Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125991
By Lane Campbell Lincol n, Nebraska is both a co llege town (Go, Big Red !) and the state cap ito l. It is no w the h om e of America's newest motorcycle asse mb ly plant. That thi s plant is owned by a Japanese firm and builds Kawasaki s instead o f th at nebulous Great Ame rican Mot orcycle is eithe r an acci de nt of rim ing o r an indic ation th at Am erican m oto-in du st riali sts have no hair. May be tha t's an un kind cu t, as linancial h orsep ow er beats h air in any p oker game, an d Kaw asak i ju st go t the righ t am ount of m on ey teamed with the right people lirst. Th ough it see m ed a bit ludicrous at the tim e to hear Kawasaki Motor Corp . President Yoji lIam awaki d eclare at the plan t dedi cati on. " Th is is an Am erican motorcycle comp an y ," the Lincoln facili ty tends to be ar out his words in practice. . Think of it as J apanese money ($13 million in vest ed so far ) placed in the hands of an Ame rican manufacturin g team . The plan l managemen t (m ostly manufacturin g professionals hired from a broad spectrum of industries across th e country ) is told, in e ffec t, " Yo u get thi s much thi s ye ar, so much ne xt year, and so on . Buy with it what you c an ." They proc eed to bu y as mu ch production to olin g as th ey can affo rd each year, an d pe r fo rm as much o f the manufacturin g tas k as th ey have equ ip men t for. Any thing th ey can ' t do ge ts done in J ap an , They arc se t up n ow to assem ble complete m otor cy cle s on a mechanized three-branch lin e, and have been doin g so since J anuary . Th ey scratch -build fuel tan ks and frame s. A swingarm lin e is dummied in and will be operational in a few weeks. They paint fram es, tanks, and trim pieces o n a convey orized produc tion line , They lace their own wh e el s fr om J a p anese-supp lied com p one n ts. In total, th e bikes arc abo u t 25 % Am erican-built. By law , it's th e cri tical 25%, as th e stamped plate th at goes onto th e s tee ring head says " Made in U.S .A ." Th e Lin coln pl an t pre sen til' employs 23 5 p eople (m ostly local -hires) and c ran ks out 100 bikes a day, or abo u t 25 ,000 a year. When full y up to speed, so me 4 00 workers will turn o u t 100,000 bikes an nual ly fro m th e low, flat red-an d-white build ing nest led nex t to Lincoln 's je tport. Curren t p roduc tion is exclus ively KZ400s, the so-called "S" or "peasant" m odel with dru m fro n t b rake and no elec tric star te r wh ich re tai ls for $9 95 su ggest ed list. The Lin coln plan t is selling every one it c an bu ild in direct co mpeti tio n wi th Kawasaki J apan , an d ha r d-nosed m id western a l re ady Kawasa ki dealers are specifying "The Linc oln u nits" when they c an get them . A co mpe ti tive spirit is en cou rage d by Kawasa ki m an agemen t, and it sticks out as a type of jealous p ride, whe th er o ne is talking to line wo rke rs or to line fo rema n lI arrold Lon g. It 's n o t an un fo unde d pride, as Harr old c an poin t to a given work task an d say, "We ' re d oin g it 20% cheaper than t he J apanese alrea dy , and beating their q uality s tan da rds." To a p roduc ti on m an , th at 's heavy . Th ey are d oin g it by com bin ing good p ro d uc tio n m achinery with a skilled wo rk-force in ways th at show so me one did their h om ework. Accordin g to Lon g, the re 's far le ss hand labor a t Lincoln than a t Kayaba. Ye t few of the proce sses c ould be c alled truly " a u t o m a t e d " cu rren t levels of investm en t cal ling for s killed hands with mech ani cal help in favo r o f costly and undul y complex machin ery . For instance. o n th e fram e line. and p re-ben t tu bin g is pre-cut