The Evolution Era
Harley-Davidson Rules - The 1990s
Harley-Davidson Independence and Evolution
As Oscar Wilde said, "Nothing succeeds like excess,"
and we Americans take that as gospel; we made the 1980s excessively excessive. The decade of the '80s started out with
the government coughing up $1,500,000,000 - as in one and a half billion dollars! - to bail out Chrysler. The
auto industry still loses $3 billion for the year - to imported cars. Built for the most part where? Funny, the
government couldn't find more than a few bucks to help education or work up alternative fuels so we wouldn't still be kissing
OPEC butts. But we could get some butt-ugly, gas-guzzling cars. The year 1980 kept our sights firmly fixed on
such miracles of modern invention as the board game Dungeons & Dragons - what, you're still playing it? News turns
24/7 with the advent of CNN, and half of us are wondering who shot J.R. while the other half couldn't give J.S. The
world is made a more organized place when Post-its appear on the market. Sexual harassment of women is made illegal
in the workplace, but apparently everywhere else it's still open season. We crack up two helicopters and kill a bunch
of good soldiers in an Iran hostage rescue attempt that gets FUBAR. Crossword puzzles for the year
feature gridlock, referring to traffic, ABSCAM, referring to politicians taking bribes, and free basing.
The last thanks to the comedian Richard Pryor igniting himself while cooking up some cocaine. And in November, Ronald
"20 Mule Team Borax" Reagan is elected the fortieth U.S. president and becomes the Great Communicator. Against
this background of turmoil, the world still rolled on, and, in showrooms across the country, Bros were giving the nod to the new FLT, brought out in the spring of 1980. The FLH replacement had some major improvements, including a new frame design that lightened handling, and the engine no longer transmitted
as much fatigue (human and metal) causing vibration, thanks to being mounted so that it flexed longitudinally. Even
the floorboards got the flexy, anti-vibe treatment. The icing on the cake came with the new five-speed transmission,
which in top gear brought you lopping along at 60 mph with the tach resting comfortably at 2900 rpm, which meant both your
engine's longevity and your riding stamina were extended. A major upgrade was Harley-Davidson's debut of the belt-driven FX models,
with belts rolling both primary and secondary drives. The Gates Rubber Co. developed them for Milwaukee, and they were
designed to last longer than any chain. While they also ran more quietly, the main idea was to reduce vibration.
The idea wasn't new; several after-market sources had offered them previously. Called the Sturgis model, the belt-driven
bike received favorable reviews for its improved comfort. And who was credited with coming up with the change?
None other that Erik Buell, who was working in Harley-Davidson's Engineering Department and would soon be one of the few men
in history to have a motorcycle bearing his name. The Japanese were already targeting the custom cruiser market when, in 1980, Yamaha brought out the first of their chopperish copycat V-twin Viragos, which Harley-Davidson
saw as a direct threat. Even with the improvements manifest by the FX, AMF was freaking over the increased costs of production, a price tag that put Harleys on the heavy end of the competition stick,
and a pitifully small profit margin. They wanted out big time. But the word was out - Harley-Davidson had apparently
put profits ahead of any kind of progress for decades, and no one wanted to take over a company that needed more than a makeover,
call it a bull-dozing. At the end of their throttle cable, AMF talked with Harley-Davidson top management, including Vaughn Beals, to see if they could put together a takeover of the company,
in effect putting Harley-Davidson back into the exclusive hands of Harley-Davidson. That became official with documents
prepared in February 1981. 1981:
At Long Last Harley-Davidson Comes Home Again The year 1981 carries the onus of being the year AIDS was first diagnosed.
Now about 50,000,000 people have the disease in Africa alone. Harrison Ford takes a break from space to play in the
first Indiana Jones flick, and whip sales go up. Frantic and frenetic bursts of short-term-memory-friendly audiovisual
stimulation occur with the debut of MTV. Harley historians pinpoint June 1, 1981, as a day of rejoicing, for
it was upon this spring day that Harley-Davidson became Harley-Davidson once again, its ties with AMF severed after eleven and a half years, much to the relief of all involved. The "buyback" was proclaimed all
across the land, i.e., to the dealer network, that Harley-Davidson was back in "family" hands. Each of the
thirteen new group members (including Vaugh Beals, Jeffrey Bleustein, and Willie G. Davidson) paid from his own pocket, ranging
from $75,000 to $150,000 each, and it appears that AMF wanted $80 million for their Harley-Davidson holdings, a fourfold increase over the purchase price. Vaughn Beals as
board chairman was chosen to father the company toward its new destiny. Among the new owners was Willie G. Davidson,
backed by his father, William H. Davidson, who, according to Jean Davidson, "never gave up the dream that Harley-Davidson
could be something grand. In his heart, he believed that Harley-Davidson could be what the founding Davidson brothers
and their friend William S. Harley started and lived by so many years ago." An ad campaign
trumpeted the new company philosophy: "Motorcycles by the people, for the people." The company also
pointed to a program aimed at creating more up-to-date products and improving dealer relations. The Motor Co. production
facilities were rearranged into Harley-Davidson Milwaukee, Harley-Davidson York, and Harley-Davidson International, in Connecticut,
to handle exports. Vaughn Beals had taken on what could easily be called a Herculean task: restoring
Harley-Davidson to its rightful place in the American motorcycle industry. Many thought he'd never make it. 1982: Don't Falk with Me We learned an interesting bit
of geographical trivia in 1982 as Britain and Argentina did battle over the Falkland Islands in a scenario that about everybody
agreed was really falked up. The biggest armed heist in history takes place in New York, the thieves bagging $9,800,000
as the Me Generation starts clicking into gear. Apparently Harley-Davidson got into the Me-thing, too, or at least the
Us-thing, when they went full bore in legal actions against about three thousand non-franchised bike shops across the country
that were using Harley-Davidson logos and trademarks and not paying for them. This made some more enemies for Harley-Davidson
corporate, but it was a matter of fiscal survival. The country was reeling from the effects of the OPEC cartel's increased
oil charges and high inflation. Also, when Reagan took office, he'd initiated the largest tax hike in history, only
it was called Social Security. It hit the Bro market pretty hard.
The Japanese were affected, too, but instead of laying off
workers or lowering wages, they accepted lower profits. This policy resulted in an overproduction of bikes, 80,000 bikes
sold on the U.S. market at low prices in 1981 alone. By 1982 estimates pointed to as many as 1,400,000 bikes from the
various Japanese manufacturers stuffed into huge warehouses around the country. The frenzy to sell them slashed prices
as much as a third by Honda, even more by Kawasaki and Yamaha, and people were scarfing those bikes up by the bushel.
Other bike builders, like BMW and Ducatti, felt the squeeze as well. Another factor hurting Harley
sales was the incredible interest rates of the time, as much as 22 percent. Seven out of ten potential buyers were turned
away as a result of these killer rates. In response, Harley-Davidson brought out the new, relatively low-buck XLX-61
Sportster at $3,995 in '82, but with Japanese bikes of 750cc going for half that, sales were less than stimulating. In fact,
Harley-Davidson had to shut down one plant in the early part of the year, and dealers were selling their bikes at dealer cost
just to unload the crowded showroom floors. Vaughn Beals made a dramatic public announcement. Harley was facing
bankruptcy. The auto industry was in the same fix, and all fingers pointed at cheaper imports. Both American management
and labor were united on one issue; put an import quota into effect and bring some relief. Beals
implemented various efforts to save the company, including a freeze on management salaries, layoffs (including John Harley,
Jr.), and suspended production schedules until leftover stock was eliminated. He also instituted a very important new
quality-control program to deal with the massive amounts of defective product, incorporating the famous MAD policy, materials
on demand method of production and assembly. Meanwhile, the professional engineering staff was increased while the golf
cart and industrial vehicle lines were sold off in order to concentrate on motorcycles. Magazine articles
began telling Harley-Davidson's side of the import story, and backing for the company's point of view increased. The
President and Congress were basically on the side of Harley-Davidson and the rest of American business but were nervous about
imposing trade restrictions, because history had shown they caused more problems than they helped. And it wasn't lost
on the observant that, during the past ten years or so, the Motor Co. had been plugging in a lot of Japanese components, including
Keihin carburetors and Showa suspension parts. And Italy was lacing up Harley wheels. The logic was that no American
companies were making the products. In any case, Harley-Davidson prepared to do battle again, as it had in 1951 and
1978, when it sought federal intervention to throttle back importation. A petition was prepared for presentation to
the U.S. International Trade Commission for relief from "unfair foreign competition," which meant mostly Japanese
products but others as well, except for Brit bikes, which by 1982 were virtually nonexistent. Triumph, BSA, and Norton
were all "radically dormant" at this point. 1983:
Japan Busted, Harley Wins .... Kinda Meanwhile, the Brits got to try out their expensive new war toys in
the Falklands, so in 1983 you couldn't blame the United States for sending in troops to the island of Grenada. In all
8,612 medals are awarded, which is about 1,612 more than the number of troops that took part in the fray. Back in Milwaukee
a group of young computer geeks hack into a bunch of high-security organizations, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
They certainly give notice that security needs some beefing up. No word on whether they ride Harleys. But
the scene was set for a showdown between Harley and the Japanese importers. Harley-Davidson, under Section 201 of the
Tariff Code, was scheduled to take part in a hearing on January 15, 1983. In the formal proceedings, they focused on
bikes over 750cc displacement and promoted a sliding scale of import taxes over five years, the time they figured it would
take to get the new and improved Motor Co. better prepared to meet the Big Four from Japan. The
facts presented by the more effective Harley-Davidson legal counsel won the day. After three weeks of very costly deliberation,
Japan was found guilty of dumping a glut of motorcycles on the American market. The penalty? Initially a tariff
of 45 percent was added to the current 4.5 percent for bikes over 700cc for all of the Big Four, the additional amount reduced
incrementally during the following production years. The Brits and Europeans were not subject to these increases. However,
Hondas and Kawasakis built in the United States were exempted. But it was enough; Reaganomics saved the day for
Harley and probably the future as well. The president signed the order, and it went into effect on April 15, 1983.
An interesting side note was the Japanese consortium offering in March of a $200,000,000 loan and "technical advice."
We don't think so, said Harley-Davidson. During 1983 the Motor Co. also continued their "seek and desist,"
or should we say search and destroy, campaign against the unlicensed use of Harley-Davidson logos and names. They also
told Carl Wicks, the founder and president of the Harley-Davidson Owners Association, that Harley-Davidson was taking over
the organization and replacing it with their own Harley Owners Group (HOG). Carl was understandably not pleased.
But Harley-Davidson was focused on their new lean, clean, mean motorcycling manufacturing agenda. And it was working.
Also during this year the rumors began spreading about some altogether new engine, a water-cooled one at that,
code-named the Nova, that was being designed in cahoots with the Audi-Porsche people in Germany. Almost twenty years
later that new engine would appear in the V-Rod. Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson came out with the XR-1000 "superbike,"
a radically modified Sporster with special cylinder heads by the master turner Jerry Branch that helped push the beast to 120 mph. About 4,000, priced
around $7,000 were built during '83 - '84, most of them to sit in dealer showrooms gathering dust. Now, of course, they're
hot-ticket collectibles. On a much more successful note, rumors in 1983 of the new Evolution motor proved true. The new generation Harley 80 cubic inch power plant featured alloy cylinders with iron liners, flat-top
pistons for a smaller, more efficient combustion chamber, plus improved valve gearing and lubrication. It still had
the classic V-Twin look but with modern microprocessor controls. Harley-Davidson reported it had 15 percent more horsepower than its Shovelhead predecessor. It ran cooler, and looked cool all the while, although it still vibrated. After $15 million in R
& D and a reported half billion miles of testing, the new Evolution motor was released in the all-new, custom-cruiser-inspired FXRS Sport Glide with Elastomer flexible motor mounts. The new engine also became standard in the FLHT and FLT models. The response to the new bikes with their Evo motors was exceptional. Vaughn Beals rightly received praise from all corners for the incredible turnaround his leadership
had accomplished in such short order.
Back in the world of violence, a few seconds after stepping
out of an airplane in the Philippines, the political opposition leader Benigno Aquino is shot dead. Poland's pro-Solidarity
leader Lech Walesa is given the Nobel Peace prize. Mouse comes into the vernacular as a word referring to our
little computer friend. By the end of '83 the U.S. economic picture was looking healthier, and while Harley-Davidson
posted losses in'82 and '83, 1984 was projected to look better. The proverbial light was growing brighter at the end
of the Evo tunnel, though somewhat eclipsed by the feds' move to mandate gasoline vapor canisters. The costs hit Harley-Davidson
dealers already suffering from high interest rates and soft sales. Meanwhile, California enacts the strictest regulations,
and "49 state legal" becomes a well-known phrase, meaning if you lived in California you couldn't own it. We were given the immortal words, "Where's the beef", in 1984, and you could also say the answer
came with Harley's Softail model, another major step in the right direction. Bros are starting to find more money left over from their paychecks
as the economy posts its best results since 1951, and we be feeling good. Big news from the Supreme Court: We
can now legally videotape television shows for our own use. We are afflicted with a new life form: the Yuppie,
or young urban professional, another term for trendy spender. And, yes, Bros are seeing a lot of Yuppies buying Harleys
with just a pass of their credit cards. Lee Iacocca makes more auto history by bringing out Chrysler's minivan, sparking
a whole new revolution in irritating vehicles. Speaking of irritating, the United States now has 490,000 lawyers, while
there are about 685,000 people in the slammer (now more than 2 million, probably). And our taxes are at work as the
Air Force pays seven thousand dollars apiece for three coffeemakers. Well, it is before Starbucks. Speaking
of a pick-me-up, the new Harley-Davidson Softail was making friends fast. Based around the FX model, it sported a new kind of rear suspension system (invented by William Gray) in which the suspension springs are hidden
under the engine, giving the bike the appearance of a '50s hardtail chopper but with the comforts of full suspension - in effect, the best of both Harley worlds, past and present. With its nostalgic
food looks, it quickly became the company's best seller, outdoing sales of the FL to the dresser crowd, a lot of whom were buying Honda GoldWings. In order to keep above water,
a number of the six-hundred-odd Harley dealers at the same time also were selling one or more Japanese brands as well as ATVs,
snowmobiles, Jet Skis, generators, et cetera. Entrepreneurs were going in an entirely different direction .... like
building their own V-twin engines to replace Harley-Davidson motors or for use in creating scratch-built custom machines.
This author rode one of the later Evolutions of the Nostalgia Cycle 93 cubic inch heavyweight cruisers, its innovative engine based on the tried and true Chevy 350 V-8
design and components. With remarkable diligence its creator, Steve Iorio, invested considerable talent, effort, and
dollars into developing the rugged, dependable, easy-to-maintain, and cost-effective new power plant, despite taking considerable
heat and gaining little support from the rest of the motorcycle industry or press. A number of people in the United
States and overseas purchased the engine, and a controversial love-hate atmosphere developed relative to its assembly, but,
bottom line, the owners loved the engine once wrenched to its potential. By 1984 Factory bikes had reached
new levels of quality and reliability, and announcements resumed again about German collaboration on a radical new high-tech
engine design, but that program languished for several years, before it was resurrected into the remarkable new V-Rod.
But in 1984 Bros were able to ride their new factory Softail Evos over to L.A., the stage for the Olympics, where all went smoothly, even with 5.5 million spectators minus the Soviets, who
snub the event. Ghostbusters busts the movie charts and smoke-busters celebrate the Great American Smokeout,
5 million using the excuse to quit smoking. Another form of toxic fumes kills thousands and blinds more in India as
an American-owned Union Carbide plant spews out methyl isocyanate. Many of those 490,000 lawyers swarm over to Bhopal
looking for clients. India asks for $3 billion in compensation, settles for $470 million. 1985: The Gipper Part Deux Reagan got a second turn in the
Oval Room in '85 and left flowers at a grave for of SS troops in Germany. Nicht schr gut, Ronnie. But
he does get $3 million for his biography before a word is penned. 1986: But Does She Have Dorothy's? The year started off with 127 million faces glued to the tube watching
Super Bowl XX, a record. A health report says moderate exercise can "significantly diminish the risk of death from
all causes." That "all causes" seems too all-inclusive. Bullets, for one. We're told that
the Phillipines' Imelda Marcos has 3,000 pairs of shoes, but the fact is she only has 1,060 pairs. We thought inquiring
minds should know. 1987: Vive la Evolution The
new Evolution engine, a.k.a. Evo, was now powering the full Harley lineup, including the Softail Custom, with an MSRP of $9,499. What was originally planned as an interim engine before the all-new water-cooled Nova
motor took center stage for the next fifteen years and was not replaced until the next generation of Milwaukee marvels, the
Twin Cam, in 1998.
1988: Harleys in Heaven? So what were we talking about in 1988? Was it the new Buick Regatta
two-door "sports car" with the TV-screen computer with forty-two readouts, or was it Ollie North's part in Iran-Contra?
Maybe it was the buzz about the CIA's friend-turned-enemy Manuel Noriega down in Panama. Or Dustin Hoffman's performance
in Rain Man. Or was the hot topic the newly detected greenhouse effect? Good Housekeeping magazine
reports that 84 percent of all Americans believe in heaven, probably the same amount that believe in dusting the drapes every
week. 1989: A New Kind of Flower
Power The IRS admits it loses about 2 million tax returns a year. Apparently not mine, how about
you? Meanwhile the government allocates $7.8 billion to their anti-drug campaign. Think a minute, guys.
You could buy all the poppy field in the world for that much money and still have enough to buy every U.S. citizen a new Harley.
The end of 1989 thunks to a close. Harry
V. Sucher in Harley-Davidson: Milwaukee Marvel When writing about the end of the 1980s and the AMF-Harley-Davidson relationship, Harry V. Sucher in Harley-Davidson: The Milwaukee Marvel says that Harley-Davidson
as a make had "joined the McCormack reaper, the Singer sewing machine, the Springfield rifle, the Concord stage-coach,
the Model T Ford, the Curtis Jenny, the magnificent motorcars of August and Frederick Dusengergm, and the Stearman biplane,
as an enduring example of Americana." Enduring is the operative word. And as another
decade slides under the continental shelf of dusty memories, almost taking the Motor Company's "unique antique"
with it, Harley-Davidson's chrome begins to shine again under the new-old management .... motoring into a brighter future,
once again outdistancing the slings ane arrows of outrageous misfortune.
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