| Author | Message | ||
     Buellinachinashop |
Well this past weekend Harley did something they've never done. They opened the Product Development Center for an Employee friend's and family day this past saturday. All I can say is that it's simply amazing. Almost every area was open, some current projects were either covered or kept behind closed doors, but every major area was open to inspection. I got a change to see a few of the new Rockers and work being done on the new 1200 flat tracker. Anybody else hit the PDC open house? | ||
| Prubert |
Sure did...did you check out the Yamaha MT-01? Looks like it has been well ridden. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
See the new 1200 in the styling garage Prub? I asked Willy G if he was responsible for the Salad Bowl Scoops on the 1125. rose his hands and said, "wasn't me" | ||
| Spiderman |
Of course it wasn't him, he doesn;t design anything to be functional...  | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Your right, he just builds pretty stuff. | ||
| Spiderman |
yep, pretty expensive pretty ugly pretty much outdated  | ||
| Rainman |
As long as They buy them, we'll still have Buells! | ||
| Prubert |
Yep, Saw the XR1200 in silver. I would get one now if I could. A nice complement to the Uly. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"yep, pretty expensive pretty ugly pretty much outdated" But its safe to say he and his head of styling (who drives a Lamborgini Diablo) got pretty rich making all that outdated, ugly crap. I wish I was so lucky. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Prub...you ride your Uly saturday? I saw two yellow ones. I parked my Lightning next to a bagger Uly. | ||
| Spiderman |
LOL a little defensive when the shoe is on the other foot eh.  | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
What foot? The Buell foot or the Harley foot? oh that's right. They're both Harley feet. | ||
| Prubert |
Yup, I had a black Uly with just the side cases (no top case for me), parked next to a Silver VTEC VFR. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
I was suprised at the amount of people. I got there at 1 and the place was crowded. Stayed until they tossed us out at 3:30. I was impressed with all the Buell enthusiats there. Alot of motor parts, body work and posters hanging al over the place. They had a XBRR motor on display in the Scream'n Eagle engine room. I saw an XR1200 motor on a dyno. Testing oil cooling on it. The XR1200 in the styling room had it too. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I asked Willy G if he was responsible for the Salad Bowl Scoops on the 1125. Why would he be responsible for a damn thing to do with the 1125R? Is Erik responsible for the styling of the new Rocker? | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
It was a joke man. I asked him that question with a big smile on my face. He answered in kind. I heard Willy won't even let EB into the PDC. Security issues. (that's a joke too by the way) | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Sorry. I'm from Tennessee. Your joke required teeth to get. I'll borrow grandma's and reread.  | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Seriously, I asked a few folks I know if HD styling does anything for Buell. "Nope" was the all around answer. "styling is done at the Juneau Ave facility". Motor work? Well, that's another story. I saw the room and the bench where the Thunderstorm heads were/are born/developed. I also found out that not 1 dyno test has been run on the 1125 at the PDC. You'd think that Harley would dyno test it for American emissions or hp ratings..nope, not yet. | ||
| Court |
>>>>I heard Willy won't even let EB into the PDC. Security issues. See if they want my blue card back.  The Thunderstom heads were developed in the small room near the North overhead door on the East side of the 2719 building in East Troy. No one at HD was aware of what was being done (in fact they had declared it impossible and instructed it NOT be done) until it was sucessfully completed. The code for the Toyoda (yes, it's spelled right) CNC machines at Capitol Drive was written at Juneau. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"The Thunderstom heads were developed in the small room near the North overhead door on the East side of the 2719 building in East Troy. No one at HD was aware of what was being done (in fact they had declared it impossible and instructed it NOT be done) until it was sucessfully completed." I suppose the East Troy folks casted it with sand from EB's sand box too. Very gracious of Buell to let Harley work on it at all. (Message edited by BuellinaChinashop on September 12, 2007) | ||
| Davegess |
I'm with court on this one. The Dyno at East Troy was humin' when they were working on that. H-D employees were involved BUT they were assigned to Buell at that time. one had a desk at Cap Drive and on ein East Troy. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
That I believe that Dave, but your story is a far cry from Court's "nobody at HD was involved" theory. Matter of fact, I heard something about how big of a pain it was to go back and forth between ET and Milwaukee. What did I spy in his pnuematic chisel booth last saturday?..A T-Storm head. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Tune in next week for another gripping episode of... "WHO DID WHAT,WHERE,& WHEN." Will the Family let the little kid fulfill his dreams? or will they pick him to death? Sponsored by "Remind me to tell you sometime" memory pills. & The Scotch Whisky marketing Board "Mental lubrication for Adults" | ||
| Davegess |
Buellin, you do have to remember that most if not all of the people who have an H-D paycheck but work on Buell consider themselves Buell people first and H-D people second. Many things that have been accomplished at East Troy would not have happened if the H-D employees felt that they needed to report things to H-D. The thunderstorm engine is a good example. Cap Drive was adamant that it could not be done and they were not going to work on something that could not work. Once an H-D employees gets assigned to Buell the pods go to work, pretty soon they are Buell guys and before long they are working to convert more H-D folks to Buell folks. It is pretty hard to be an H-D guy working at Buell and not go over to the Buell side. The corporate cultures are so different that if you want to work at Buell you have to adopt the Buell way to be successful. Once you have adopted it is very hard to go back to the H-D way. What I like to say is that Buell has been successful because of the vision and genius of Buell but they have had some help from folks at H-D who share this vision. Some of these folks have been very high level and some have been grunts. BUT there are many other people at H-D who do not support the Buell way and many who actively fight against it either by putting impediments in it way, bad mouthing it, not cooperating with it, or insisting that it is really H-D making this happen. Those who actively fight it are making a very large mistake IMHO. The Buell way is the way forward. It is the next step. It is the way for H-D to continue as a major force in American manufacturing for the next 100 years. I am not saying that H-D is a disaster, or has been doing things wrong just that the time is ripe for changes in the way they do things. | ||
| Xbduck |
Good ones Mr_grumpy.  Mr. Gess, As I recall the last time H-D had to make serious changes they were staring bankruptcy in the face. It's interesting how quickly people change their song when it's change or die. So till then, many who don't understand that standing still in today's market is the same as moving backwards will hold their own. It's sad. | ||
| Court |
Post removed on 2nd thought - Geeesh . . before long I'll be as loose lipped as the PDC folks. (Message edited by court on September 13, 2007) | ||
| Mikej |
Dang it, I knew I shouldn't have gone to lunch today.... | ||
| Xbduck |
Dang, I thought I might have gotten more insight from Court if I hung around. I wish I hadn't gone to lunch either. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"BUT there are many other people at H-D who do not support the Buell way and many who actively fight against it either by putting impediments in it way, bad mouthing it, not cooperating with it, or insisting that it is really H-D making this happen." Not from what I see at the PDC. Maybe the Brass at HD, but the employees are damn proud (shown by the autographed body parts showing completed projects) to work on anything Buell or HD. Lots of Buell stuff hanging, sitting and displayed. |
