I had an Ironhead sportster, and a Shovel FXS, both were AMF bikes. Never had a lick of trouble out of either. I guess there was a few that came out ok...

 

Here you go.... No prices in the brochure.

 

Well, let's take a look at that Super Glide....

 

That's a sweet bike.
I was at a Labor Day party around the same time (early 80s) the guy who was throwing the party had one in his living room, I took one look at that bike and thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw.
3-4 years later I got my first bike, it was a Sportster because it was all I could afford.

 

When I was a kid, my uncle John was the coolest guy I knew. He had lots of bikes, including a Honda 750. I remember him putting me on the seat in front of him, my little shoes on the gas tank, and he took me for a 1/2 mile ride down the road where my dad's hunting cabin was in the Poconos of NE PA. I was around 5. (15 mph, private road, essentially a driveway).

But when I was around 8 or 9, he shipped a 1962 panhead home in pieces from Greece, where he was stationed in the military. He spent the next year restoring it to an incredibly magnificent bike. Uncle John was now a Harley guy. One day, I would be too.

 

An uncle owned a Kawasaki dealership. My father had several bikes while I was growing up. The KZ750 two stroke was the wildest ride to be on the back of. We would go to the scrambles on weekends. The coolest bikes were always the HD's. I new when I was young that I would have one someday. Got into fast cars and pissed away a ton of money on them. Always had some kind of bike to ride until I went into the Marines. I had a friend that would let me borrow his Honda Nighthawk to ride. Borrowed a friends Sportster and the wife said we needed to get one. I took leave and we flew home to TN. The plan was to buy a FXSTC and ride it back to Camp Pendleton. Three days after landing in TN I was called back for Desert Storm. Already had the bike picked out and told the sales guy I would be back the next day to write a check. That didn't work out. So after getting discharged and returning home I walked into the dealership. The sales guy looks at me and asked what happened that I never came back to get the bike. I explained and right behind him was a Soft tail Custom like I had picked the time before. He said that one had a deposit on it and it would take a while to get one in that color again. Had my heart set on that blue and silver. He said they had just got in another one but it was not that color. So we went out back and they opened the crate. I said nope. I don't want a black one. They pushed it outside and it was dark ruby. I said sold. we went in and I wrote a check. I went back the next day and rode it till it was almost out of gas. Scheduled the 1K mile check for that Friday morn. Told them that it needed to be done by the time they closed cuz I had places we wanted to see that weekend. Friday eve I asked if we could leave our car there for the weekend. They said sure and we loaded a couple duffle bags and headed to Cleveland Ohio. What a way to break in a bike. We traveled all of the eastern states and some of Canada on that FXSTC. It sure is a lot nicer on a FLHTC. But those are some great memories.
Sure there were and are faster and whatever bikes out there. They just are not Harleys!!

 

Thanks so much for posting that brochure photo. Brings back great memories. My first Harley was an 80 Wide Glide. Man, was it a great looking machine. I was so proud of that bike!
I think that I still have the sales brochure for it. Doubt that I'll find it though. I save way too much "junk".

 

Thanks for posting.

Thats the one right there. The FXE had polished rockers and the lowest seat height of the bunch.

 

My first ride on a motorcycle was in my dads lap on an evo springer softail, and I grew up in biker bars. Does that answer you question? Might explain why I have a love affair with shovels and evo's too.

 

I remember these brochures.

That's what did it for me... My next door neighbor purchased his first Harley in 1981 which was a candy apple red FXWG. I was just a 10 year old kid and he was sort of a father figure to me then and would let me hang out and polish the spokes and wheels and give me a ride every now and then. I was hooked ever since but didn't get my first Harley until 2005 which was an FLHT. The wide glide was stolen out of his garage a year after he got it and he replaced it with a 1980 super glide. We moved and I lost contact with him until I moved back to Indiana last year. I looked him up and he still has the 1980 super glide and 35 years of knowledge as he does a lot of independent work on the side for people. He also drag raced on the NHRA circuit for several years on a Harley custom built dragster. Pretty cool stuff and I hope to do some riding with him this summer.