Originally Posted by
Scott
Difficult? Yes. Insurmountable? I don't believe so. Not when you have a bike that is so unique and can be marketed quite simply as "The Only American Sportbike in the World".
There were three key barriers they had to surmount:
1. Few people knew the bikes existed.
2. The people who did know the bikes existed were nervous about their long-term viability.
3. They didn't have enough dealers.
But all of those barriers could have been eroded away over time, and if LAP had gone into this willing to invest enough to simply keep them running for three years, I honestly believe they would have emerged at the end of that 3 years as a solid, sustainable (though still very small) motorcycle manufacturer. They didn't get 3 years under Hero (of actual bike production and sales) and they didn't get three years under LAP and nobody could realistically expect any motorcycle company to get on its feet in less than that time.
Right now, at this moment, if they had pushed through and not made the announcement in January, we would be getting into warm weather and Buell owners and other motorcycle enthusiasts would be looking at them and thinking they really were here to stay, and those people would be considering coming off the sidelines. And with each passing month, that trend would only grow stronger.
If they had stuck it out, I would have fully expected May of 2017 to be the best sales month ever for a company that never had enough time to even begin, let alone thrive.
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