Welcome to the Worldwide V8 Bikers Forum

I agree. With a one speed, especially with a clutch, there is too much compromise to deal with. They have to be geared low enough to allow some clutch life, so top end and cruising speed is affected. Still, they are not geared low enough to ride in town or traffic jams without a lot of lurching and overuse of the clutch

our clutch system works real well and all power goes directly to the rear wheel.no lurching at all.
we can also soon offer a upgrade to a 2spd with reverse for 5grand more

That sounds good BarbarianV8, wish I could test ride one with a 2 spd.

thanx Wag,i hope you can do that sometime soon

2years ago i was ready to move to the USA and start production over there.
the Buissess Visa to allow myself and my wife to live and work in the States was the dealbreaker.the Visa rules were so restrictive it made it impossible

cheers
warren

Is the two speed with reverse an automatic or clutch? Where are you getting them? 5K seems a bargain

we are working on a few options.
looks like the Winters Transmission can also fit on our bike with some small modifications.

Couple things about the 1 speed clutch bike, and I can only speak from my own experiences...

My bike, in it's 7000 mile and 18 year life, has never done a burnout. My ignition is junk, so the bike breaks up under any load. Never been over 20-25% throttle in gear - ever!

BUT, the bike will do over 100mph with less than 25% throttle, so I've dabbled in triple digit territory a few times and can say that if you want to "cruise" at those speeds, you're going to be running over 3500rpm, maybe into the 4000rpm area... but who can really cruise at those speeds for any length of time anyway? If you are, then you don't really care about the revs or the MPG... so you have no concern anyway.

My ride to work, at 65-80 mph is between 2800-3500 rpm.
Geardrive/pulley setup -
19 on the pinion.
30 on the ring gear.
32 on the transmission pulley.
70 on the rear wheel pulley.
I can't recall the tire size... but you can figure that out from the mph/rpm.

Anyway, at idle I'm at about 15mph. This is great for parking lots, traffic, or just low speed cruising. If you're in stop and go, which I HATE... yes... you're going to be on and off the clutch. But the heat will kill you before your clutch dies. If you have the vacuum assist, clutch pull is easy, and you're really just above idle and you're only moving an 800lb bike... so you're not going to be burning up any clutches like that. Low rpm low load, you can do that all day.

If it had a second gear, I would definitely cruise in 2nd.
If it had a reverse, I may use it under certain circumstances but the bike is much more nimble than a BH. Lower, lighter, shorter. I have long legs and a fat ass, so I have to confess, moving the BH wasn't much of a pain either. Nobody wants to push one of these if they don't have to though.

Anyone on here with a clutch bike would have to speak to hard launches or smoking the tire, I won't be able to do that until next year. I assume that with the power/weight that these bikes have, if you have the balls to crack the throttle, the bike will do what you want it to do in a hurry.

On the other hand, I really miss flipping the switch into drive and having a stall converter at my fingertips.

Not having an automatic is no reason not to ride a V8.

Warren, if you want to send a 2 speed my way, I'd be more than happy to share it with the boys over here and let them take it for a spin.
I've been following the Winters Tranny, I would need to change out the suspension completely for it to work, unless you had other ideas?

La Fong - I think that is a $5k upcharge on top of the initial cost of the 1speed.

hallo Jack
our frame is different from the King V.
our swingarm is also narrower and we only use 2 shocks.
no need to change the suspension on the Barbarian to get the Winters tranny to fit

TXscooterguy wrote:I ride my 2015 25th Anniversary Coupe to a lot of bike nights here in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area. It always draws a crowd. One of the first questions usually is "How much?" When I respond that this one was under $40k, they're impressed. Then they ask where the DFW dealer is located and I respond that the nearest showroom is in Houston, they're less impressed.

Isn't Curtis still a BH Dealer? I know he moved but pretty sure he still has inventory. I know he is near Dallas because he is who I bought mine from and I drove to Dallas to get it.

barbarianv8 wrote:hallo Jack
our frame is different from the King V.
our swingarm is also narrower and we only use 2 shocks.
no need to change the suspension on the Barbarian to get the Winters tranny to fit

Thanks Warren, are you running a softail style suspension under the bike? My concern was that I wouldn't be able to get the tranny pan low enough in the frame and still have suspension.

Would love to see a Winters transmission in action - in any bike.

petitemoose wrote:Isn't Curtis still a BH Dealer? I know he moved but pretty sure he still has inventory. I know he is near Dallas because he is who I bought mine from and I drove to Dallas to get it.

Curtis is now a Service Center in Midlothian, TX. It's by appointment only. He can still sell Boss Hoss products but he does not have units in stock. I'll be seeing Curtis for an oil change next week. I promised to bring a bag of donuts.

Dealers!

When I fell in love with Boss Hoss Motorcycles at Myrtle Beach Bike Week in 2001, I immediately went home, back in Richmond, Virginia, and put a deal together with Boss Hoss Cycles of Virginia. They were located 13 miles from my house and they were VERY fun to hang out with.

If the closest Boss Hoss dealer to me was "somewhere up near Pittsburgh," I probably would not have ordered a new $40,000 motorcycle.

It's a vicious cycle - new dealers don't do enough V8 volume to support the brand and consumers have concerns about the brand due to a lack of dealers.

It's too bad.... If potential buyers knew what we know, SO many more of them would buy V8s!!!

Good Luck Ricky, Travis, Susan & Bill!!!

WB

The Barbarian V8 is a great looking bike in my opinion. Its more like a conventional motorcycle, not big and bulky looking. If they can sell a V8 2 peed manual kit for under 40 grand they will start to break into the market. When others see them being ridden and talk with the owners they might surprise us with the sales. For many its real fun to build a bike, a kit kind of makes it your own. When you build something yourself you tend to treasure it more. In any case the more V8 bikes that are seen being ridden the more acceptable they become to the mainstream riders.

Wild Bill wrote:Dealers!

When I fell in love with Boss Hoss Motorcycles at Myrtle Beach Bike Week in 2001, I immediately went home, back in Richmond, Virginia, and put a deal together with Boss Hoss Cycles of Virginia. They were located 13 miles from my house and they were VERY fun to hang out with.

If the closest Boss Hoss dealer to me was "somewhere up near Pittsburgh," I probably would not have ordered a new $40,000 motorcycle.

It's a vicious cycle - new dealers don't do enough V8 volume to support the brand and consumers have concerns about the brand due to a lack of dealers.

It's too bad.... If potential buyers knew what we know, SO many more of them would buy V8s!!!

Good Luck Ricky, Travis, Susan & Bill!!!

WB

If potential buyers knew what we know so many more of them would buy V8's .
That is the key right there . I'm suprised that more people after a demo ride aren't hooked . That's all it took for me and I've been in a love affair with my bike since I bought it new in 2000 .
By the way Bill , I bought my bike from that dealer by Pittsburgh. Unlimited Specialties owned by George Buckley

HOGV8

Wild Bill, It's good to see you post on this forum. A good B.H.R.A. President should IMHO. Keep reading what we have to say. Together we can make Boss Hoss stay ALIVE & WELL! Triker

SQ4MN=thanx so much for the compliment

i have always beleived that Barbarian v8 could do great things in America.

in fact,when i heard that Ricky had taken over the famous Boss Hoss factory,i tried in vain to contact him.
i thaught it would be awesome if he could manufacture the Barbarian in the USA in the same factory as Boss Hoss=
zero increase in overheads and another great v8 product in the lineup, and also get into the kit[bike and trike]buisness.

Bought my first Hoss at Phantom cycles just outside Pittsburgh Pa ..Not much of a dealer ,, But they had cool T-shirts..

hogv8 wrote:

Wild Bill wrote:Dealers!

When I fell in love with Boss Hoss Motorcycles at Myrtle Beach Bike Week in 2001, I immediately went home, back in Richmond, Virginia, and put a deal together with Boss Hoss Cycles of Virginia. They were located 13 miles from my house and they were VERY fun to hang out with.

If the closest Boss Hoss dealer to me was "somewhere up near Pittsburgh," I probably would not have ordered a new $40,000 motorcycle.

It's a vicious cycle - new dealers don't do enough V8 volume to support the brand and consumers have concerns about the brand due to a lack of dealers.

It's too bad.... If potential buyers knew what we know, SO many more of them would buy V8s!!!

Good Luck Ricky, Travis, Susan & Bill!!!

WB

If potential buyers knew what we know so many more of them would buy V8's .
That is the key right there . I'm suprised that more people after a demo ride aren't hooked . That's all it took for me and I've been in a love affair with my bike since I bought it new in 2000 .
By the way Bill , I bought my bike from that dealer by Pittsburgh. Unlimited Specialties owned by George Buckley

HOGV8

Delaware Demon called me last night and corrected me . George Buckley's dealership was near Philadelphia not Pittsburg . Hey it was 17 years ago , CRS

randy burkey wrote:Bought my first Hoss at Phantom cycles just outside Pittsburgh Pa ..Not much of a dealer ,, But they had cool T-shirts..

I was there also Randy to b see if I could test ride a Boss but they didn't have one t h at v was up and running , bought a T shirt , I remember it had a skull and crossbones on the sleeve .

As TXscooterguy stated about Curtis in TX., "He is a service center". IMHO, as these dealer's contracts come up for renewal with the BH factory, they are opting out of being a full dealership ! They choose to go the way of being a "service center" instead. This way they don't have to be paying their bank for new inventory setting in their showroom floor, ie: not required to maintain a new inventory. They can still order a new BH from the factory, if they can get a serious deposit down though.
This both helps BH get "service centers" and hurts BH for lack of selling dealer inventory ! Craig H.

if V8 Choppers can do very well without having any Dealers at all,then why is it so important that Boss Hoss needs a large Dealer network in order to do well?

craig haymaker wrote:As TXscooterguy stated about Curtis in TX., "He is a service center". IMHO, as these dealer's contracts come up for renewal with the BH factory, they are opting out of being a full dealership ! They choose to go the way of being a "service center" instead. This way they don't have to be paying their bank for new inventory setting in their showroom floor, ie: not required to maintain a new inventory. They can still order a new BH from the factory, if they can get a serious deposit down though.
This both helps BH get "service centers" and hurts BH for lack of selling dealer inventory ! Craig H.

Back in 2009 before Detroit Boss Hoss "bellied up" the owner asked Boss Hoss if they could become a service center until the economy picked back up in the Detroit area. The answer that came back from BH at that time was "NO". Either order 3 units every model year per the contract, or go under. Times, they are a changing. Triker

At that time almost 80% of the bikes went to Germany (Europe) and Monte and the Crew felt like the king of the world.
Then after Rad left, Monte and Doug teamed up to just lean back and do nothing to improve the product. Just watching the cash cow.
When work came up on the horizon to comply with new European laws they just did nothing but talk a lot. Today, as a matter of fact, bikes that cant be sold in California, cant be sold in Europe; not even as "used" bikes. Period.

Also then the first rumors came up that Monte wanted to sell the company. They were talking about 12 million Dollars at that time. Still nothing happend.

Then they ran out of transmissions and did not produce any bikes for more than 14 months!!! And neither Doug or Monte really cared.

They just let the horse die. As the old Indians say: never try to bring back a dead horse to life.

I once admired him, but looking back, Monte for me is just a super duper asshole!!! This idiot let down a prospering company and lost at least 10 million dollars just by loosing interest in the company and probably doing to well elsewhere. The country boy just did not want to have the hassle to run an international operating company.

Not even thinking about all the dealers and customers that were let down.

So the horse is still breathing. Ricky is trying to catch up and do everything in a couple of month that should have been done in the last six years.
I still hope it can be done and wish Ricky all the best and keep my fingers crossed. But the old Indian would have walked away a long time ago.

Hang in there, Rick. The economy has sucked for many since the Great Recession. Joe Sixpack on the street is still struggling.

To All: All this crap about the price being too high, at least in regards to the trikes, I feel is bs. All the time, people are buying a new Goldwing, or HD for $24,000. Take it to a Hannigan or Roadsmith dealer, add another $24,000, and you’ve got a decent trike. So, $50,000 is the price of admission. People are doing this a lot, the kit installers are busy. To me, another $20-25,000 for a BH isn’t out of line. The market for the high-end trikes is the Boomers, the ones that have retired, and the younger ones that a getting ready to retire.

502Wingman is right. The biggest hurdle, or at least one of them, for Rick & Company is the reputation. We all know it doesn’t take too much searching to read a library’s worth of bitching by BH owners. A newbie would soon realize, or think, Geez, I’ve got to be a five star mechanic with a garage and full set of tools… I’ve got to rewire/reweld/replace/redesign/re-do this whole friggin thing! Sadly, historically this has been true. People will pay the price, if they can hop on it, and ride across this amazing country of ours without fear of breaking down.

Rick & Company have the passion, knowledge, and ability to right the wrong. I have no doubt about that. There will be some pretty (mentally) depressing times, but I have the feeling that Rick is one of those people that doesn’t fail. Although my heart goes out to the new owners, as they walk through what they are, I remain excited for the future of the Company. After all, who wouldn’t want a bike or trike designed and built by Rick? Yee friggin haw!

for a business that manufactures a niche market product,a large dedicated factory with numerous employees can become a serious drain on resources, unless you have very deep pockets.
you need to be very streamlined ,or diversify.
for many years i worked together with a well established motorcycle shop.when we were not building Barbarian v8 bikes,we were building and repairing custom and vintage Harleys.
my partner of the last 5 years owns a large engineering business.hes main line is structural engineering,and he also builds truck bodies,alluminium boats,Barbarian v8 motorcycles and v8 sanddragger bikes.

the days of small motorcycle manufacturers selling hundreds of bikes per year are long gone.
pre 2008 Recession,there were lots of relatively small companies each selling hundreds of bikes per year eg BigDog,Titan,BigBear etc.they all went broke and many people lost faith in the small manufacturer.
Confederate is a good example of a motorcycle company that went broke trying to sell high volume.
Confederate are now very successful selling quality limited edition bikes