Once the calendar turns to March I expect the weather to allow me to get out my two wheeled treasures and put on some early season miles. This year the bikes are still in storage, but my motorcycling passion has led me to researching some information on where my favorite brands of bikes are produced. President Trump has made a lot of racket about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America and imposing steep tariffs on imports, so I wanted to learn more about BMW and Harley Davidson motorcycle production.
BMW made news last fall with the announcement of its first assembly plant in South America. BMW Motorrad is building several variations of their high end bikes in Manaus, Brazil. I only learned of it while paging through a magazine at Barnes and Noble this week. The German bike builder will begin by building the F 700 GS at the new plant. However, there are plans to add manufacturing of the F800R, F800GS, R1200GS, R1200GSA, S1000R and possibly the S1000XR. The company employs 175 workers and will produce 10,000 bikes annually. At this time the bikes are being built for the local market. BMW is building the G310 in India and sources parts from plants throughout Europe, but this is their first production facility in South America.
This is an example of how the global economy operates and how manufacturers cannot be bound by national borders. The demand for BMW motorcycles is strong in South America and the company is responding to meet that demand. Peter Vogel, Production Director of BMW Motorrad in Manaus stated that, "BMW Motorrad Brazil is focusing its strategy on sustainable growth, based on domestic market potential. With our local production, we hope to increase sales significantly. Domestic production, starting with the F 700 GS, guarantees even more availability and fast response to local demand, which is important to the success of our business in Brazil."
The American Motorcycle Association Flat Track season is just around the corner and Harley Davidson has a completely new motorcycle for the popular series. After many seasons racing and winning with the venerable XR 750, the new entry is the water cooled XG 750 R. The new racebike is based on Harley's entry level motorcycle, the Street 750. When the Street was announced a few years ago, it made headlines because it was being produced in India. However, Harley executives made it clear that those bikes would only be sold in India and several countries in Europe. The Street 750 bikes for North American sales are built in Kansas City.
Harley offers 13 different models from each of their Street, Sportster, Dyna, Softail and Touring lines of motorcycles. More than half of these models are produced at the assembly unit at Bawal, in Haryana. These bikes are for local markets and allow Harley Davidson to avoid the high tariffs that India imposes on heavyweight motorcycles.
Anoop Prokash is now the managing director Harley Davidson Canada, but he was the man who spearheaded Harley's introduction of heavyweight motorcycles to India in 2009. He overcame the Indian skepticism of big bikes by organizing rides and parades throughout the country. By showing people that Harleys were meant for Indian roads and the Indian people, Prokash was successful in selling the brand.
Reading about motorcycle manufacturing, wherever it occurs, is interesting. But it is no substitute for riding and I hope to be able write about my first ride of 2017 soon.
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