Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

WD: I have a very interesting FX t hat I ride _ t o work - th aI has - a coupl e-of unusual pieces on it because I'm wrappe d up in design , I have a couple of un usual automobiles . I guess I h ave gasoline i n m y vei ns . I have a mo torho me an d I like to go camping wit h m y f ami l y a nd pull som e motorcy cles behind. I'm a watercolor artist and p ain t rathe r religio usly during th e winter m on th s. I co llect an tiques and I drin k good Scotch. JD: I guess I' m the n orm al businessman. I end up spending som e of my weekends do wn here workin g. Otherwise, I' m home by seven at night . I cu t the grass when it ne eds it. I do some riding in the off hours and, like Bill, I enjoy camping trips with m y fam ily. CN: Does the j ob allow y ou as much free ti me as you'd like to have? JD: We're no t the co un t ry cl ub set . A lo t of hours are spent in running this business. We don' t have people w ho can put in a four or five hour day selling their product on th e golf course. It 's j ust no t th at type of proposition. JH: T ell him a b o ut your r e al love-getting ou t in that duck blind. JD: I gu ess that is my real recre ational pursuit, duck hunting. Periodically with Mr. Harle y we go o ut on Green Bay for a little relaxation. John hits them better than I d o . JH: Well I d on 't know about that. You did pretty well las t year (laughter) . JD : I get lu ck y once in a wh ile (m ore laughter). CN: What's yo ur spare ti me like Mr . Harley ? devote _ a lo t of time-to in take and exhaus t no ise an d me chanical n oise to t r y ' a n d meet t h e va rio us state r e q u ireme n ts, Ho w to me e t t hese vari ou s governmen t regulations is t alked about m ore and mo re in our product p lanning. CN: How does it affe ct managemen t in so far as y our decision ma king fo r fu t ur e p roduc ts ? JD: I share Bill's view in that it is very tim e co ns uming in trying to d etermin e the best course to meet these various regulations and p roposed regulations. There is a proposed standard on emissions in California right now that, if legislated, nobody in the ind ust ry would be able to meet. Nobody! The question b ecomes, from a management standpoint, what track do you take in product development, in continuing engineering and what kind of co sts are you faced with to determine whether you can meet t hese standards. I can guarantee that some of the programs that we had going which involved both inhouse activity on emissions and sound and consultant activities were (and are) very co stly. They constitute a high percentage of our total engineering dollar. As far as the future product is concerned my own feelings ar e that the conven tional in ternal co mb ustion engine is going to be with us for a number of years in t he future . Th is is not to say t hat H-D is not watching very ca r e f u 11 y d e velopm en ts of--for examp le-gas tu rb ine en gines and t he developmen t of ro taries. I feel that in t h e au t o ind ustry as well as the motorcycl e in dustry th at the internal product line as a road to survival in th e m ar ket place ? JD: I think to stay co mpetitive in the mar ket place yo u have to tak e good care of your dealers an d give t hem a st ro ng p r oduct line . You can't b e just a specialist in certain little areas. We try t o su pply our d e ale r s wi th a well rounde d line u p so t hat h e can start with a 16 year old boy an d take him all the way fro m a 125cc b ike t o an X LH. I t h ink t ha t' s th e marketing thinking beh ind t he w hole t hing. On the other hand I think it's imp ortan t to mention that we don't plan to be another Honda because you get into proliferation to t he point where you have difficulty at the dealer level in providing t he service that has to go with the product. CN : What is the process of decision making. Is there still some sort of "famil y" conference? JD: No it's all referred to a product de ve lopment comm ittee . It' , a forma lized process. You can't be informal anymore , the business is just t oo co mplex . You must follow things up w i th committees and written instructions by certain dates. It 's too big a can of worms to do it informally. I wish we could because t h at would be ideal,but it 's just too complicated. WD: You've got to get all that stuff in writing. There can be one t h ing from legisl ation, one thing from engineering etc. , et c. , and it's all got to be recorded. It 's t he only way y ou can do it anym ore .. CN: Are y o u planning to st ay in t h e design field Bill ? WD: Yes, I' m kind of a spe cialist . I wo uld h ave to use t hat term an d , as I said b efo re , I was kind of programmed t hat way in t he early years. 1 li ke design very m uch and that seems to be where my talents lie and I ho pe to be here a long time . CN: Yo u've be e n in v ol ved in motorcy cling for over 40 years Mr. Harley . Could we tal k a D lt about Ha rley -Davidso n' s inv olvement wi th t he AMA? JH: We at H-D kn ew that over the years if you sold a m otorcy cle to som eb ody yo u h ad to give him something to do with that m otorcycle . Har ley used the AMA in t hat way t o give the purchaser something o rgan ized to do with his bike and eventually made h im wan t to buy a new one. I still think that applies today. Even more now that motorcycling is involved in legislation and land use and other things of t hat so rt. The AMA has a f u n ction besides just rac ing and competition. CN : Do you have a favorite racer from over the year 's sir? JH: I'd have to say old Joe PetraIIi. Uncle Joe. I go back that far. It was a di fferent kind of rac ing then . CN : Did an y of y ou ever get the urge to compete professionally ? _ WD: Sure. I t h ink all of us have harb ored a Walt er Mit t y feeling a t som e time . JD: Yes . I guess I'm like Bill. When we were at t hat age when y ou get involved in racing we had some parental gu idance t h a t s a i d, 'Y 0 u w ill no t r a c e professionally .' So we didn't. But we d id co mpete in drag r acing and endures and such . (Laugh t er.) The guidance was more like a directive. CN: Was there a lot of guidance given to the thought of the career you might pursue. JD: No . It never happened to me. I graduated from college in 1957 and rather than go to work for H-D I took a j ob with AIlis-Chalmers in a training course. I stayed WIth them until 1960 and at that time I was approached by Walter Davidson . He st rongly recommended and encouraged me to come here which I did. I guess the heritage, the blood in the veins that has a little motorcycle in it formed my decision. It was something that I just couldn't turn away from. Bill's situation is much th e same. WD: I spent five years with Brook Stephens (an industrial design iJ irm involved with Evenrude, Studebaker and r e sp o n s ib le for the Excaliber SS automob i le) a s a des igner. What happened then is that H-D expanded to the point where they needed a full fledged design department and my fat he r cam e t o me. It was a grea t opport unity. It was a kind o f a d ream de al for me and I was very in terested. CN: Mr. Harley , yo u said that y o u worke d summe rs here during h igh school. JH: Yes, b ack in t he dep ression . Th e first job I had they handed me a b room and I swep t floors for 18 cents an hour : th at was in 19 31. I ca n't re m em ber if I ever thought o f working so me other" pl ace . CN: Are there an y spe cial reasons wh y Harley has remained in Milwaukee ? JD: Well the famili es root s were here when they got established and there has never been any reason to change. The industrial climate in t his area is good . and th ere are a lot o f skill ed worker s here . Milwauk ee is very in tensive in metal working. T here has ne ver been a strong reason to move. The co st o f p icking up and moving after y o u' ve bee n established is enormous. It would take three y ear s just to get back to the production levels we 're at today. AlSo you would displace so many people that you'd be involved in extensive training and maybe the skills that you needed wouldn 't be available in your new location. There are many factors why Milwaukee has , and will be , home for Harley-Davidson. . ' • JOHN DAVIDSON WILLIAM DAVIDSON JH: Well, like John I cut the lawn about onc e a week. I. pl ay golf although not enough and not too we ll. I go sailing with my wi fe and, in th e winte r we do a lit tle curling (This is a fo rm of competition on ice where the o bjec t is to slide a heavy st one along the ice and have it sto p in an exa ct sp ot. One p erson m ust ru n in front of the curl and whisk the ice with a broom to increase or decrease the speed. ..Editor). We are going to try to go to Scotland t h is winter and curl with th e Scots in m ixed competition. And , as we said, I do a little duck hunting. CN : What course do you see motorcycling t aking in the future? WD: I think one of the biggest things that is happening righ t now and that has be en going on for the last couple of y ears is th e legislati on on sound levels and em issions. This sort of thing is taking more and more ti me and is affecti ng des ign. I think t he .two-str oke could b e a virtual ly impossible product b y 19 8 0 dependin g on wh at the emissions people d o. We must also combustion engine is with us for the fo rsee able fu ture. Ours is a question o f modifi c ation of . that engine and making it better, o f updating it. We have developmen t projects in t he works as well as loo kin g at the other prospec ts mention ed. CN: H-D seems to b e doing very well in certain off ro ad even ts although that is not th e image that most pe ople think o f when they think H-D. Is t here an effo rt to get in to the o ff ro ad market? JD: We are making an effort to become more deeply involved in off road activity with the mo tocrosser which we are now assembling and we are trying to support o ff road activities such as the Baja. We damn near won overall this year, but missed it b y a scant two seconds. I think y ou' ll see more of us in the off road spectrum of the sport. WD: You know we used t o be very strong in endurance runs , scramb les and things alo ng t hi s line . When the two-stro ke s ca me in th ey took that away fro m us, but as John says we are tendi ng to get b ack into it . CN : T hen d o you see d iver sifica tion of 37

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