In 1981 H-D is purchased from AMF by 13 investors including Willie G. Davidson. H-D asks for import tariff protection for bikes over 700cc while the company restructured and developed their new Evolution engine. By 1987 H-D asked for the tariff to be terminated. By the way Honda and Kawasaki never complained about the tariff because they had factories in the U.S. building bikes over 700cc and enjoyed protection under the same tariff.
Today Harley-Davidson is an outstanding American success. If you don't like the bikes they build that's ok because millions of buyers world wide certainly do. Some joke H-D's huge apparel sales without recognizing its marketing genius. Riders don't buy new $20,000 bikes often but they do buy accessories, motorclothes, helmets etc frequently. Getting these riders back in the dealerships often increases motorcycle sales opportunities as well as revenue from accessory sales for both H-D and the locally owned dealership.
Why bring up this topic now?
Last sunday my wife and I took a local Triumph RAT ride but a few of my friends from work went their own way. Monday at work I found out they stopped at a Harley dealership about 40 miles away to look around. One of them traded his S&S powered custom chopper for a brand new Road Glide Custom and the other traded his Vulcan for an anniversary edition Ultra Limited!
Harley has a fanatical following of owners that other manufacturers envy and can't understand. Harley is a motorcycle company, unlike every Japanese manufacturer which motorcycles are only a small division of a much larger diverse parent company.
Not bad for a company that was on the brink of extinction at about the same time our favorite Triumph marque was in the same position.
