American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 235 February 2019 | Page 8

NEWS
BRIEFS
Q4 2018 saw Wells Fargo increase its
stake in Harley by 5.5%, buying an
additional 20,809 shares, taking its
holding to 400,010 shares for a
0.24% ownership stake worth
$18.1m. The company dropped its
price objective on H-D stock from $49
to $46. A number of other hedge
funds and other institutional investors
also modified its HOG holdings in the
final months of 2018 (sell-offs and
acquisitions), including Riverhead
Capital Management, Aperio Group,
Flinton Capital Management, Advisors
Asset Management and Neuburgh
Advisers. Over 88% of H-D stock is
owned by hedge funds and other
institutional investors, and as at mid-
December the consensus rating on
Harley was “Hold” with a target price
of $44.38.
Harley is not the only one to see
its share price tumble. Polaris
Industries (owner of Indian
Motorcycle) saw a January 2018
high of $134.87 fall back by -
40% to around $80.00 by
mid-December. However, at
$4.74bn (as at 1-7-19), its
Market Cap is now less than
$1bn lower than Harley’s, making
the H-D CEO’s dismissive boast
of some four years ago that
Harley is twice the size of Polaris
sound a tad hollow now.
San Francisco Bay Area E-bike maker
Alta Motors has ceased operations
pending endeavors to find fresh
investment capital. It would appear
the positive press that its silent but
serious off-roaders have garnered over
the past couple of years has not
proven sufficient for them to be able to
absorb Harley’s decision to withdraw
from the investment deal inked with
the company just a few months ago.
Harley announced that it is opening its
own E-bike R&D center in ‘Silicon
Valley’ - it is not known whether that
decision was based on problems at
Alta or if the problems were triggered
by Harley’s decision. Either way, Alta is
the second northern Californian E-bike
maker to suffer a “Harley E-curse” -
the original Livewire prototype was
built for Harley by Mission Motor
Company in SF, which also
subsequently foundered.
Owners Don Andress and Tim
Cashman have sold Las Vegas H-D
and its affiliated dealerships (Red
Rock and Henderson H-D) to John
Morotti. The sale also includes
Zion H-D, a satellite retail
location in Washington, UT., and
five alternate retail locations in
the Las Vegas area including
hotels, casinos and the McCarran
International Airport. Morotti is
owner of Mother Road H-D and
Route 66 Motorsports (Kingman,
AZ.), Superstition H-D (Apache
Junction, AZ.) and Tobacco Road
H-D (Raleigh, NC.)
8
<<< Continued from back page
home city of Boise, Idaho. Driven by
purpose, progress and performance,
Rekluse can always be relied on to
inspire a better adventure.”
For Rekluse, President Sean Brown
said: “Rekluse is excited to add
HardDrive and Western Power Sports
(WPS) as a sales channel partner. This
cooperation will broaden awareness
of our expanding product
segments including our V-twin
and
Harley
replacement
performance clutches. We are
confident this new partnership with
the HardDrive sales teams will help us
continue building momentum for the
Rekluse brand.”
HardDrive’s parent company WPS has
been in the powersports distribution
business for a combined 58 years.
HardDrive distributes V-twin products
to its dealers nationwide through six
regional warehouses located in Boise,
Idaho; Fresno, California; Memphis,
Tennessee;
Elizabethtown,
Pennsylvania; Ashley, Indiana; and
Rekluse's RadiusX is a high
performance centrifugal auto clutch
combining our TorqDrive and EXP
technologies
petcocks, drag race components).
Highlights include a significant
expansion to the company’s Danny
Gray seats line, HardDrive premium re-
useable air filters, Firebrand exhausts
(now exclusive to HardDrive), Sawicki
2 into 1 exhausts for Sportsters,
Forbidden Motorcycles 2018 Street
Bob/Breakout risers with stock gauge
integration; Big Bike Parts Indian and
Victory accessories and Racing
Bros front suspension cartridge
kits for Touring models.
www.hdtwin.com
Midlothian, Texas.
The new HardDrive 2019 catalog
features over 2,200 new items added
to the fast growing line-up of popular
and hard-to-source brands and parts,
accessories and performance items.
As well as MagnaFlow, Rekluse and
Paul Yaffe’s Bagge Nation, additions
from established vendors include JW
Speaker (lights), ODI (Vans Cult grips),
and Pingel (clutch, accessories,
Bagger Nation SRT ‘Steam Roller’ touring front end kit
MagnaFlow Hitman slip-on mufflers
DP Brakes and Clutches to
Expand Clutch Line - Complete
Friction and Steel Plate Kit
After what DP Brakes and
Clutches describes as
“incredible success”, the
company is expanding its line of
H-D clutches by offering a
complete friction and steel kit
for Harley-Davidsons – this is in
addition to the individual
friction and steel kits which
have proven so popular with
dealers.
DP Brakes’ clutch components
are designed to provide
extended service life and
smooth, fade-free power
delivery. The friction plates are
ready to go, with no need to
pre-soak in oil and are said to
perform well in a wet or dry
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - FEBRUARY 2019
clutch. “The steel drive plates
will not swell, unlike aluminum
plates, nor will they fade,” says
Larry Mills, President of DP
Brakes North America. The
increased weight versus stock
plates adds ‘fly wheel effect’,
improving starting and traction.
“We are pleased to be adding a
complete friction and steel kit
to complement our existing
individual kits. This will continue
to round out our highly
successful range of long lasting,
high performance clutches.
“Having one part number will
make it easier for the dealer
and consumer to order, and the
sense of quality is increased by
using the same high quality,
durable, cushioned and heavy
duty plastic presentation case
which will protect them from
damage during shipping and
deliver a real sense of the
quality we engineer into every
component we make.”
www.dp-brakes.com
www.AMDchampionship.com