Harley-Davidson buys AMF bowling equipment

[thumper_imp]

I walked down to Woolworth’s Department Store this morning and purchased my daily 5 cent newspaper, and 10 cent cup of coffee.

The front page headline was great news for all motorcycle lovers:

Harley-Davidson Motorcycles has purchased AMF bowling equipment!

Willie G Davidson was quoted as saying, “This is a great day for bowling enthusiasts. With H.D.’s ample financial capabilities, we have a 5-year plan to completely overhaul the bowling industry. Our first bold venture, a continuation of Harley-Davidson’s very successful “Rushmore Project,” is to develop a new, V-twin powered, partially liquid-cooled bowling ball. Genuine Harley-Davidson accessories will of course be offered for the bowling ball, including Bluetooth communications, and Bluetooth diagnostics of all bowling ball operating systems.” Retail prices will start at $19,999.”

[The Spaceman_imp]

Having owned an AMF HD for many, many years, this one hits home. Very amusing.

Something that was lost in the legend: AMF invested many millions in modernizing the HD production capability. Had it not been for their ill-fated investment, the leveraged buyout by the HD management would have fallen on it's ass. AMF laid the foundation for the production Evo and later the Twin-Cam engines that brought a new level of reliability to HDs. Had it not been for the horrible labor relations of the day, the AMF story might have been much different.

[CA200_imp]

It is April first isn't it.
At one point one of the places we had our store used to be the old local HD store. It was in this building we were in for many many years. After we were open for a while some of the old HD techs would come it to see what we were doing. It was interesting to hear
what they had to say about the past. I once asked one old guy about the AMF years. He laughed, "WE never ran out of work" -
He said the shop was just packed with bikes all the time. He said toward the end of the era the new bikes would come in new with a
long list of what was wrong with them that needed to be fixed before you could sell them. I don't know if that was true but it sure was funny.

[The Spaceman_imp]

It was very true. My now deceased brother in law was a factory trained HD mechanic in the 70's and 80's. He said they'd have to not only finish the bikes as they came in, but very often find and fix actual sabotage. Stuff like loose bolts in the primary case, crankshaft nuts that weren't torqued, etc. At one point they'd have a truck follow every test ride to both recover the bike if it broke down, or pick up the parts that rattled off.

But the most interesting story was how he moonlighted assembling CB 750s at the Ft Lauderdale Honda dealer at night. Every bike they could get was already sold for years after the first CBs came out. He said he could double his salary building CBs as they came off the trains. It must have been quite a time to be a rider.

[Scoobynut_imp]

Interesting story, Spaceman, and sad too, really.

In other Harley news:

http://rideapart.com/2014/04/valentino-r...16-motogp/

[Elipten_imp]

Now that is too sick even for April's fools


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[OldF7Guy_imp]

How ironic today of all days. I was at my local independent shop today that only works on HD's. I did business with them for years and still try to throw what I can to them because they always did me a good job. Any how, I am down there getting my new front tire put on and look in the shop area and they had 3 AMF Harleys tore apart in every manner you can thing of. Stuff just scattered all over the place. I am talking transmissions apart, engines tore all the way down, with wires and stuff just hanging everywhere. There was 2 EVO Harleys in there for oil changes the mechanic told me. HD has come a long way for sure.

[Cormanus]

How ironic today of all days. I was at my local independent shop today that only works on HD's. I did business with them for years and still try to throw what I can to them because they always did me a good job. Any how, I am down there getting my new front tire put on and look in the shop area and they had 3 AMF Harleys tore apart in every manner you can thing of. Stuff just scattered all over the place. I am talking transmissions apart, engines tore all the way down, with wires and stuff just hanging everywhere. There was 2 EVO Harleys in there for oil changes the mechanic told me. HD has come a long way for sure.

That's got to be a good thing.

[The Spaceman_imp]

"But we will definitely be running ABS which is a first for H-D on a sporty racing bike.”