The Gold Wing made Harley Davidson take a reality look at itself.

[Lake X Kid]

I worked for a Mercury Marine dealer in the mid 1970's. And he had a motorcycle dealership (Japanese brands) in the same building.
And he gave me a great deal on a Kawasaki motorcycle. Having said that, the 1970's began the market infiltration of the Japanese brand motorcycles.
And those bikes dominated the USA market share.

And in my observation, this was when Honda's Goldwing, left the Harley's on the side of the road.
Hog owners scratching their heads, about their bike's dependability and quality of manufacturing.

~~~
Late 1970's Goldwings.

[Lake X Kid]

The visit that changed the trajectory of Harley Davidson's management approach and production quality.
~~~

When Harley Davidson company’s top executives and union leaders representing Harley-Davidson employees toured the Honda motorcycle plant in Marysville, Ohio, in 1982, they were shocked and amazed by what they saw: a neat assembly line, good labor relations, and a lean management staff (the plant had only thirty supervisors among the 500 employees). Most surprisingly the factory managed to achieve high productivity despite the near complete absence of computers. (Harley-Davidson had recently invested in expensive computer technology in an attempt to improve factory management.)

Vaughn Beals (HD, CEO) had an immediate insight into what separated Harley-Davidson from its Japanese competitors. “It wasn’t robotics or culture or morning calisthenics and company songs; it was professional managers who understood their business and paid attention to detail,” he told Peter Reid, the author of Well Made in America.

http://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/forbes-harley-davidson.pdf

Vaughn Beals

[Lake X Kid]

By 1987 Harley-Davidson had regained from off-shore competitors the preeminent position in its market, proving that a traditional American manufacturer can compete, survive, and prosper in a global marketplace.

In the late 1980s Harley’s revamped high-quality image and higher prices turned the bikes into yuppie status symbols. Groups of brokers, lawyers, and accountants got together on the weekend to burn rubber, creating the phenomenon known as Rolex Riders, or Rich Urban Bikers (RUBs). In 1989 the company held a promotional fashion night at Bloomingdale’s. The typical buyer in 1990—a thirty-five-year-old male—had a household income of $45,000, far above the national average. By 1990, one-third of new Harley buyers were professionals or managers, and 60 percent were college graduates.

[JPEROG]

A.M.F. years were a complete disaster for H.D. Everything turned around when the EVO motor came out in 84' and the company was being run by people who were owner/operators and employees had a true sense of pride in the product. Harley marketed a lifestyle and if you owned one, it gave you instant acceptance to a groups of enthusiast (H.O.G.-Harley owners groups) and it was a genius plan. They created an incredible owner base and supported them with every product imaginable having the H.D. trademark logo on it. I don't think there is a single company out there that has had more people permanently tattoo a brand on themselves as Harley-Davidson (almost like a cult following). I can remember waiting for my new bikes to come in (like waiting for a 450 merc today-more then a year) in 97', 98', and 2000. My wife and I both ordered new C.V.O. bikes in 01', 04', and last time in 09'. It was a big deal and we had tons of people to ride with at any given time, we always had a group of guys that were into building motors up and had a blast with the beat your buddy program but as people exited I lost interests and went back to sport touring bikes that make my blood pump and cost half of what I spent on a single motor back then.

Vintage Jap bikes are where its at right now. Vintage motocross bikes are bringing big money and there is a massive demand for them in correctly restored condition.

I am riding to Barber Motorsports Park in Oct. for the vintage fest if anyone is interested in a great 5 day get away. They have excellent racing, vintage show & swap, and the museums are top shelf. https://barberracingevents.com/ Check out the museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_QFTrSZ88 They also have the new aviation museum open this year.

Joe

[David]

Is it true that younger buyers are shunning Hogs or are the not buying bikes at all?

[JPEROG]

Is it true that younger buyers are shunning Hogs or are the not buying bikes at all?

This years bike week was the first in the last 3 years that I actually saw a decent amount of what I would call younger riders (under 30). There is a good size group of guys that are buying old jap bikes and chopping them into bobbers. There are still the young sportbike riders and manufactures are offering small cc (3 and four hundreds) that look nice with full bodywork so young guys can afford to finance and insure them. I think its like anything else that cost 25K+ (a new street glide ex.), it takes someone with a decent income to have it, the trailer, the truck to pull it to an event, they all add up to a big ticket total. Then you need to be able to have the disposable income to take a week off to be here so there are not as many young guys today that are in that position and interested in motorsports as there were 25 years ago-no different then performance boating I guess.

Joe

[oldschoolltv]

Was a Honda Dealer in 1982 and stayed one for 35 years, Honda of the 80’s was a much better Company to its dealers then in the from late 90’s. The bean counters and lawyers started to have to much say in what they did as a company.

[JPEROG]

Was a Honda Dealer in 1982 and stayed one for 35 years, Honda of the 80’s was a much better Company to its dealers then in the from late 90’s. The bean counters and lawyers started to have to much say in what they did as a company.

All three Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki started to force product on their dealers but nothing compared to the practices of Polaris and Arctic Cat. We ran over a thousand snow checks in 93' for Polaris and the ungrateful pricks stuck us with more clothing then we were able to liquidate over the next 5 seasons (sold it at the snow shows for 20 points behind). Then they expected us to sell more sleds the following year then the previous "never good enough mentality pushed us away from them right as the quads started to take off, then came the RZR lol". The cool thing was to see Honda force the cars on bike dealers that didn't want them and then make them millionaires.... The early civics and the torque steer they produced was an absolute blast. My dad a couple of them-we took off together from the stop light, hit 2nd gear, bounced off of each other and continued on all the way to a blistering 72 mph--still have never seen him laugh as hard as he did when we pulled over to inspect the crunch and missing mirror.

Joe

[oldschoolltv]

And the south Florida car dealers made their Sales reps rich with money under the table to get their allotments bumped up.

[Lake X Kid]

...The cool thing was to see Honda force the cars on bike dealers that didn't want them and then make them millionaires.... The early civics and the torque steer they produced was an absolute blast. My dad a couple of them-we took off together from the stop light, hit 2nd gear, bounced off of each other and continued on all the way to a blistering 72 mph--still have never seen him laugh as hard as he did when we pulled over to inspect the crunch and missing mirror.
Joe

The rumor of the first imported little Honda Civics was, that they were powered by the 750cc motorcycle engine.
At that time in the panhandle area of Pensacola, that was what my youthful cohorts were bantering around.
It was a bit of a joke then, but like you mention, the Honda dealers who preserved are now millionaires.

[Instigator]

Great thread.

Lake Trash on this board was a bike dealer in Shreveport in that era too.

I know nothing of the dealer interactions of that era but do as a consumer.

The difference in quality was night and day.
IMO, it was the beginning of the jap car revolution, 20 yrs early.

Funniest part to me was when the japs copied the Harley with their bikes, brought them to market, and were cheaper, faster, more dependable, just an all-around better bike.

But they didn’t sell for **** and they weren’t smart enough to figure out why.

In that era the japs had brilliant engineers but they were brilliant at reverse engineering and not necessarily engineering.

They took a Harley and built a jap version of it but had no clue about marketing and who were buying the V twin Harley’s.

I subscribed to all the bike magazines in that era and I think it was Cycle World every month had a story on what was the best steel for a new bike.

And for two or three years in the mid-80s it was all the jap vee twins.

They couldn’t give them away!
The japs had totally missed that owning a Harley was totally different than owning any other V twin Or motorcycle for that fact.
I thought it was freaking hilarious.

That was in the Jimmy Carter era and they got him to put a tariff on all jap bikes over 700cc.
Claiming they were dumping them and damaging Harleys future.

The japs being the japs simply made all their 750s into 700’s and shipped them back over and laughed all the way to the bank.

I just sold two jap, Harley tariff era bikes and they were great bikes.

[CUDA]

When I was young AMF owned HD four doors down from the store was the Kingsmen motorcycle club house, that was enough reason for me to buy a Honda, first of four then Yamaha's now Kaw's I've never wanted a antique, years ago I was interested in a VRod and a HD guy said REAL HD guys don't drive V Rods, I bought a 1400 Kaw instead.
Going for a ride tonight

[JPEROG]

Instigator,

You are right about the mid 80s V-twins Virago, Intruder, Shadow, and Vulcan (none of them sounded like an H.D. and as hard as the aftermarket exhaust guys tried, it has never been there). H.D. was smart to patent the sound when they were under attack by the Japs. The VTX is a bullet proof bike but doesn't have the personality of an H.D. The V-star was also a failed attempt but I liked the Warrior because it was performance oriented and so were the guys that bought them.

For those who have not experienced a new 117 H.D. or the 120 kit that they offer, you should check them out. I will probably not buy one anytime soon but they do listen to their customers and are building bikes with 100+ H.P. now. I think back on all of the time and money spent with Jerry Branch, Nigel Patrick, Zippers, and S & S to get what now comes close right off the showroom floor is proof of them taking customer input seriously.


Joe

[Tin Man 2]

Harley still dominates the big bike market, the only serious competition is from Indian. Does Honda still make a Gold wing?

[LakeFever]

V65 magna was a handful of a machine. Shaft drive burnouts that lasted for as long as your sack could handle. The rd/rz two smokers were fun little rockets. Yamaha vmax was also pretty cool. Had more dirt bikes than I can count. Lost some friends, broke more bones than anyone should, and gave up the bikes in the 90’s

i do remember the late 90’s HD surge though. Heritage soft tails and fatboys everywhere