Author |
Message |
Tootal
| Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2018 - 12:25 pm: |
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Back in the 2000's I went to the Czech Republik to visit my uncle. I took a train from there to visit a friend in Berlin Germany. I did go to the HD shop in Berlin and bought some T-shirts. Although I knew enough German to get what I wanted it was quite obvious I wasn't German. The lady waiting on me asked me if I'd rather speak English. She was the owner's wife and spoke perfect English. She asked if I was American and I said yes so after getting my shirts she threw in a coffee mug and some key fobs. What was very different from American dealers is that this one had a bar as you walked in the front door. To get to the dealership you had to walk out of the back of the bar. They had Miller on tap! So I myself am guilty of owning way to many HD t-shirts. I will say none of them are new and are all wearing out. I might have to start replacing them with Indian shirts!? |
Crusty
| Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2018 - 10:29 pm: |
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Do like I do. I buy Hanes Pocket Beefy-Ts right from Hanes. They cost somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3 the price of Harley or Indian shirts and you can get them in any color you want. I won't pay extra for the privilege of giving free advertising to a company any more. If they want to give me a shirt for free, I'll wear it, but I sure as hell won't pay them to promote their products. |
Mnscrounger
| Posted on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - 12:16 pm: |
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If they brought back "Buell" I'd be merchandising junkie, and a possible bike customer, but only if they retained Erik on a lucrative consulting basis to make sure products with his name were worthy. I think a "Buell" coffee cup would hold the coffee better when going around corners. One thing for sure I would NEVER buy a Hero branded product. I would also go further out of my way, to trash their reputation to anyone interested in hearing the story. |
Eviled98
| Posted on Saturday, January 20, 2018 - 05:12 pm: |
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Eat your heart out. |
Blake
| Posted on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 06:36 am: |
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I miss Erik; he's a true hero. I hope he's enjoying life. Never give up! |
Anonymous
| Posted on Monday, January 22, 2018 - 05:33 pm: |
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The Hero 250 was close to development completion in Spring of 2015, but Hero's supply chain was not yet up to the task to making it, and their engineering team wasn't ready to finish the 2 percent of development work that was left. The 250 had sound test issues that needed to be worked out, and quality of important components like the crank and transmission weren't there yet from Hero's suppliers. We were pushing for an Italian transmission supplier (world class, and not particularly pricey) but the Indian supplier was so much cheaper that it was a no-go -- but the Indian supplier was no where near the same quality. The crank supplier that Hero had chosen simply was incapable of making the crankshaft to the required dimensions and surface finishes. There were better Indian suppliers for the auto industry, but Hero liked to stay with their preferred suppliers. The only problem there was that they had beaten them down so much with low prices that few of them retained any significant in-house engineering capability. That was fine when Honda turned over drawings to Hero that controlled every step in the manufacturing process because Honda had already been making the parts elsewhere for years, but not so great when Hero began to try to make clean-sheet designs. The shame is the dual-purpose version of the 250 has died as well. We had a small fleet of those running, and it was a fun bike, with lower gearing and longer suspension. The street-going HX250 was more fun than a CBR250, but that's not really saying a lot. . . |
Portero72
| Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - 08:29 pm: |
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The shame, indeed. What a bummer. |
Greg_e
| Posted on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - 04:34 pm: |
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So in other words, don't buy a Hero bike because the engine internals are not up to the proper quality. So far I haven't blown up the cheapo clone engine in my race little bike, though some of the parts are better off being Yamaha TTR125 parts. Might be buying another cheapo Chinese bike, the SSR Razkull, looks like a cheap GY6 125cc motor in that thing. Saying this because I would have thought they could have gotten a decent enough motor from an Asian country to at least make the product go, wasted millions of dollars to have nothing of value in the end. |
Mnscrounger
| Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 10:41 am: |
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"So in other words, don't buy a Hero bike because the engine internals are not up to the proper quality." No, don't buy a Hero product because their business ethics are CRAP!! I have no reason to believe they would treat their paying customers any different than their closest tech partners. It sounds like that dual 250 would have have been my next cabin toy. Now even if they could actually make it work, and bring it, (or any other product), here, I would deliberately seek out their closest competitor. I'm so put off Hero, I will trash them to anyone who will listen. Its one thing to overreach and stumble, it's quite another to have someone deliberately trip you up. |
Crusty
| Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 04:09 pm: |
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I'm so put off Hero, I will trash them to anyone who will listen. I do, have done and will continue to do the same. |
Rocketman
| Posted on Monday, April 09, 2018 - 09:36 pm: |
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The Hastur was a cracking Buell design.
Rocket in England |
T9r
| Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 - 03:36 pm: |
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Even this moto mag suggests EBR had some contributions.... Hero Hastur 620 http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/2014/02/article/hero -hastur-620-first-look/ |
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