it's one thing to WANT that everything be made here - it's another thing altogether to want to PAY for it...

an American worker, probably a union worker, who demands not only good pay but also benefits, is going to make the product cost 3x what it would cost to have it made in the 3rd world.

Problem is, manufacturing jobs are not worth what Americans want to be paid for doing them, and American consumers don't want to pay what a product would cost to have it made by Americans. You can't have cheap goods made by workers making upwards of $75/hr when you include the value of health care, retirement benefits, and other benefits American workers expect. On top of that, that company has to pay one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, all kinds of "environmental" fees, and abide by business-killing regulations.

Instead of lamenting the loss of the manufacturing sector, which is only supportable with low wages and low regulations, we should all be getting into new areas that support the kind of pay and lifestyle we believe we are entitled to.

The only way the US is going to get back into manufacturing is if we fall back to our near-3rd world status of the late 19th century and people start accepting low-paying jobs that probably won't allow them to buy $25k motorcycles as recreational vehicles or live in a dwelling where everyone has their own room, air conditioning, cable TV, and a refrigerator...and believe me, there are politicians that are working on making that happen, so if that's what you really want, you might be in luck. Unfortunately, these same politicians are unlikely to open up the regulations necessary to manufacture in the U.S.

you can blame "greedy companies" all you want, but they're not the problem. The problem is stifling regulations and Americans who want to be paid more than a job is worth on the open market because....well...just because!

You can't have cheap goods AND overpaid manufacturing workers AND high government fees and regulation. Any widget manufactured in the U.S. can be made elsewhere for less than half as much. That means it can be sold for half as much. And given a choice, the "greedy consumer" will pick the foreign-made cheaper widget.

 

Well said blarg! Good post

 

This is just a guess, but I would say the Chinese company that is going to be making the HD wheels, also make the wheels for Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW, etc., etc. They are probably the larges motorcycle wheel manufacturing company in the world and can make them much, much cheaper than anyone or anywhere else. Hence, the bottom dollar. Doesn't make me feel good about MoCo, but won't keep me from buying another one.

SugsPa

 

Again, well said blarg. The sad truth is our labor cost are higher than most other countries. I am as guilty as the next preaching about buying american made products but the fact is for many products we are simply not competitive on a cost bases. My bitch with Harley is they tout Harley's are american made when in fact they are partly made in America. I suppose we all will have to get use to the truth that like other companies, Harley Davidson's are made by many different countries solely due to cost savings. The days of John Wayne are over and so is 100% made in America at least on HD products.

 

Yes, HD components have been made across the pond for years, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia and Danish and other european countries. The state of the world as we knew it has gone.

 

Well, the important part - the assembly is still being done in the US, by skilled workers that pay attention to detail...as is the design (except for that liquid-cooled motor). At least THAT part of the process is still worth the extra money. Manufacturing is spec-based - if you have good specs and the parts are manufactured to that spec, you should be fine. The fit and finish is where the skill comes in. That's still being done here, by people who ride and understand and are able to ask for the kind of money the ask for because that skill IS worth the money.

 

I wonder what parts are going to be manufactured in China next. Before long all of the Harley's will be assembled in the United States (maybe) from Chinese made parts. Today wheels. Next year it may be engines.

 

Buell 1125 motors and transmissions (when they were owned by HD and were marketed as American sport bikes) were designed and made in Austria by Rotax. Brakes were made in Italy, switches and wiring in China - those were some of the best bikes Buell ever made. The frames were made in the US and they were assembled in the US, but pretty much everything else came from another country.

 

What pisses me off, It's bad enough the stuff is made oversea's but have the dealer's lying to you about where stuff is made. I have been taking up for them believing the wheel bearings were made by Timkin here in the USA, when in fact they are chinese bearings. The engines are built here and the bikes are assembled here, that's about it! How much longer will that last?

 

There was a time when companies actually manufactured their own fasteners. Over time, it made very little business sense to be making your own fasterners when you could buy them from "The ACME Fastener Company" since they know how to make the best fasteners.

It has been pointed out that HD has been using foreign-made parts and assemblies as far back as the early 70s. They started doing that because they were in the business of designing and building motorcycles and chose not to divert their attention and capital to make subassemblies that they might not have been able to build as well or cheaply in-house.

Let's take the brakes as an example. HD specs and sources their brakes from Brembo. By anyone's standard, Brembo makes the finest disc brake systems in the world. It makes complete sense that HD put Brembo brakes on their bikes rather than some inferior brake manufacturer, even if that brake manufacturer is an American company. Should HD design and build their own ECM systems? Currently, they are buying them from Delphi, but if Bosch offered a better or cheaper alternative I'm sure they would consider that instead.

As far as the parts being sourced from China, I would venture to guess that those parts tend to be technically simple, and probably very "dirty" to manufacture. They also manufacture in China in order to have access to their markets to sell their products.

This build/make decision is made by every company at many different levels every day. That's just how large-scale manufacturing is done. Some of the comments being made suggesting there were the "good old days" when either HD made absolute every part or absolutely every part was American-made, when exactly was that time and did they make a better motorcycle than they do today?