Harley Davidson in MotoGP?! Why This Bagger Series Is STUPID!

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Host, Annick Magac, of FÉROCE passionately critiques the recent announcement that Harley Davidson will launch a global racing series alongside MotoGP in 2026, featuring "bagger" motorcycles. Annick argues that this move is a misguided marketing strategy for Harley Davidson, citing their declining sales and past unsuccessful ventures like the Livewire and Pan America models. She expresses strong disapproval for the bagger racing format itself, calling it "stupid" and a "parody" due to the motorcycles' heavy and clunky nature, arguing they are ill-suited for serious racing. While acknowledging the potential connection to Liberty Media's anticipated acquisition of MotoGP and the effort to boost both brands, Annick ultimately believes this collaboration is a waste of money for Harley Davidson and suggests they focus on their core products and find a new CEO.

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Transcript

Harley Davidson Should Not Be in MotoGP

Annick: Guys, I have breaking news to share. And I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about this news, which I have a feeling are just not going to be all that popular.

Hello, my beautiful Motorheads. Welcome to FÉROCE where we inspire you to live fiercely. I'm your host, Annick Magac. 

So you're probably wondering, Hey, Annick, what is this news and why are you outside again? Well, I had all this content prepared for this week and I decided to scrap it when I saw this headline and this is what it said, and I had to bring notes so that I can make sure that I actually get things right.

And it said this. Drum roll. Harley Davidson and Moto GP announced new Global Racing Series launching in 2026.

 * INTRO *

Annick: First off, I had plans to do a whole episode in the shop. It's been a while since we've been in the shop and it's fun and I had content. But you know what? I had to push it aside because when I read this news, and again, let me reiterate, Harley Davidson and Moto GP announced new Global Racing Series launching in 2026.

Well, you're wondering why, Annick, why would you wanna cover this? Well. First off, let's back up and let me tell you about the week that I've been having. So the week started off like this. I was out, and if anybody gets this, you'll understand. I saw a snake somewhere that I didn't wanna see a snake, and it scared the Jesus out of me.

And like that all would've been fine, but like a few hours later. I was then pursued by the police helicopter. Now that's a whole other story and it's a good story, uh, as to why somebody would be pursued by a police helicopter. But I'm gonna tell you this, .... if you are not subscribed to the show, I highly recommend you do because I'm not going to tell that story today that's gonna be in a future episode, and you're not gonna wanna miss it.

So I highly recommend subscribe. And also don't forget to like this video because it helps me make more and better content. And if you like what I'm talking about today, you'll even get more of that in the future interviews. Uh, Annick's take on breaking news like about the one that I'm about to go into.

So. As you can imagine, it's uh, it's been a week. Then on top of the, the snake, the helicopter pursuit, um, there was then three ticks. They stink. I hate getting ticks and this season has been awful. Let me tell you, there are a lot of ticks around, so wherever you go, even if you get off the moto on the side of the road, check yourself later.

'cause you just don't know whether or not you're gonna end up with a tick on you. They are just. Everywhere. Anyway, I digress. You're probably wondering, okay, Annick, do you care about this and why is this breaking news?

Well. For a few different reasons. Number one, I think that this whole bagger series that Moto America has been putting on for four years is the dumbest thing that I have ever seen in racing. There we go, people. I'm putting it out there. Somebody has to make a statement about it and I know that, you know, there's the love 'em, hate 'em on this one, but I need to share my thoughts on this because.

It was one thing for them to be in Moto America, but now to go on the world realm is a whole other thing. So for those of you who may not know, uh, what I'm talking about with Moto America and Moto, GP, lemme give you a little background in, in motorcycle racing and particularly road racing. So in the U.S., Moto America runs the Road Race Series and.

Worldwide Moto GP exists, which is Moto Grand Prix, it is to motorcycles. What Formula One racing is to cars. It's a big deal and on the world level, Moto GP is the creme de la creme of motorcycle racing. There's a lot of money thrown into it. It is. As fantastic and exciting as Formula One car racing but for motorcycles.

So getting back to Moto America in the US there are different levels of racing. There's club racing, and then obviously pro racing. So Moto America does the pro racing in the U.S. What people forget about is that Moto America is a for-profit company and. When you run any of these race series, it costs a lot of money Moto America exists to make a profit off of this, which is totally fine.

I have no problem with any company wanting to make a profit. We live in America for goodness sakes. Like this is how things work, right? And it gives jobs to people. It provides excitement for the viewers on watching the racing, and it allows people to do what they're passionate about, which is race motorcycles, like how fantastic is that?

So great Moto America exists, and Harley Davidson as a company also exists I am not a Harley rider and uh, I'm not opposed to Harley's or anything like that. I do like making fun of Harley, which I had done in the past. To give a little bit of a background, uh, just on what this whole bagger series is about four years ago, I don't. It. I don't even really care what the details are, to be honest. Moto America brought on this race series where they call it the Battle of the Baggers and or the King of the Battle of the Baggers, something like that, where they race bagger motorcycles, which are cruisers.

With a full fairing. And when they say bags, they are bags to put your luggage in and drive down the road. So when you think traditional Harley or cruiser bikes in your mind, you probably most likely envision some type of bagger type of cruiser motorcycle. Harley's made these motorcycles for a long time. Other companies make variations of them because they're basically touring motorcycles. like this, this is the part where I just like cannot, I just can't wrap my head around and I'm just not a fan of. So I rode race, motorcycles years and years and years ago when I first started riding, and it was amazing. I, I rode a, a motor GP motorcycle 1 25 in a club series.

So I understand and love, like, believe me, I love watching Mo GP racing. I love watching any of the racing. It's super fun, exhilarating, super athletic and all that. Now, the premise to racing motorcycles, especially road racing, is that you want to have the lightest. Fastest motorcycle possible with the most talented racer on that bike, right?

That's what wins races. That's what drives innovation. That is what makes the sport exciting is seeing these guys, especially at the Moto GP level, I mean, the speeds that they're reaching are just like unbelievable and all of it. It's like, it's like a ballet in real time at high speeds. It is amazing. Now again, baggers are extremely heavy, clunky motorcycles.

Nothing about them screams fast. I mean, they have big engines and yeah, they, I'm sure on a straight line they can go fast. Okay. Relatively, but they're heavy and they have baggage on 'em. Metaphorically speaking, there's a lot of baggage on them, and. They are meant for touring. So like, why would you wanna take this heavy clunker of a motorcycle and decide to race it?

I have always felt that it was this parody. Like obviously it was a huge marketing strategy for Harley Davidson to introduce this. And as far as I know, I believe that Indian is also part of the series, it's still mostly around Harley Davidson and, and the whole

brand awareness of Harley Davidson. So I thought when they first did this, that this was like completely a marketing scheme and I still think it is. Let's be honest. I think totally. It's a marketing scheme. if you look at Moto America, like would they say no to that? Absolutely not.

As I mentioned, Moto America is a for-profit company and they want as many people to show up at the races as possible. So, they have bills to pay, right? So they're gonna want as much so sponsorship money to make any of this happen. somehow this idea came about for this bagger series, which I believe was supposed to be limited, and then they started to do it.

Now, I liken this racing too. I don't know if you guys have ever watched Top Gear, the British show, especially the original episodes with Jeremy Clark and there's this one Epic episode where they decide that they are going to race double decker buses on a racetrack.

It is hilarious and ridiculous, right to see these double decker buses get. You know, sped across a, a racetrack. It's, it's insane. And it's really funny and it's amazing that none of them flip over. Okay. I kind of feel like the Bagger Sea series is that kind of catch, like, oh, let's see if we can like go do this.

And then they're like, oh yeah, we made it happen. Isn't that hilarious? Like, oh, this is, this is a funny thing, like super entertaining. Yay. Let's go do this. Cool. Okay. Like once. Twice, maybe that would've been fine, but they made a whole series from it. And if you watch the races, like, I don't know, to me it's like you, the fairings are so big that you can't even see the motorcyclists.

These racers that are super thin and like super fit. Behind the, the fairing. So it's not even that interesting to, for me to watch any of these races because like you don't, you just see the motorcycle going across the track, and if they do a side shot or three quarter shot, you might see the racer moving around on the bike a little bit.

But like for the most part, it's just super boring to me and just dumb. And again, kitschy like, and I get the kitch factor because I also, besides like the double decker ideas, like I also kind of envision it as. You know, in some places they will race lawnmowers and like those races are super, again kitschy and super fun to watch.

So these races have had success in the US one would think, but I decided to like look up on Moto America's website, uh, especially, well in particular their YouTube channel, just to see like how many people are watching the races because you know, it exists.

And if we are in the world of social media, we can make anything look much bigger than it actually is. So when I went and looked at the Moto America. YouTube site. I saw in the last race, which just happened like a week or two ago, that it had maybe about 13,000 views, not that much, and 32 comments. Now on my videos, I get sometimes more than 32 comments, which is not saying much in that, I just don't think for a Moto America site that like 32 comments is that much. And when I read the comments, which I will post on the screen here, if you're watching on YouTube, that they look like they are, um, purposely written for the website, if you catch my drift. Somebody has to say it. So sorry about that, but that's the truth.

Why would, why would they decide on this series if it's like not totally gaining traction, but it has like some interest? Again, it, it's great for social media and like for putting it out there.

Why would Moto GP wanna do this?

So now let's get into Moto GP and Harley Davidson. And I wanna read the press release because I ha I had to print it out. And I originally saw this news. I was, uh, deciding to take a break and scroll on Instagram.

But I. Saw the press release, which was when I almost fell off the couch being like, they've gotta be kidding me that Moto GP has decided to take this on. So again, let's go back to the idea that Moto GP is the creme de la creme of racing, and the amount of money that they put into these motorcycles at the top is exorbitant and ridiculous, and there's a ton of innovation and technology and. The pursuit of absolute excellence.

So this is what the press release says, and I, I have to stop and read it. In the press release that was issued between Harley Davidson and Moto gp, this is what they wrote. It was confirmed in Le Mans that Harley Davidson will return to the World Championship in 2026 with a single make bagger series running alongside Moto GP at six rounds next year. Each round will feature two bagger races. One round will kick off at the circuit of the Americas and the other five held to be held in Europe. The grid is expected to comprise six to eight teams each fielding two riders supported by Harley Davidson factory racing.

An official statement read, and this is a quote, we are looking to establish racing as a core pillar of Harley Davidson. Said Jeff Schuler, global Director of Motorsport at Harley-Davidson. We have a long heritage inside it, and we believe racing will help us modernize the brand with innovation and technology.

We've had four years now racing in Motor America with great success, and we have started to rebuild a factory team, at our HQ headquarters in Milwaukee, and we're looking to grow that muscle, those abilities and those skills.

We believe with Moto gp, we'll be working a lot with them, with logistics operations and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, quote, we believe our history and the fans we can bring to these races as well as our ability to build these race bikes. Taking our learning from King of the Baggers, taking our know-how at Dorna It's a great opportunity. 

We all know Harley has not been doing very well over the past few years, and about five years ago they got a new CEO whose name is, whose name I always forget is Johan. Yo Jochen Johan. Who has just recently announced that he is going to retire, but he's gonna stay on until they find a new CEO to take his place.

I believe this is significant in relation to what's happening with MotoGP. So he came on board in 2020. This president, uh, zz. Sorry, people, sorry, sorry, sorry. On the bad pronunciation. He came on in 2020, which was perhaps like one of the worst times to take over a company during Covid. However, one could argue that right. At the same time, COVID was one of the best things that ever happened to motorcycling, and it upped the amount of motorcycles sold.

So during that time, Harley saw a decline in sales, and I looked some of the stats up because I was just, I was curious like how, how much had they been suffering? Now the one thing that Harley has done. Perfectly over these years, relatively speaking to other companies, is that their branding is just fantastic and they are the ultimate American brand, right?

Everybody knows who Harley Davidson is. So many people wear their clothing, wear anything that says Harley Davidson having never ridden before or anything like that. And that is incredibly impressive and I've always thought that Harley's marketing has just done so well, even with that being said, like selling t-shirts, which is the majority at dealerships where they make their money, uh, there are other issues with the company and I was just did a quick search to just see like, okay, in 2024 Overall, globally, Harley Davidson sales were down 15%. That is significant for a company that has shareholders It's a lot for a company to be down 15%, and that has happened during Johann's time at Harley Davidson. like, I mean we could blame it on him. They brought in a German, uh, a lot of, he got a lot of backlash for not being American because it's such a brand specific to America. But they had high hopes with his background at Puma and globally that he would be able to make a difference at the company.

And I am sure you know that they have decided to retire him. That somebody like him, you have to understand like he, you know, he's good friends with Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Airlines. Him and Branson have some philanthropy thing together. And then the Johan also owns like a bunch of other different companies that are philanthropic.

So this guy isn't hurting, you know, they say he's retiring. I think it's a great, an easy way to let him leave gracefully. But even somebody like this, like his, his image will never be tarnished complete. I mean, like. He's had success. He's done his thing. He probably knew that Harley wasn't gonna be able to be changed that much, so whatever.

Right.

Who knows what the deal was when he came on. But here are some things to know about Harley's sales being down and these were some of the top reasons why people suspect that the sales had been down was one economic downturn. We know, you know, that, uh, economically things have been rough, high interest rates.

We know it's, uh. Whatever Harley costs, even if it's still 10 grand you're probably paying an extra 6,000 versus an extra 2000 that you were paying in interest five years ago. So there's that lower customer traffic. we saw the boom during the pandemic, motorcycle sales are starting to go down again.

One thing that I found in my research was a term called Destocking, and I wasn't familiar with this because I don't, I don't follow Harley really.

But they, uh, they said that Harley has been destocking. So apparently during Covid or at some point within like the past five to six years, they had high inventory at the different dealerships and then now they are destocking the dealerships and forcing them to sell older models, but not providing newer models.

Now. That is like, obviously they're, from a financial standpoint, absolutely forced into doing that based on sales being down. The bad side to that is that it affects consumers, right? Because you don't want to buy the 2023 or the 2024 when every week or at Leasts coming out with some like 2025 limited edition, uh, this or that.

Like they just put out the new, fat boy, the 2025 Chrome fat boy. And if you go to the dealership and it's not there, but all they have is the 2020 threes. That's disappointing. Like nobody really, it's from a sales perspective like that, I feel for the dealers because that's not fun and like that's a hard thing to get around if you are a franchise owner.

And then another big thing that has been cited, and I did a I did a previous episode, which I will link to. Is that people are starting to wanna buy more affordable motorcycle options and that can't be ignored. So all of this has hurt Harley's sales globally. We've seen a downturn in the US and globally.

There's also been a downturn, but like I said, 15% is a lot. And they had this CEO, like nobody knows who the next CEO is going to be. And I feel like this Mo Push is a very weird and fruitless marketing ploy.

This collaboration aims to promote Harley Davidson internationally and Moto GP within the us, especially with the anticipated acquisition of this series by Liberty Media. Now, I found that buried on the internet and I thought that this was actually very interesting and it kind of adds like a whole nother spin to them wanting to do this.

Very weird limited series you're like, Annick, what is Liberty Media? Well, let me share with you what Liberty Media is. Liberty Media Corporation based out of Colorado owns ready for this. Formula One, SiriusXM and Live Nation to name a few.

Their core business involves ownership and operation of media and entertainment assets. Now, with that information, things started to make sense, like why would they wanna do this? Well. If Dorna who owns Motor GP is getting ready to make a sale and they're going to an American company that already owns Formula One.

So the point with this is that we have Liberty Media, which is an American company, must have ties with Harley Davidson and wanting to push and promote an American brand, right? And they know that. Harley is so adored in the US and globally, there's heavy interest in Harley, but they're very expensive.

Oh, and the other thing that I wanted to say that's going to affect Harley's sales. Globally is definitely this whole tariffs thing because Harley Davidson is not going to be immune. And I am sure that any foreign company that wants to, um, not company, any foreign country that wants to retaliate on tariffs is going to try to hit the most American brands ever.

Right. And of course that's going to be Harley, like, who else is that gonna be? Maybe a handful of other ones. I will not be surprised that this is going to heavily impact everything that's happening with Harley Davidson.

Now here in going back like this is where I have a problem with all this. I don't think that this is the right call. In that press release where they were saying that this guy, the, the global director of Motorsports was saying, you know, it'll help us modernize the brand with innovation and technology.

It's not what people go to Harley for. And as we can see demonstrated by Livewire, which was a complete bust, which was supposed to be their electric motorcycle, they put 70 to $80 million. Into that product line and it was a complete bust. And if anything, this CEO that they currently have really pushed for that.

And I will say that that was probably the worst decision that he ever made. Electric motorcycles are not what Harley riders want, and it was completely demonstrated that they were, this was not what they wanted. The other thing that did not do very well was the whole Pan Am American, which. You know, again, they, they try, they really tried to push, I mean the Pan Am thing, they also, they got, uh, our favorite international travelers who have a new series out, which is Ewan McGregor and Charlie Borman.

They did Pan Am American Motorcycles, uh, pan Am American, I'm probably getting it wrong, pan American Motorcycles during that trip, and it is just. It's just so interesting that, you know, Harley spent all this money on two areas that were supposed to be completely innovative. Now, I am all, believe me, I am all for innovation and technology with manufacturing and motorcycles.

However, I think that they could be doing it in a different way, and this is where I would put the money versus what they're actually doing, which is that, you know. The tried and true sales for Harley Davidson Their cruisers, their touring models, and the trikes stick with what you're good at. If you're gonna put innovation, put the innovation towards lighter materials. Okay, you wanna do a faster engine? Fine, that's cool. Like do that. But you are gonna put like, put the innovation towards making the electronics and making the uh, the GPSs in these motorcycles more sophisticated, easier to use.

Like that's what riders really want. The electric motorcycle is not there yet. Don't, if that's like not your wheelhouse, like don't worry about that. Just put the innovation in the lines that you currently have.

In the press release. They also mentioned that Harley has had a racing heritage background. Yes. In the seventies, Harley Davidson did race Moto GP motorcycles, but at that time the company was very different and the motorcycles were really different. If you take a look like a team obsolete, I, I believe owns one of the earlier Harley Davidson motorcycles that, uh, won a couple of the Grand Prix and it's super cool.

Where Harley Davidson had the most success was in flat track racing. It's a very American type of racing That makes sense with Harley. And if you look at the old Harley flat trackers, they're like really super cool.

Now I know that Indian tried to do this by putting out the F-T-R-F-J-R and it did not do well, and they actually decided to end production on that motorcycle, which I think is a bummer because they really could, I think they could have pushed that motorcycle more. And if Harley had gotten on board with that and decided to do something along those lines, like I think that they would've had much more success.

But for Harley to decide to. With a motorcycle that is so decidedly not at all racing, pedigree in any shape, way or form. Bagger just screams to me. Weekend ride eating potato chips, going out for barbecue and meeting up for their local hog chapter picnic. It does not on any level scream out to me. Let's go race.

So I just think they've really done a disservice to themselves to try to push this. And what's gonna end up happening in my mind is that I think that this is going to become globally a parody of Americans in racing, and it's just gonna be another point of like, oh, America trying to do this right? Like, who wants to watch these big ass motorcycles being raced? It doesn't make sense.

It is fun and kitschy for like one, two races. Okay. Yeah, I, I get it. Try that. But otherwise I feel like with Harley not doing well, like this is just such a waste of money. Put all this that you're investing 'cause you know that they're paying MotoGP Dorna an exorbitant amount of money to be included. In the race weekend, then Harley is going to build the six or eight motorcycles and have, or whatever, let's say they're gonna, they're gonna have to build more than that.

Let's say that they build a fleet of 20 motorcycles. They're going to have to pay for this and the transport costs and everything involved, like it's going to be an extremely expensive marketing ploy. so then I was thinking like, okay, if you know Harley's gonna go ahead with this, which they are, I'm like, what would actually make it fun?

Or what would actually make it exciting? And this is what I came up with. I'm like, okay, Harley, you wanna do this and you wanna spend the money on this marketing instead of getting these top pro. Athletes which look ridiculous in full sets of leather racing. These motorcycles again behind these fairings where you can't even see them and you can't even understand what athleticism that they are performing at with these motorcycles.

I had an idea and so this is what I'm going to propose. I think that what Harley should do. Is build these motorcycles, okay? I still think it's stupid that they're going to be a MotoGP, but whatever. Build these motorcycles and instead do a lottery in that anyone can participate in this lottery, meaning that John Smith from Springfield, Illinois can buy a lottery ticket, get his number and win.

A shot at being able to take one of those motorcycles and racing it around the T track in his jeans, his boots, his local chapter vest, and then go race. Now, how fun would that be if you get all these global people, normal people who are real Harley Davidson enthusiast, that really would just love to have the opportunity to be able to ride these motorcycles?

and compete and race like that, I think would be fun and exciting. if you're gonna just like push this whole kitch thing, like let's go there all the way, you know what I'm saying? All the way, not this like half-ass thing that they're trying to do with like this limited series and let's see how it goes.

We know how it's gonna go. It's stupid. It's stupid. Like Harley. Moto gp. I mean, are you guys also desperate for the money? I mean, obviously not. They're getting prepared to sell. So if Liberty Media is behind this and really wants to push this ridiculousness, then like, okay, all of that starts to make sense.

I had to share my thoughts on this because when I saw the press release on Instagram, I really was just like. What have we come to? This is like one of the worst marketing ploys that I have ever witnessed in my life.

And I just think that again. Harley's wasting money. I don't think that this is going to bode well for the company. I don't think that it enhanced the brand. It's not like NASCAR where, you know, I guess the saying used to be when the cars were more production oriented, that win on Sunday sell on Monday, it's not happening.

I had to just get on and talk about this because. I just think it's stupid and I think it's a waste of money, and I think that they could put their efforts into finding a great CEO and trying to turn this company around as best as they can within this economy. I. And with that being said, Harley, I just need to let you know that I'm available and if you would like someone who has great marketing and sales experience and manufacturing experience and racing experience, I'm your gal.

And I'd be more than happy to try to turn that company around given the opportunity. So just putting that out in the universe. I know I may not, you know, be best friends with Richard Branson, but I know a few fancy people and you know, I'm more than happy to meet some more. So anyway.

I would love for you guys to share in the comments what you think about this Moto GP collaboration. And lastly, what I would like to just mention about this collaboration is that this press release went out this week, right? So again, I, so I said that this was breaking news. And oddly, nowhere on the Harley Davidson homepage do they even mention that this is something that they're doing, which I find very suspect.

And then I went on to Moto America to just like take a look and see what they had on their website and pushed all the way. At the very bottom of their homepage was one tiny, article that I'm sure tomorrow won't even be there as it gets pushed aside for the news stories coming out.

I went to the Motory GP website and they also had nothing on their homepage about this collaboration, so I also find that very suspect, just saying. Anyway, I would love for you guys to let me know what do you think about the bagger series racing?

Do you love it? Prove me wrong. Like I, I'm all open I wanna understand what people find interesting or even remotely engaging about this type of racing, and do you think that it has a place in Moto GP? With that, as always, my friends ride smart. Ciao.

* OUTRO *