MI State police goes BWM

[Slide Panda]

Michigan State Police did a round of test on two HD models, a BMW, A kawi and two Victory models for a new bike supply contract. BMW won the contract

Test result sheet which makes for some interesting reading
http://www.freep.com/assets/freep/pdf/C4192395722.PDF

0-60 and 0-100 times are a bit shocking. The American bikes made 100 in no less than 18 (and change) seconds. The Electra Glide made 100 in a whopping 31.60 seconds

Article
"July 23, 2012, 2:24 p.m. EDT
Detroit Free Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State Police may be saying bye-bye to the American-made Harley-Davidson and Vroom! Vroom! to BMW as its motorcycle of choice.
Nine BMW R1200s were purchased in April and joined the Harley-Davidsons on the department's fleet of 24 motorcycles, the Detroit Free Press reported (Michigan State Police fleet is no longer all-American, as BMWs move in on Harleys | Michigan news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com ) Monday.
The German-made police bikes simply performed better in annual tests, state police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said.
"It was something we put a lot of consideration into," Banner said. "We are Americans, after all; we're in Michigan, home of the auto industry. It was all about safety and performance. That's what the whole vehicle-testing program is about. We really could no longer ignore what we were seeing in the tests."
The Detroit Police Department received the company's first police motorcycle in 1908, according to the Harley-Davidson website.
A performance test from last fall ranked the BMW R1200 faster with superior handling and better safety features. The motorcycle's top speed is 131 mph. The Harley's top speed is 104.
It also costs less. BMW bid $23,549 and $24,022 this year. Harley-Davidson's bids were $24,406 and $24,791.
Motorcycles are re-evaluated each time the state police decide to buy more, Banner added.
A state police analysis also said a Harley is a "capable vehicle for parade and ceremonial use."
Harley-Davidson is based in Wisconsin. It has 23 dealerships in Michigan, said Vince Consiglio, Harley owner and president of a motorcyclist rights group.
"I was surprised to hear that the people who brought us the Pure Michigan campaign would not buy bikes made by our neighbors in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania," Consiglio said.
Pure Michigan is a marketing and advertising campaign promoting Michigan-made products and the state as a tourist destination.
BMW's motorcycles are used by state police in a number of states and other police agencies in Michigan, according to BMW Motorcycles of Southeast Michigan spokesman John Horner.
The dealer sold the R1200s to the Michigan State Police."

[mitt]

Cool find.

mitt

[IZ]

Well, hopefully I won't see any when I go home for a visit.  Not going to sit well with a lot of the folks back there.  About time though!  Most of the departments back in AZ use BMWs and Kawis.  I see a lot of here in Austin though. 

[Staggerlee]

One would think that they would have DQ'd the Victory on looks alone.

Eeesh.

[Scooter Montgomery]

One would think that they would have DQ'd the Victory on looks alone.

Eeesh.

That Victory Vision just hurts my eyes. Nothing about that bike says quick or nimble just by looking at it.

[sgollapalle]

Well, I just hope that they don't go that route with the car fleet.. Its already become difficult to spot them with the new unmarked chargers/challengers/mustangs 

[zooom]

tis a shame they didn't consider the Honda ST1300.

[SDRider]

CA has had them for more than a decade now.  Great bikes, ABS standard, reasonably fast and very safe.

The BMW dealer here is right down the street from my Ducati dealer.  I swing by there from time to time and they always seem to have a few CHP motorcycles in for maintenance.

[Fergus]

They're going BMW here in Utah, too.

I wonder how being the de facto standard for police use has affected HD's business planning over the years. How large is this govt market? If HD had to make an effort to get the police business, maybe it would have pushed its product lines toward better performance...

[Slide Panda]

How large is this govt market? If HD had to make an effort to get the police business, maybe it would have pushed its product lines toward better performance...

For the whole US? You're talking thousands of bikes country wide. Of course, there's a much smaller segment for new purchases for any expansion or retirement of currently in service vehicles.

But it's still probably a decent unit volume per year. With HD loosing their (seemingly) sole supplier role smart folks there have gotta note the change in the way the winds are blowing... Though they really don't seem to, historically, pay much attention to that.

[DrDesmo]

Well, hopefully I won't see any when I go home for a visit.  Not going to sit well with a lot of the folks back there.  About time though!  Most of the departments back in AZ use BMWs and Kawis.  I see a lot of here in Austin though. 

Don't want to stray into the topic of "politics" - but I always thought this country, and indeed capitalism, was founded under the belief of "may the best man win."

HD is a very well marketed company, sadly that doesn't translate to product.

Cheers,
Adam

[IZ]

Don't want to stray into the topic of "politics" - but I always thought this country, and indeed capitalism, was founded under the belief of "may the best man win."

HD is a very well marketed company, sadly that doesn't translate to product.

Cheers,
Adam

I read my post you quoted and I was missing "HD" in that last sentence.  I see a lot of them here in Austin still.  HD won the "best man" contest with the military though against Indian and now it's their turn.

[bevel]

Don't want to stray into the topic of "politics" - but I always thought this country, and indeed capitalism, was founded under the belief of "may the best man win."

HD is a very well marketed company, sadly that doesn't translate to product.

QFT

The whole purpose of a "best man" competition is to outline the specs that are highly desired by the agency, and then choosing the product that best meets or exceeds those specs. HD can either get butt hurt over losing the contract and try to build a PR mess about the agency choosing products that weren't made in America, or they can go back to the drawing board and learn from these defeats and retool their offering.

[Duck-Stew]

If HD had to make an effort to get the police business, maybe it would have pushed its product lines toward better performance...

They did have Eric Buell for a while.  He knows a thing or two about performance... 

Oh wait, they fired him.  Oh well. 

Rest assured, however, that Michigan can still use the HD fleet for parade and ceremonial use.   

(Side-Factoid: When last I lived in MI (1999), Detroit PD still had a small fleet of Honda Rebel 450's.)

[bevel]

What the heck did they use the 450s for? Chasing kids on pedal bikes?