All week on TV we’ve been treated to a Harley Davidson Ad that says “We’re coming to Taiwan”. I first came to Taiwan in 1992 and I can remember there being a special squad of police officers who rode Harley’s. They were the only guys in Taiwan who were legally allowed to ride ‘big bikes’.
After Taiwan joined WTO, the importation regulations were relaxed and you can now regularly see many BIG bikes on the roads, they all have the distinctive RED license plates to differentiate them from the two-stroke lawnmower engine sized bikes that are common here. And they are accorded different privileges than regular bikes.
When we went to 101 today, little did we know that we’d be walking by all of these fantastic bikes at today’s launch!
Outside the venue…
Oh, no where are the bikes… I can’t see any…
and…
This is my favorite here bike!
And of course, my favorite of the day…
A kind gentleman who had a far more environmentally friendly way to get around Taipei. He was quite happy to pose for a photo-opp. Oh, and those booth-babes… Well, I got some pictures on the video… I’ve already uploaded it to YouTube. But it’s processing, and I have to go to bed! So I’ll add it tomorrow.
Have fun! Have a Harley weekend!
(ed. I updated the post with a video, but I can’t convert the original video to AVI to edit it yet…:( )
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Nice shots. I was at 101 yesterday and saw all the bikes arriving from the window of my taxi, but didn’t go down to check things out.
This article was just in the LaTimes the other day, no wonder why HD wants to branch out. There is no market left in the states since credit has dried up.
Harley-Davidson cuts shipments, jobs at quarterly profit skids
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-harley18apr18,1,7579215.story
Thanks for the article. I read it with interest.
With Asian incomes heading ever upwards, this kind of ‘toy’ becomes increasingly affordable, and popular.
Kenneth
Yes, but…….
Asia will not be decoupled from the coming bond market crash.
Anyone that buys and expensive machine like this is a fool. At the very least, wait until late 2009 just to make sure life still exists as we know it (!).
Cracks have already appeared in the news regarding how the banks here in Taiwan area exposed to the MBS and credit derivative problems. I have a feeling the mega financial corporations are treading water just to stay afloat until Mr. Ma steps in. Then they can beg the Chinese wealth funds for support. (which means the PRC will take financial control of Taiwan once they run the banks) – just my opinion.
Thanks, FatBob. I’m aware that local banks do have exposure to these problems… but not quite clued up on it.
Can you cite some newspapers stories…? That’d be great.
Are you suggesting that bond prices will fall because yields have to rise to reward investors better?…
Kenneth
Another article on Harley –
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN0229405520080503
Now they are running a goofy campaign called “screwit” to convince idiots to keep buying expensive bikes in a recession.
BTW: I passed along some Twn bank exposure links last week, but they must have gotten lost in your comment spam filter.
fatbob,
Sorry about the comments getting lost. Comments with lots of links (ie more than one!) get automatically canned because of the HIGH frequency of spam posts that do that! And this blog gets a lot of spam… I have had to tighten SK2 a lot.
But what choice do they have? They can’t run a campaign saying: Save money and buy a smaller bike… they don’t make smaller bikes!
Between a rock and a hard place. As are many other luxury goods companies, like Starbucks, Department Stores, …
Kenneth
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