AMF was pretty much the worst years for Harley Davidson. Back in the 70's when there was no fuel, and the American people were buying more efficient, quieter, and less expensive Japanese bikes. Honda come out with the slogan "You meet the nicest people on a Honda", and the mainstream ate it up.....and ate it up with big numbers. It was the counter culture to the counter culture. Regular people, without tattoos and scars from knife fights owned motorcycles. AMF made small sailing boats, bowling equipment, and a few failed cars. They purchased Harley and started making them less expensive to compete with the Japanese bikes..the problem is...the bikes were still made by hand, not on a modernized production line. The quality of the bikes suffered and ultimately, Harley got a pretty bad rep until the Harley family purchased the company back some years later.
The AMF years are notoriously shit bikes, but there is something I still love about them. Maybe it was the motorcycle gods telling Harley "don't change, these bikes don't have to compete, they are different, and Americans will buy them again". The fact remains, that Americans did, and the HD's have not changed all that much in recent years. People still see the value of a loud, heavy piece of American iron. They are simple machines, but no other bike has the same swagger. I'm glad AMF screwed the pooch, or harley would be building plasticky sport bikes right now.
I was not aware of the AMF history/reasoning but I enjoyed the lesson. The penetration of Japanese bikes into the US and European markets has fascinated me for years.
ReplyDeleteMuch like the use of miles/MPH in the otherwise metric UK, Harley's mixed use of metric and US measurements to name and spec their bikes is puzzling. I noticed the 1000cc on the side cover above and wondered if they started using the metric displacement at that time to provide consumers with an easier way to compare HD vs. Japanese bikes?
My guess would be that Harley adopted the metric displacement measurement half-heartedly and held onto the US measurement for the sake of tradition.