Reflections of Harley Davidson during the AMF ownership days. . .

There was a time I worked in a Kawasaki shop that had been purchased by two guys who owned the local Harley-Davidson dealership.  They ended up putting the two dealerships together. The absentee owners put the fellow who had almost bankrupted the HD shop in charge. Yes this was a formula for disaster, and it eventually went under, but it was interesting for a time.

When I first started to work at the shop, I had a good look at the bikes.  My immediate reaction was ‘agricultural’; but Harley has changed a lot since then. Combining the parts departments of the two into the new building was a little eye opening for me. 

First, there really are no obsolete HD parts.  When I started to put overstock parts on an empty shelf in the back, the ‘man in charge’ had a fit. He said it was his shelf and he was going to need it. ‘What for?’ I asked. He said for ‘recall parts’.  He said every year they had a recall and this  was going to be for the replacement parts. That year there were two recalls. One was for the ignition switch on twin tank models – which would burst into flames; and the second was for brake rotors that would break and bind up in the calipers. Scary stuff!

But it was the customers that made it interesting. This was before all the yuppies got into the ownership game, so it was all ‘hard core’ people. Once a couple (in their twenties) came in and he was looking at the bikes and she was looking at the stuff in the glass display case. This attractive young lady had me dragging out all the HD branded stuff. At that time you had to practically give away anything that said Kawasaki on it, so I figured it would not sell either.  I was dead wrong.  I need to mention this was mid-week and they were the only customers in the shop. She calls her boyfriend over and there is a little private conversation and he tells me that if I will give her the HD panties, she will put them on right here in the parts department. Thanks but no thanks. 

Then there was the mid 30’s couple that can in.  He had this big bushy mustache and looked like a linebacker. She was a pretty long haired blonde about half his size.  Her choice of clothing was a T-shirt that said “Professional Mustache Rider”.

It’s good to know that while some things change, some never do.  I’ll let you figure out which is which!