Harley has owned several Italian motorcycle companies over the years, folks here shouldn't be concerned that they'll be putting Harley badges on fragile Italian sports bikes, several Italian companies have been regularly bankrupted and then saved over the years by Harley, and now China is also buying their brands, (Benelli, for instance, Bimota went under a few years ago, not sure who owns the brand nowbut I think they're still building bikes in limited numbers) so it's a good thing that HD is willing to invest in what can be a bit of a gamble.
Erik Buell did fantastic work modifying Sportster engines, and Harley owners worldwide have benefited from his hard work with modern sporties that are producing excellent power compared to the pre-Buell bikes. The problem with Buell's own bikes, was that no-one bought them, possibly because it was hard to convince sports bike riders that they should buy a modern sports bike equipped with a 60 year old pushrod engine that only made "moderate" power (for a sports bike) when they could buy a Japanese, German or Italian bike that could run rings around it for similar money or less, and even though he finally dropped the Sportster engine for modern Rotax engines for the last generation of Buell's, aesthetically, they were ugly fcukers, and just didn't sell. If they did, you'd still be able to buy one.
How American is a Harley? Well how British is a Triumph, how German is a BMW, how Italian is a Ducati, or for that matter, now that a lot of "Big Four" components are made in China, how Japanese is any Japanese bike? But then again, how many of you guys drive American cars? If driving a Japanese or European car, or owning an Asian TV, stereo, computer, tools etc don't make you feel any less patriotic, why would you be concerned about whether your Harley was 100% American? If I was at all cynical, I'd think that a tad hypocritical?
