Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• \ 1 \ \. year, the Am erican Motor Scooter displacement ad vantage over overhead Association announced co nso lidatio n o f valve engines-dld little to further the its Chicago an d Provo, Ut ah, offices sport. But that is the short-range view o f with new headquarters to b e loc ated in th e issue. Denver, Col orado. Willi am T . Ber ry Jr. For it is eq ually true that with o u t the o f Provo was n amed executive secre tary o ngoi ng sup port, both moral and financial, of fir st th e Harley and Indi an of AMSA . C omp an ies , a nd s ubseq ue n t ly the T h e re we r e or g an i z a t i on a l Harley -Davidson Mo tor Company alone ; developments in vo lving th e AMA as well without the motorcycling ex pertise during th e pe ri od from 19 58 t o 19 6 6. mad e available to the AMA during its The still -cloude d story of American fo rma t ive stages by the lead ers o f the involvemen t with the FIM added a i nd u s t r y and witho u t the chapter in 1964 when the Motorcycle activity-generating efforts of th e local International Commit tee of the United Harley d ealers, most of who m were States (MICU S) was named the U.S . leadi ng memb ersh ip salesm en an d club representative to the FlM. The A..1\1A s p on s o rs , the American Motorcycle i m me diately made ano ther fo rmal Association an d in fact th e ca use of re q ues t f o r r e c o gniti on by the C e n e v a - b a sed i nter na t io na l organized motorcy cling would almost certainly not have prospered as it did. o rganizat ion . this time asking to rep lace The most visible area of manufacturer MICUS as the American affiliate and sub st an t ia t ing the request with letters of co n tr o l was in co m p et it io n . In E.C. Sm ith 's heyd a y , th e c o mp et ition r e c omm end ation f ro m .2 7 co m m ittee was said to con tai n eight manufacturers , di stributo rs , acce sso ry Harley representatives and eight Indian com p ani es and publications. representatives . Sm ith himself, acc o rding T he Competition Committee of th e to the legend, always cast the deciding AMA heard fro m p rofes sional rider s ,. vote on the side o f Harley -Davids on . Dic k Mann and Gary Nix o n in 1964 , The minutes of past committee reques ting representation fo r pro riders meetings don't ne cessaril y reflect that as on th e co mmitt ee. A recommendation a "rule," but it happened often eno ugh to that effect was submitted to and that it could easily be interpreted that accepted by th e Class B members of the way . AM A in their 'an n u al meeting the Through most of the history o f the foll ow ing February and in 1965 Roger AMA, its officers and quarters were Reiman and Dick Mann took sea ts as shared with the Motorcycle and Allied rider repre sen tatives on the Competiti on Tr ades Associ at ion. While not Committee. necessarily a criticism , it is certainly a L in Ku chler left t he A m erican truth that for most of its history, the 1\1 0 t 0 rcy cl e Associati on t o b ecome AMA has been simply an arm of the director of competition for NASCAR in motorcycle industry . late June , 1966. He had, despite th e The first move away from that pattern USMC situation of five years before , of domi nation by American ind ustry developed a real affinity for the Day ton a -bas ed operation which was nothing more than a power shift within the industry a ma tter of wh ich annually contributed so much to manufacturer ran the AMA rather than motorcycling through the Daytona 200. Kuchler's effo rts on behalf of clubs, th e the more basic question: "Should any publ ic relations program and the manufacturer (s) run the AMA?" That memb ersh ip i n general had -been sh ift came in October 1961 with the announcement of the accep tance of sign ific an t , but hi s first love was racin g and NASCAR offered h im th e BSA , T riumph and the then-revived In dian mot o r c ycle companies as opp ortunity to serve that master totally co rp o ra te members of the AMA and the in o ne 0 f the most ac tive racing organizations in the world , M&ATA. Once inside , the "foreign" manufacturers could begi n to chip away But th ere is con siderab ly more to the at th e H arley-Davidson domination story of the Lin Kuchler-to-William T. from within . Berry Jr. transition than the resignation Mu ch o f the lo osening of the Harley of one man and the appointment of grip was subtle , st ric tly internal and is a n other. This also marks a pivotal difficul t to documen t, but a number of period in one of the themes that can be m ajor event s during the traced through the en tire history o f the Kuchler-to-Berry shift help tie the story American Motorcycle Association. that together. of the domination of the sport-orien ted We have previously noted th e o rganization by th e power of the co n s oli dation of the office of the motorcycle industry. In the peri od • American Motor Scooter Association followin g the demise of th e Indian and th e ap point ment of William T . Motorcycle Co mp an y . that domination Berry J r. as executive secretary of that could j ustifiably be translated into the organization , head q uart ered in Den ver. so -called Harley-Davidson rule of the AMA _ In October 1965, the M&ATA merge d wi th the American Motor Scooter Association to fo rm the Motorcycle . THE MOVE TOWARD DEMOCRACY Sco o ter and Allied Trades Association. The close tie that existed between the One of the theories to explain this industry and sporting organization merger is that Lin Kuchler h ad already t h r o u g h o u t the early history of begun to think of leaving the AMA for A merican motorcycling has already NAS CAR and the Executive Co mmittee been examined. The AMA was, at the of AMA and M&ATAwas thinking in outset. no th in g more than a new name terms of a replacement for him. Bill for th e registered rider division of the Berry seemed a logical choice, but to Motorcycl e and l<\lli ed Tr ade s remove him from the American Motor Scooter Ass ociation , virtually a one-man Associa tion. The Board of Directors of M&ATA hired the secretary of the AM A sh ow a t that time, w ould almost and he was responsible to th at b oard. c e r tainl y ins ure the downfall o f a It is also true th at M&ATA did not b a s ical l y w orthwh il e indus tr y o rganizatio n. _ have sub st an tial funds with wh ich t o Thus the decision was made to merge opera te the AMA and during times of serious n e ed, the manufacturers. the tw o a s s oc i a tio ns and William notably Harley and Indian, responded Kennedy . president of the AMA , was with financial assis tance . also ele cted president of the The point has been !m ad e el sew here newly -formed Governmental Relations th at the manufacturers had a stron g Committee early in 1966. In that ve sted intere s t in t he A me rican cap acity he be gan t o work closely with Mot or c ycle As so ciation because a th e AMA Public Relations Committee in co p i n g w ith th e onslaugh t of vigo rous and healthy sporting body would create motorcycle activity and mo torc ycle-related legislation that that in tum would encourage sales. Thus accompanied the boom in sales that it made good economic sense for the ' began in the m id-60s. . Within a couple of months, Ku chler mo torcy cle manufacturers to back , the AMA. . had announced his resign ation t o go to It should fu rther b e Iio in ted o ut that NA S CAR. S ho r t l y thereafter, th e "contro l by Harley-Davi dson" h as Ex ecutive Committee an no unced th e historically been the , most popular hiring of William Berry to serve in the criticism of the AMA . This would re-named capacity of ex ec utive di rector se e mi ngly i ndicate that Harley's ' of the American Motorcycle Association domination was a nega tive influence. and the Motorcycle, Sc ooter and Allied Granted, a strong case can be made Trad es Association. To replace hi mself as head of the t h a t the last vestige ' of Harley's d om i n a t i o n o f t he C o m p e t i t i o n Go vernm en tal Relation s Committee o f t he MS& AT A , Be r r y h ired Pa ul Commit tee-vth e rule that allowe d their .~ .JIilfiJlIII1iPJ!willln~m:.l!l~ilr5 n: lOl.IoJ~~~i!·ia! ·5!. .. ive of Ce nterville, v • See ing is believing. Johnny Hargrove and his flying Harley. Joe Petrali dominated competition ,during the 1930·s. winning an estimated 50 Nati o nal events. . ...

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