Stardate 20030804.1302

(On Screen): An American institution is looking to expand its sales in Europe. Harley Davidson is the quintessential American motorcycle maker, and for about 3 decades it was the only one (though that has changed). Once there were many but all the others went out of business, fallen in commercial competition with Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Suzuki, Yamaha.

Harley survived and prospered. It was seen by Americans as the ultimate motorcycle, the one you bought when you refused to make compromises. Harley earned a degree of brand loyalty that few companies could even dream of. Harley wasn't just a bike, it was a lifestyle. One didn't just buy a Harley, one became Harley. Harley wasn't just a brand, it was a brotherhood.

The rider and bike became one; the man and the bike indicating the same thing. Harleys were designed the way American men saw themselves, deep down. How many other companies have customers who wear the corporate logo as tattoos? (Well, um...)

Harleys are big. Harleys are powerful. There's nothing subtle about them. They're gutsy, testosterone-pumped. They're loud. They're muscular. They're overbuilt. They're blatant. They make no compromises. They don't apologize for being what they are. They don't fit in; they're impossible to ignore. Some Europeans understand Harley and buy them for the same reason Americans do, but not many and Harley's sales in Europe have been low.

So Harley is going to change all that on bikes they're designing to appeal to the broader European market.

In an effort to appeal to European motorbike tastes, Harley-Davidson has been heavily promoting a more streamlined sports bike called the V-Rod. In general, Europeans prefer lighter bikes ahead of the large cruising bikes popular in the US.

Adapting to a market is good marketing, but what price victory if you lose your soul? Harley Davidson is changing everything that makes Harley Davidson what it is. To satisfy Europe, they will make them smaller, lighter, wimpier, less powerful, quieter, less in-your-face, more effeminate. Harley is trying to find its inner wuss.

These bikes will be Americans the way that Europeans wish Americans were, more like European men. And they're probably going to sell extremely well, as European men everywhere take pleasure in riding on a castrated American bike.

And they'll never know what they're really missing.