CRUISIN' FOR COMPETITION; NEW BIKES CUT IN ON HARLEY'S TURF.

Byline: Jim McCraw The New York Times

For more than 90 years, Harley-Davidson motorcycles have reigned as the kings of the American open road. Harley drove off all its domestic competitors, one by one, and once the Indian Motorcycle Co. ceased production in 1953, the Milwaukee company stood alone as the only American manufacturer of motorcycles.

The company's legions of faithful customers insist that Harley makes the only motorcycle, period.

But Japan's Big Four - Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki - all sell Harley-Davidson clones, motorcycles that emulate the Harley look, sound and feel. Harley's share of the American market has fallen in the past decade even though its sales, nearly 60,000 a year, are at a record high.

Harley, based in Milwaukee, makes lightweight sport bikes and huge, full-dress touring bikes, but the heart of its market is cruisers: heavy, expensive motorcycles with large-displacement, slow-revving V-twin engines and the low seats desirable for leisurely riding.

And the company makes a complete line of accessories and apparel that helps owners individualize their gear. (Harley's 1997 accessory catalog has more than 270 pages.)

When Japanese clones began to arrive in the United States in the late 1980s - Suzuki's Intruder was the first - Harley was incensed that Honda had managed to duplicate its engines' distinctive sound, a result of Harley's simple crankshaft layout.

Harley applied for a trademark on the sound, a distinctive potato-potato-potato rhythm at idle and a staccato beat at cruising speeds.

The four Japanese motorcycle leaders have a full range of cruiser bikes, high-quality machines that are lighter than Harleys and have more modern engines. Delivery is quicker because the companies have more manufacturing capacity, and their prices are lower.

Because Harley cannot meet the worldwide demand for its motorcycles - even with plants in Milwaukee and York, Pa. - there is a waiting list for Harley cruisers, and many Harley dealers routinely charge markups over the list prices.

A new plant in Kansas City, Mo., is to open next year, raising Harley's manufacturing capacity to about 210,000 motorcycles a year by 2003, from 130,000 today. Harley expects that the added volume will bring customers into its fold who had previously ``settled'' for one of the Japanese cruisers.

Honda's cruisers come in two flavors: the 1,100 cc V-twin Shadow and Shadow ACE and the 1,500 cc flat-six Valkyrie.

Yamaha's cruiser family is built around the Royal Star, three models with 1,300 cc V4 engines. Trying to attract Harley hopefuls, Yamaha had 130 accessories, including fancy seats, chrome trim and apparel, ready on the day the Royal Star was introduced two years ago.

Kawasaki has its Vulcan, boasting the largest V-twin engine in captivity, a 1,500 cc unit that dwarfs the 1,340 cc engine that Harley uses in all its large cruisers. And Suzuki produces a range of aptly named Intruder 1400 cruisers, deliberately designed with not quite the look and feel of a Harley.

While the typical Harley-Davidson cruiser uses air-cooled engines, belt drive and overhead-valve engines with two valves per cylinder, the Japanese use cleaner, quieter, low-maintenance shaft drive, and their engines are overhead-cam designs with three or four valves per cylinder for cleaner, more efficient combustion.

Historically, neither Harley nor its Japanese rivals discloses the horsepower of their engines, or their sales figures. An industry consultant, Don J. Brown of Irvine, says the American cruiser market grew 9 percent in 1995 and 16 percent in 1996, to just over 119,000. He expects a gain of 14 percent this year, to about 136,000.

Brown says cruisers are driving much of the industry's growth, accounting for more than 58 percent of street-bike sales. He estimates that Harley will take 52.5 percent of the cruiser market this year, down from 55 percent in 1991, and the four Japanese companies will combine for 47.3 percent, with Honda at 16.4 percent, Suzuki at 11.5 percent, Kawasaki at 10.7 percent and Yamaha at 8.7 percent.

More potential bad news for Harley: BMW, the German giant known for its sporty luxury cars, has introduced its own cruiser, the R1200C.

Polaris Industries of Minneapolis, a producer of snowmobiles and watercraft, announced its new Victory 1500 cruiser for 1998. And the Excelsior-Henderson brand, dormant for decades, is being revived in cruiser form by Dan and David Hanlon, brothers from Belle Plaine, Minn., with their 1,400 cc Super X cruiser, due to go on sale next year.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) HARLEY

(2) HONDA