You all are missing the point. You can now look just as cool parked in front of Starbucks for LESS MONEY! And though the bike is cheaper the mass manufactured accessories to make it yours are the same price and cost just as much to install so the dealer still makes money. Win-win.
Seriously though, I'd love to see HD do something really different. It seems their marketing has been too successful. They aimed to sell the old school, heavy, loud, rumbly bikes to baby boomers and they did. They sold the dream. Of course, now if you try to change the dream you can't. They don't make standard bikes, they don't make sports bikes, they make raked out cruisers with air cooled engine and any deviation from that spoils the dream. The V-Rod is just a small step away from that and the purists hate it. Water cooled? Hate it.
To be fair though, it seems these smaller bikes are aimed at selling the dream in other countries. And over there they may be more willing to accept something that doesn't exactly match the classic blueprint.
Scott