The 1950s onwards, the Harley-Davidson was to undergo some of the worst times in its history. Its image was tarnished because of a slew of biker outlaw movies where the riders were all seen to be riding the Harley-Davidson bikes. Following a public vilification of the violent and negative image that the bike supposedly had, a company takeover by AMF worsened matters. After a company restructuring that slashed the workforce and had the quality of production deteriorating, the company almost went bankrupt following a massive labor strike. It looked like the legend was finally going to die out. Thankfully however, there was hope on the horizon.

In 1981, the company was again sold by the AMF to a group of investors including Vaughn Beals and Willie G. Davidson for a sum of $80 million. Financial matters were regulated using the Just in Time system.

In the eighties, Harley-Davidson had claimed that Japanese companies were importing motorbikes into the country in such volume that the native business within the country was getting affected. This was followed by an enquiry by the US International Trade Commission and as a result in 1983, there was a 45% tariff on imported bikes and also ones which had an engine capacity of over 700cc. The company also rejected any help from any Japanese companies from then onwards.
The best part is that even at the height of competition with the Japanese companies, the Harley never tried to emulate the latter, in a bid to outdo all competition. The management tried out the new tactic. It brought back the nostalgia of the early days of the Harley-Davidson motorbikes. Therefore the bikes that were being manufactured at that time were deliberately given the look and the feel of the older Harley bikes. The motorcycle parts like brakes, forks, shocks, etc were outsourced from foreign companies and as a result there was an improvement in quality. Thus there was an increase in popularity and the customer loyalties slowly returned. Thus, even now, Harley still uses foreign parts in a bid to maintain quality standards.

This was a much needed revival that the Harley needed and as a result the company came back from the brink of bankruptcy. The ugly nicknames that were tagged onto the Harley bike all faded away, and the old image slowly returned, and with it, the buyers as well. Stop by and check out all of the Harley History articles at the http://TheBikersEmporium.com

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