1969: Harley merges with American Machine and Foundry
Road Master
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 962
Likes: 0
From: .....
I used to sit in junior high school daydreaming about riding a new Harley Z-90, or, a bigger dream, a new SR-100. Then, for my birthday, my dad surprised me with a new 1974 AMF Harley-Davidson Baja SR-100. All my friends had bigger Japanese dirt bikes and Hodaka Combat Wombats which could run circles around me, but it just didn't matter because I had a shiny new black bike that said Harley on the side; this is the bike set the hook. Sometimes, when I think about how that little AMF dirt bike had such an impact on me when I was a kid, literally starting a lifelong passion, I can't help but wonder if the HD company of today shouldn't have a line of small bikes. Perhaps if they did, like AMF, offer a line of smaller bikes, the future of the company would be far more secure as once again young boys, and girls now, would be able to dream of riding a Harley sooner, in their youth, rather than much later, when they are grown-up. Thousands of hooks would be set at an early age, as in the days of AMF, and these hooks are powerful happy memories; just ask anyone who received a Lionel train when they were a kid.
I am grateful for the AMF years, the bikes they produced, the boyhood dreams they helped come true, and the lifelong passions they helped begin.
I will climb down off of my box now.
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I am grateful for the AMF years, the bikes they produced, the boyhood dreams they helped come true, and the lifelong passions they helped begin.
I will climb down off of my box now.
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Last edited by Sweetbaboo; Sep 17, 2009 at 05:35 PM.
I remember as a kid asking my Uncle why his Harley was made by the bowling pin people.He would always laugh
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 199
Likes: 0
From: Pasadena,MD
I have never understood why AMF catches so much grief for the quality of the HD bikes made during their tenure because prior to their ownership for example Knucks,Pans etc leaked like a sumbitch as well? I think that when Willie G and company bought it back they had to badmouth AMF partly as a marketing ploy to sell bikes.The power of suggestion is amazing and time changes perception.Bottom line no AMF = no HD.
