AMF vs Harley Davidson

This afternoon I was talking with someone about Harley Davidson and they said, "Harley Was Great until AMF took them over, AMF almost killed the company".

I love it when I get to talk with the uneducated. Lets start with a couple facts, AMF built crap Harleys... OK, yes there were quite a few quality control problems with the bikes during the AMF period. It is also true that AMF management did not understand the motorcycle market. (Showing up at a major motorcycle event in a three piece suit in a limo misses the mark quite a bit.)  But did AMF almost kill Harley?

That is actually a really simple question to answer. NO. When AMF bought Harley the company was already in trouble. There was no real namesake leadership at the time, (Willie G wasn't in full stride yet), they were in financial straits and Japan was coming on strong with faster more advanced bikes. AMF saved Harley by infusing money. AMF not Harley opened up the deserted aircraft factory at York PA and retooled it for modern production. Here was one of the problems, the engines and trannys were produced in Milwaukee, the motorcycles were assembled in York. There were new younger technology minded engineers at York and Old school engineers in Milwaukee, neither worked well with the other.

So, you have money that kept Harley around longer, you had new equipment and facilities to keep it going, all because of AMF.

But here is another, really important tidbit. 

Yes we all like the Knuckle heads, shovelheads and panheads because they are classic cool. But how do you stay in business producing a powerplant that holds nostalgic interest for riders who were already enamored with Harley, and not match the power-plants being produced by your competitor which run smoother, quieter, cleaner (*1) and faster than the leaky, problem prone engines you build (*2). A company needs to always be building a customer base, relying on a few "fans" means someday soon, your fans will be sitting around thinking about the good old days when Harley built bikes, just like those Norton, BSA, and original Indian fans do.

Soon after Harley was bought out from AMF by a management group the EVO (Evolution) engine rolled out of the plant. Who OK'd and invested in the idea to produce the EVO? That my friends would be AMF and it was called the V2 program.

So, in reality AMF stepped into the Harley Davidson picture at the right time, and also of importance, the left the picture at the right time also.

*1: "Real Harleys mark their territory"   yeah, that's a nice way of saying they spewed oil all over and it dripped down when the bike came to a stop.

*2: :"Rebuild the top end this year, the lower end next year"  You spend the off season repairing wear issues with your sled while the Japanese bikers can still be riding or polishing thiers.