Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Tod Rafferty The MUwaukee company history is published in a handsome, paperbound booklet titled, " The Story of HarleyDavidson" . It ' s a r athe r sli ght V Olume, only 55 pages. The sepia-tone photogr aphs evoke an old fashioned, almost quaint image of America's only motor cyc le manufacturer. One word come s to mind; a word ofte n used, by so me as cr iticis m and by other s as pr ais e, to characteriz e the Harley-Davidson Motor Company: CONSERV ATIVE. The text closes with the following words : . " Harley- Davids on grew uP in the twentieth century, a period when the wor ld changed more rapidly than ever befor e . ThUS, management learned early that they would have to mak e cha nges in keeping with the changin g times . "The Company's prosperity and strength after years of economi c booms, bus ts , depression, r ec ession, inflation, war s , market changes and domestic and foreign competition s hows how well they learned the lesson of proper and tim ely change. " The two famlUes did not hesitate to make Harley- Davids on s tockaval lableto the publlc when, In Apr il of 1965, they saw that suc h action would make the company more via ble and would insur e fur ther expansion and gr owth. " Aft er going publtc, Har ley-Davidson 's management found itself .with an - added responslbthty, not only did U:tey have to meet the growi ng needs of cus tomers a nd dealer s , but they now had to r ecognize theIr obllgattons to their new s tockholder s . HARLEY " Becaus e of this duty to stockholders and to assur e dealers and customers that Harley-Davidson would continue to satisfy their increasing demands , late in 1968 management r ecom mended a mer ger with another gr ea t 'corpor ation, American Machine and Foundr y Company, a wor ld wide leader In the production and dIstributi on of leIsure tim e and indus trial products. The merger went into effec t in January 1969, and since then it has become evIdent that an exc iting new chapter In the Harley- Davidson s tory is just begInnIng." What follo ws is an examinati on of Chapter One of " The New Harley-DavIdson Story" , a s the butldar s . of the venerable V-twin enter their fifth year under the AMF corporate banner . WHAT HAPPENE D AN D WHY The Pre -Boom Ye ar s Before explortng bet ween the llnes of the company s tatement above, let's look into Harley Davidso n' { less r ece nt history: Har ley was n' t hur ting. From the mid- Board trackln' was big In the 1920's. e .., '" U) ;: w Z W ...J U > U It a ll started here In 1903. DAVIDSON/ A M F : s ixties to the present day, cus tomer demand for the big Mil waukee iron bas exceeded the s upply. When the real growth of Amer ican motor cycllngbegan, ar Just after Wor ld W II, mos t of the earlles t manufactur er s had called it quits. The names Yale, Minnesota, Pope, Merkel, Cleveland, Thor and Henderson belonged to anoth er er a . With the demis e of Indian in 1953, Har ley-Davidso nstood in so le possession of th e made- in- America motorcycle market. Under the command ofasecond generation of Har leys and Davt dsons, the co mpa ny gr ew s teadily into the next decade. In 1960, Aermacchi HarleyDavidson was for med In Italy, a 50/50 ventur e with Aeron autica Mac chi S.P.A. H-D found it economIca lly impossible to produce a competitive ll ghtwei ght in the U.S., and the agr eement mar ked the / company' 5 r enewed inter est in the rapIdly expan di ng off-road market. Aer macc hi prod uced the 250, and later, 350cc four -siroke Spr ints. Earlier H-D twos trokes gave way to a s er ies of ltallan ring-dingers r anging fr om 50 to 125cc' s. "'bile H-D obvIously r ecognized that the li ghtweight!off- r oad/dual pur pos e ma chine was on the way In, it would s eem they s erIously underes timated the B e fo re an d Since market's growth rate . Thei r best lightweIght, for the serious dIr t scratcher, is the 100cc Baja. Designed by Jack Chrisman in 1968, it became a production model in 1970. Though Harley was handic apped by a late start aga ins t the compe titi on, the Ba ja proved to be a s ucces sful dirt machi ne. TOWARD ACQU ISITION The Divine Wind Str ikes Again .. Okay. If Harley- Davidso n was so great, how come they were bought out by a big conglomer ate ?" you may ask. \\bile their unit sales volume conti nued to increase through the mId-sixti es, Har Rac ing : , ley' S share of the motorcycle market decreased. It's an obvious conclusion that H- D did not anti cipate the JapanWo rld 's Fastest Motorcycle ese s ucces s in AmerIca with 11ght- and To theIr endurIng credt t, Harley David- middl eweight bIkes, or the ensuing boom s on has cons Is tently fie lded a s trong In motorcycle sales. ' As lat e as 1966 racing team in nati onal competi tion . In Harley-Davidson' S advertising and prothe past 19 year s Harley riders have motion efforts were, at best, consercap tured 14 National Championship tiva tive. It wasn ' t until 1969 that this tles. The H- D marque has establish ed cons erva tism began to evapor ate. countless r ecords in near ly all comHarle y- Davidso n could not compete petition categor fes , and at thIs wr1t1ng on a volume basis with the Japa nese. they stlll hold the two- wheeled Land Experiencing steadil y ris Ing sal es, H-D Speed Rec ord (265.492 mph). s truggled to mee t the Increas Ing demand for the bIg V-twins - a demand enhanced Some competitors s ay that Har ley'S by the Japanes e pr omotional victory in early vIctor ies wer e secured, thr ough s elllng motorcycllng as a fun thi ng. their musc le withIn the (All) American The early Aermacchl lightweIghts wer e Motor cycle Associa tion, by ' r egula ti ng cobby looking items com pared with their the compe ti tion r ules to restrict competOr Iental counter parts. itlve foreign. machinery. Although this The begi nnIng of the end of Harleysituation no longer exists , the growth Davids on as a conservati ve family bus of American particIpation in inter natInes s ca me In 1968. While sales were ional competi tion was thwar ted . still up, the increase was only two Har ley- Davidson r ider Mar k Brelsmilli on dollar s over 1967, compared with ford won the National title In 1972, an average rI se of nearly s eve n million hIs brother Scott took the Junior ti tle , In each of the previous thr ee years. and H-D took the manufacturer's award And net Income dropped s llgh tly In 1968. as well . The winning tradition conti nues But before felllng s or ry for ole H-D, In Milwaukee, they Just have to work at consId er the fact that even in 1971, it a Httle harder now. Much of the credit holdi ng only about flve percent of the for getting the hard wor k done goes to market in terms of machines s old, they head Racing Engineer Dick 0' Brien, ha d a considerably lar ger dollar share a fir m belie ver in the principle of of the mar ket . building a factory r acer that nor mal Thus , the s tage was s et for a mer folks can affor d. The problem now is ger with a large corpo ration. The tradto pr oduce enough to fie ld a winning ltlon al Har ley- Davtds on conservatism factor y team and also supply the pr iwas giving way to a more aggressive vateers who are knocking at the door . s ta nce in the mar ket. But the changes ca me s lowly (conservatively, one mIght Two- stroke fans, and all thos e hoping say), and with good reason . You don't to see Yamaha chall enged in mIddlemess with a successfu l thing. weight r oad raci ng, may be pleased to Whil e H-D wor ked for identity in the cons ider the pos stbtllty that, by next "fIrst- time-buyer" mar ket, vir tually chr t stmas, your local Harley dealer created by the Japa nes e, they maintained may s ell you a bona fid e twin. cyllnder their profItably unIque position in the H- D Aermac chi racer . FIrst, understand' heavyweight field. The Har ley managethat Aermacc hi is a conservative Ttalment ca me to recognize that what they ian company (though that may seem a needed was not a new image, but a more contradic tion in terms) . They've been compr ehensive image . Their long standworking on road r ac er s for many years, Ing identity as builders of tank-like and probably br ought the four -stroke tour ing machines and firebreathing roadsIn gle to Its developmen tal pinnacle. burner s was at once a strength and a Now, with factory racer Renz o Pasoweakness . Thousands of potenttal cus 11ni aboard a two- stroke, Aermacch1 tomers wer e unaware that Harley offered appears to mean bus iness. Sure, it will anythtng but big iron, at a big price. cost more than a Sprint. But chances And many who did know had no desire are it'll handle Uke Sophia Loren and to be ide ntifIed with cops, outlaws , go 11ke a combination of lasagna and racers or the pre-psychedelic subcu lprune juIce. ture with a fixati on for turning motorcycles into rolli ng Christmas trees. The preceding paragraph is unsubs tan tiated rumor . (Co ntin ued on page 24 )

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