Harley-Davidson Re-Brand, Still Harley-Davidson or Something Else?

what's going on Friends it seems like here lately Harley-Davidson has been on a kamakazi mission which feels like it's pretty much going to end up in a complete rebranding of Harley-Davidson Al together a lot of us don't really want to throw any money Harley-Davidson's way and for a lot of you guys a lot of us don't really even really want to acknowledge that we own and ride a Harley-Davidson right now but if you do still want to acknowledge that you own and ride a Harley-Davidson is it still a Harley-Davidson even if it's got a ple of aftermarket parts on it Harley-Davidson's big sales pitch has always been keep your Harley-Davidson all Harley-Davidson use genuine OEM Harley-Davidson parts now there's two parts to this one part is I mentioned most of us aren't really in a hurry to give Harley-Davidson any money right now the second part of this is why would you want to go back with OEM Harley-Davidson parts that really weren't that great to begin with in the first place especially depending on what you plan on doing with your motorcycle guys please don't forget if you enjoy today's video don't forget to hit that like button and consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already now I know you're free to do whatever you wish with your Harley-Davidson motorcycle unless you're under warranty well that is if you want to keep the warranty intact and keep having it honored that is but do keep in mind if you're under warranty Harley-Davidson will replace that failed part at no cost to you theoretically but in my mind you have a failure with a Harley-Davidson OEM part Harley-Davidson's going to go back and put the exact same part back on that failed which it's likely to do it again unless it is actually an updated part number and they made some changes to it to correct it and honestly even then that's not even really a guarantee now I don't know how you feel about going back with genuine Harley-Davidson parts but if I have a failure on a genuine part I'm usually looking to the aftermarket for something that's cheaper better quality and is actually going to last longer and is most likely improved over the factory part that failed in the first place they went in engineered the defect out did it different and built it the way it should have came from Harley-Davidson in the first place if you're going back with Factory replacement parts these are generally going to be more expensive and in my opinion lesser quality than what the aftermarket parts are which would lead to the failure that you had in the first place and make it more likely that you're going to suffer that failure again now my question to you today is how many Factory Parts how many aftermarket parts do we put on our motorcycle that we could still consider to harleydavidson as many of you now more than ever from the kamakazi mission from the CEO and the top levels of Harley-Davidson down pretty much driving the company in the ground we're not giving money to Harley-Davidson so at what point do we still can we still call it a Harley-Davidson when it's pretty much nothing but aftermarket parts is it still a Harley or is it something else what do you guys consider it now what brings me to this is Harley-Davidson's absolute lack of an apology for what they did and which I feel is pretty much going to lead to Harley-Davidson necessitating a complete rebranding alog together what that's going to look like that's going to be pretty interesting and is yet to be seen even if it's going to need to happen now one of the last iterations of Indian before Polaris got it and actually got it going again now if you guys recall Indian Motorcycle there were several failed attempts over the years to try to bring Indian Motorcycle back to life now the one before Polaris got a hold of it this was actually pretty interesting that's what got me thinking about Harley-Davidson rebranding and what would it look like these Indians were basically a Harley-Davidson Softtail chassis with the Indian Bodywork the big fenders associated with Indian restyled gas tank and then of course different seats little different styling cues and obviously they had Indian on the side of them now probably the most interesting part about these rebranded Tri of this attempt at Reviving Indian was the powertrain and the drivetrain in these bikes this was to me nothing more than a Harley-Davidson Evo engine and transmission they were basically clones of Harley-Davidson stuck in these bikes with Indian on the gas tank so was it an Indian was it a Harley-Davidson was it a Harley-Davidson dressed up as an Indian you tell me now when Polaris got a hold of Indian they started from scratch they had an engine whole drivetrain powertrain everything was done on a blank sheet of paper this was a brand new engine this was a brand new motorcycle that came out branded as Indian styling cues everything lined up honestly they did the best job I've ever seen now do you consider that a Polaris or do you consider that an Indian if you ever decide to build out your Harley-Davidson as many of you have communicated to me in the comments you will not own another Harley-Davidson and you're not willing to give any money to Harley-Davidson directly which leads me to believe that you're going to end up building out your current motorcycle and I don't blame you in this process you may find that you hit a Crossroads where parts and labor and everything what you're willing to spend on your current engine before it's just not really feasible anymore to keep putting money into the current engine and honestly in a lot of respects it is actually cheaper Parts labor everything wise the bottom line to just go out and buy a brand new SNS engine and just do a complete engine swap there's a lot of benefits to doing just that complete engine swap you got a 2-year warranty you don't have all the different parts manufacturers inside your stock engine that you've built up so if you were to ever have a problem it's pointing fingers as to whose part actually failed that caused the problem who honors the warranty who's going to pay for this what happens with the labor this is actually a lot cheaper and easier to deal with with just one engine brand new no worries solid warranty if it blows up two years SNS will handle it labor shipping all that good stuff you're good to go and honestly SNS builds the engines the way they should have been built from the factory high quality parts plenty of power no worries whatsoever SNS does not cheap out on anything thing within their engines now at that point if you do a complete engine swap with an SNS engine into your Harley-Davidson is it still a Harley-Davidson is it now an SNS because it has a Harley is motor it is a engine built around Harley-Davidson architecture but only better but it's not exactly at Harley-Davidson motor that came from Harley this thing never originally started out as a Harley whatsoever this came from a complete third- party company now on the other side of that coin you get guys that go out get a custom frame build a complete motorcycle with aftermarket parts stick a Ultima engine in it which is like a Harley-Davidson engine but it's not a Harley-Davidson engine and they still put Harley-Davidson on the gas tank do we still consider that a Harley-Davidson motorcycle or is that some kind of Frankenstein custom or is it something else love the motorcycle but highly dislike the company for many reasons from the top level management all the way down to the Engineering in the engine but that's where the aftermarket comes in the aftermarket is there to repair replace and get rid of all the crummy engineering that went into those engines make them better and make them exactly what they should have been when they came out the doors at Harley-Davidson I mean personally to me I still call it a Harley if it looks like a Harley sounds like a Harley I don't really care where the engine came from well as long as it is a engine design based on Harley-Davidson I don't look at a Honda Shadow would consider that a Harley-Davidson because it's kind of a Japanese clone of what a Harley-Davidson is this is why I have come to accept Indian as an Indian and not a Polaris because that engine everything about it is of original design designed around what the concept of a modernday Indian Motorcycle should look like and personally I think Polaris nailed it and that's why I will call Indian Indian and not really consider it a Polaris anymore the other part is that I think Harley-Davidson from the top kind of made us all kind of look at it that way I know they did at least for me but guys let me know in the comments is it still a Harley-Davidson even with an aftermarket engine or with a plethora of aftermarket parts do you still consider that a Harley-Davidson motorcycle anyhow guys that's all I've got for you this week if you guys enjoyed the video please don't forget to hit that like button and consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already but till next week guys you stay safe on the streets ride smart Dodge those cars I'll catch you guys back here next week with a brand new video thanks for watching [Music]