“Harley has no plans to enter MotoGP but two decades ago it did”
MAT OXLEY
Harley-Davidson – the global king of chugging cruisers, beloved by Hells Angels – contesting the MotoGP world championship? You’ve got to be kidding, right?! But surely that’s no weirder than luxury car manufacturer Cadillac’s desire to enter Formula 1, which was recently announced by former F1 world champion Mario Andretti and General Motors.
Harley currently has no plans to enter MotoGP but two decades ago the Milwaukee company certainly did. Why? Because some Harley executives were worried that the marque’s ageing customer demographic – riding old-school V-twin cruisers, choppers and tourers – would eventually cause their sales to shrink disastrously. At the turn of the century the motorcycling world was in love with highperformance superbikes, so these executives believed that this is where they would find their customers of the future.