal sales levels should the upward  trend continue. Our focus now is to figure out how to replenish inventory as quickly as possible. Stay tuned for further updates!

Our Parts Department has been super busy and working fast to make sure we keep you on the road and/or occupied in your garage. The new Parts Drop Shipments service  and waived drop shipping fees have been extremely popular.

And, last but not the least…. 90 Days Warranty Extension* 

All Ural motorcycles currently under warranty will automatically have three months (90 days) factory warranty extension. All new motorcycle sales registered during the period between March 25 and June 30, 2020 will also have automatic 90-day warranty extension on top of standard 2 year manufacturer warranty.

Stay Healthy and Safe!

The Team at Ural

* For US, Canada and Australia markets.

Current Offers at https://www.imz-ural.com/offers

May Specials:
$500 Off On 2019 Models
$500 Trade In Rebate

CONGRATULATION! Freedom still matters!–Bandit

by Abhilasha Singh from https://www.financialexpress.com

The method to update software for Honda Gold Wing is planned to be available in the mid of June 2020. Honda has said it will introduce Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration to more models eventually.

Honda Gold Wing cruiser motorcycle will now come with Android Auto, the update for which will be available by June this year. Android Auto will be integrated with the current-model Gold Wing allowing customers with Android smartphones will be able to use application services such as music, phone calls and messaging. The method to update software is planned to be available in the mid of June 2020. Honda has said it will introduce Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration to more models eventually.

The Gold Wing GL1000 was first introduced in the North American market in 1975 and has been the flagship for Honda for over four decades now. In October 2017, the Gold Wing launched in North America became the world’s first motorcycle with Apple CarPlay integration. By connecting their smartphones using either of the operating systems, customers can use features like navigation and application-specific services.

Android Auto will offer a simplified interface and easy-to-use voice actions to Android users. Honda says that the system has been designed to minimise distraction. Android Auto makes it easy to access music, media, and messaging apps on the motorcycle. With your Google Assistant on Android Auto, riders can use functions while keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the bar, using voice.

Gold Wing riders will now have Google Maps on their instrument cluster screens along with streaming YouTube Music. Both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity systems are coming to more bikes in the future, so this will perhaps not remain a one-off upgrade for long. But it sure points to how keen Google is to put Android Auto at more places.

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com

Absolutely awesome. These are the words used by a German custom bike garage to describe the Specula, a motorcycle the like of which the European continent had never been gifted with before.

Used to seeing incredible motorcycle builds coming from the U.S., the world is at times blind when it comes to noticing other incredible machines rolling out garage doors elsewhere in the world. In Europe, for instance, the last couple of decades have seen some stunning bikes roll out into the sunset.

One of the main custom garages there is Thunderbike, a German group that started out as a repair shop for Japanese motorcycles, and then moved on to customizing Harleys and making their own frames. The bike in the gallery above, called Spectacula, is part of the latter category.

The design is 15 years old, but despite not being the newest kid on the block, it’s still one of the most extreme.

Unlike many of the Thunderbike designs we talked about recently, the Spectacula is not powered by a Harley-Davidson engine, but uses a TP-Pro one. It is rated at 120 ps and resides in the middle of a custom frame that has been built from scratch, as did every other part of the motorcycle, for that matter.

Shaped like no other bike out there, the Spectacula carefully hides all of the working parts so they are not visible: throttle, clutch, brake, gearshift and air suspension, all seem to have not been visibly linked to the fork or frame.

It took the Thunderbike guys six months to bring this project from the drawing board into the real world, with a full month of that time being spent on carefully applying 28 layers of paint on the bike’s body.

The Spectacula is not for sale, as it was intended only as a show build.

Will the Tesla CEO make good on this threat?

–the Drive.com