HARLEY RIDING COMFORTABLY IN EUROPE
WILLI Breuckmann could have gone for the BMW motorcycle - it was a comfortable and affordable machine. And it made sense for him to stick with a ride made in his own country, Germany.
Instead, he chose a Harley-Davidson. The Road King.
“It comes down to a feeling,” what the Germans call “ein Gef¸hl”, said Breuckmann, a 54-year-old web developer who lives in Dortmund, in the nation’s northwest.
The Road King is a big bike, starting around €24,000 (RM135,000), long and low with the iconic V-Twin engine and dual exhausts growling the sound that made Harley famous. It’s a smooth ride for long trips and perfect for autobahn cruising. Over the years, Breuckmann added custom paint and a backseat for his wife.
“The BMW is also very comfortable,” he said. “But it was a dream of mine to get a Harley.”
While United States President Donald Trump rails at Europeans for restricting trade and a reluctance to buy Detroit’s automobiles, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer of iconic motorcycles proves every day that consumers across the Atlantic are willing to buy American.
One of Harley’s biggest German dealers says it sells 500 bikes a year. The company almost doubled its market share in Germany in the past decade, to 6.4 per cent last year from 3.3 per cent in 2006, by attracting customers like Breuckmann in Europe’s biggest economy who crave
eri cent tariff on US motorcycle imts in response to Trump. arley’s success in Europe is evice that American companies can pete and even flourish there, out a trade war - if the products good enough. The company built rong network of dealerships and de some adjustments to the prodto suit European tastes: slimr bikes, special customisation ops and even WiFi on board. arley’s approach - catering to loc l tastes with a distinctly Ameriproduct - couldn’t be more dif-