Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~. FEATURE ~ C\.I O"'l O"'l ,......., ~ l.C") C\.I ...c u lo-< C\l ~ The Harley-Davidson success story 30~ 14 HQ HIt 21V. HCA n 16V. 10¥. HRE . 1.4Oe 10.7 30 3;ta ~ Hadson 37'l'. 23V. Haemon n ,51;2 3'1a HallFB 52'l'. 25\12 Ha/btn 1.00 3.7107 ~V. 4'l'. Halwod 2Z1;2 14V. HaneFb S .32 2.1 15 1].\12 15'1a HanJS 1.47 8.7 .. . 2{V. 2OV. HanJ I 1.840 8.0 .. . 1.~ ! H'2 Handlm .40 2.6 15 1 .5V. 9~ HandH .20 1.9 66 2?~ f9\12 Hanna .65 2.6 13 57V. 39~ Hanfrd .52 1.0 23 28~ 19% Hanfd wi ;~ 3~ ~s wt 23V. 16V2 Hanson 1.28e 24'l'. 21 V. Harlnd .90 ~ 26 ifev 141,~ 61f.r Harman 271;2 lJV. Harnish .40 2.1 10 34 2l V. Harris 1.04 3.3 14 39h 41~ ' Horsee 1.32 3.7 12 ~* 4,5V. HrtfdSt 2_00 4.3 13 lJV. pV. Hartmx 16~ 15'1a HattSe 1.50 8.5 12 3~/. 31% HowEI 2.24 6.3 15 22v. l~ He- Re n 14~ 9'1a HltRhb 1.24 10.1 12 501f.r 34\12 HlthCP 3.2ge 7.6 19 10 ~ 7'1a HlthEq .87e 9.4 23* 17 HCR n 18 371/. 18 HlthRh s 32 ~;-. 13~ Hlthtrst n . ' . ll~ HeeloM 13~ 23~ 23 21~ 21~ 23~ +~ 21\12 - \Ii 13V• . 12¥. 13V. + % ~ ,~ ,~ -~ 27V. 26\12 27~ + V. 4 3% 4 + V. 27V. 26~ 26~ - V2 8% 8% 8% 151h 15~ 15\12 + \12 16'l'. 16'l'. - V. 22\12 22'l'. + Va 15 15V. + % 10% 1~ - 14 24\12 2514 + 14 50\12 50~ - \12 26 26V. -2~ 4~ + V. +14 -14 ±14 -14 2' , • 'j!; ~ ,,:. 98 28 29 28 2t 4J' -~ + V. +% +~ i I + V. -\Ii -Y. - V. By Donn Maeda ay the nam e Harley-Davidson and many things come to mind. Perh a p s vi sions of beard ed, leat her clad bikers mounted on loud, black and ch rome motorcycles. Or maybe Marlon Brando in "T he Wild On e," Peter Fonda and Dennis Hop per in " Easy Rider," or how abou t james Dean an d Elvis. ' " they rode Har leys, didn't they? . In the 19505and '60s, the tough, black leather jacket image became a preferred style. Perhaps made popular by the S Marlon Brando movie previously mentioned, the "o utlaw" image was in. Through the many years since the company first began producin g motorcycles in 1903, the loo k of the Harley rider has changed. Althou gh the diehard Harley rid er still exists, a nd perhaps always will , a new genera tion ''' rebel'' has emerged on the scene. . Enter the rich urban biker, or " rubbie." Suddenl y, managers. lawyers, doctors a nd ban kers are Harl eymounted. White-collared weekend war- kay, so I've done a lot of research, visited several dealers and gon e to a lot ? f din trac~ races.. But one question mark still hung over my head - what's 11 actua lly hke to TIde a Harley? . There's only one way to find ou t, I thou ght . I had to see for myself . . . A q uick call to Bruce Chubbuck at the Harley-Davidson test fleet center in San Dimas, California. and I was set. My first Harley experience woul d come aboard the Dyna-Glide Custom, one of Harley's new computer-design -fram ed models. The Dyna-Glide frame was first in trod uced with the incep tion of the 1991 Sturgis, and is succeeded by the 1992 Li mited-Edition Daytona and Custom Models. The Dyna-Glide fram e is designed to look like the original rigid-mounted lowr iders of the 19705, whi le offerin g the smoother. better handling of the modern rubber-mo unted model s. " Have you ridden a Harley before?" asked Chubbuck with a worried look in his eye. " It's not like a j apa nese bike, you know. They take some getti ng used to." I couldn 't help bu t sm ile, Picture this: Ch ubbuck, a mi ld-ma nnered man in his early six ties, handing over a brand-new, $11,599 motorcycle to me - a 23-ye- r-old, d lon g-haired, j ap anese-American ama teur motocross racer. I assured him that although I hadn't ridden a Harley before, I understood the difference between a 212 lb., 40 . horsepower motocross bike and the ,'>98 lb., 70 horsepower 1340cc Dyna-Glide Custom. Well, as I soon discovered, the Dyna-Glide was unlike any thin g I'd ever ridden before. A stab at the starter button brought the big V-twin to life and a throaty exhaust not e filled the air. Though there is considerable engine vibra tion, I'm told that the new rubber-mounted frames are a dream compared to the rigid model s. Besides, the vibrati on . paired with the sound of the engine gives the bike a real feeling of "po wer." Riding the bike brought mixed emoti ons. I loved to cru ise around the streets; the Dyna-Glide is a real 'atten tion-getter, but at times I felt like a real poser . On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy taking the Harley on the freeway, With very little street riding experience under my belt, I'll admit I wasn 't comfortable surrounded b y multi-thousand pound four -wheelers, particularly during those infamous Los O riors gobble up every motorcycle that the factory can produce, often paying upwards of $15,000 for each unit. The recent trend has boosted the HarleyDavidson Motor Company's big -bike (75Occ and over) market share to 61%, way up from the 1983 figure of 23%. Wha t is more remarkabl e th an its increase in mark et sha re, tho ug h, is the turnarou nd th at th e com pa ny has made in the last decade. Hurt by the rep uta tion for produci ng unr eliabl e, leaky motorcycles in the 1970s, Harl ey emerged from the threat of bankru pt cy in 1985 to becom e one of the industry's front-ru nning companies. Harley's troub les began in the late 1950s when japanese manufacturers began to import small, low-p riced moto rcycles. Harley-Davidson pa id little attention since the smaller machines didn' t compe te directly with their larger heavyweight motorcycles, and figur ed that if anything , the smaller machi nes would boost their sales when owners longed for larger and faster machines. It wasn' t lon g, however, before the j apanese compa nies began to produce larger, Harl ey-look -alike motorcycles and cut into Harl ey-Davidson 's share of the mark et, The j apanese machi nes ran better, were more reliable, and most important ly - cost less. By th e I96Os, th e motorcycle boom was in full swing. and Harl ey was missin g the boat. japa nese competitors produced a full range of hi ghqua lit y mo torcycles , whi le Harley's forte lay in th eir heavyweights, A lim it ed production of lightwei ght mo to rcycles was not gr eet ed with success, and Harley cont in ued to lose customers. mostly new ent h usias ts, to their better-equipped competition. In 1965 H arl ey-Davidson went public to genera te capital, as more funds were needed to keep up wi th th e current motorcycle boom. In the next th ree years more than 1.3 million sha res in Harley-Davidson were sold , but in '1968 Harley discovered that a large amo u nt of stock was heldby a compa ny named Ban gor Pun ta. . Ban gor Pun ta had a reputation for takin g over and then disassembl ing compa nies, but its p lans were foiled by Am eri can Mach in e a n d Foundry (AMF), a leisure products company that want ed to share in the moto rcycle craze. In 1969, AMF, led by Chairman Rodn ey C ou , pu rcha sed the Harl ey-Davidson Motor Company and geared up to take on the j ap an ese competition head on. In the next two years, production n ea rl y tripled , a nd an additional ma nufacturing plant was added in Yor k, Pennsylvania. No longer were th e motorcycles fu ll y buil t a nd assembl ed in Milwaukee, Wisconsi n. wher e the company originated . T ho ug h AMF increase d Harl ey's production to keep up with the growing demand for motorcycles, their share of the market failed to increase accordingly. Almost as quickly as produ ction went up , the quality of the motorcycles went down . Harl ey began to earn the reputation as oil -dri ppi ng, unreliable machines. Nearly 60% of the machines that rolled off the assembly line failed to pass inspection, and dealers ' were o ften required 'to make addit io nal repairs before selling the motorcycles. When co m p ared to th e mor e advanced, less expensive and betterbuilt j apanese machines, it was understan dable why Harley's share of the market continued to dwindle. The situation was made worse by the large increas e in numbers o f japanese imported motorcycles. . In 1981 just as AMF was consideri ng selling Harley-Davidson , a group of senior Harley-Davidson executives with finan cial backing from Citicorp Industria l Credi t, purchased the ro mpany fro m AMF in a leveraged bu yout. Though they credited AMF with helping them survive throu gh a time of financial need, they felt that in order to full y restore the company, special atten tion had to be paid to qualit y rather than quantity. Things conti n ued to take a downward trend for Harley. As the motorcycle trend began to taper off, j apan ese manufacturer s imported and di s. cou nted th eir over-s toc ked mod els. dropping Har ley's sales even lower. In 1982, Harley-Davidson petitioned the Intern ationa l T rade Commissio n for tariff relief frorit the j apan ese manufacturers, claiming that they were "dump ing" their excess machi nes in America. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan imposed additiona l tariffs on japanese mot orcycles that exceeded 700cc. The tariffs were to have been in . effect for five years, wit h annua lly declining rates of 45,35,20, 15 and 10%. In the years after the ta riffs were imposed, H arley wor ked to broaden their customer range. Wh ile their loyal foll owing of "die-hard" bikers could make do wi th a motorcycl e that required a lot of attention , Harley realized that if they were to appeal to a wider variety of people they would Angeles rush hour periods. I know, I know . . . You 're probably thinkin g, " What a sissy!" Righ t? H ey, what's fun to me migh t not be fun to you . So, you ask, did I really have the " Ha rley" experience? Well, yes and no. Wherever I went , I could feel eyes focus on me. There is a mystique abou t a Harley-Davidson that comma nds a ttent ion. I liked that. People (girls, mostly ) that might not have given me a second look otherwi se, would say, " Hey, nice. bike," and would quite often sit and chat with me. I reall y liked that. But as I said earlier, there were times when I felt awkward about riding the Harl ey. On e particular time was at the gym. I often work ou t with a "real biker" who rides an older, rigid-framed Harley that he built from scratch. We met when he spotted me in the gym wearing a T -shin I bought at Sturgis last summer. One day when I rode the Dyna-Glide to the gym , he came up to me and asked, " Hey, did you see that snap-on parked out front? " Snap-on? I asked what he meant. " You know , one of those brand-new Harleys that all the RUBs bu yl" Well I do live in a suburb of Los Angeles, but I'm not rich, so I can't be a " Rich Urban Biker." He laughed when I sheep ishly replied that it was mine, but just as quickly, suggested that we go on a ride together. There is something that seems to bond Harley riders together, even if one is a die-hard and the other is a " RUB." So what is it about a Harley that's drawing so many new and past enthusiasts to the sport of motorcycling? Why would someone pay such a large sum for a bike when there are japanese look-alike versions available at half the price? What could earn so mu ch loyalty that owners would tattoo the Harley logo on their bodies? Maybe it's the history of the bike. you know, the Made in the U.S.A. bike that made Milwaukee famous. Perhaps it 's the look. feel and sound - the feeling you get when heads tum as you ride by. Or maybe it's a combination of these things, and more. Well, I really can't explain it. Even a popular Harley-Davidson issue Tshirt says, " If I have to explain, YQU wouldn't understand." I guess you'll have to ride one-for yourself and see. ...;..-...;..- - - - - -....,.-

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