As I mentioned in passing in one of the previous parts, Harleys actually had some very cool prototypes. Back in 1976, the company’s management developed a detailed plan to respond to the Japanese threat: an updated, reliable V-Twin and … a radically new V4 engine – three years before the appearance of the Honda racing engine and 6 years before the civilian Magna model. However, instead of bringing the new cruisers to mind as quickly as possible, the management in the person of AMF continued to engage in nonsense and push unwanted models like MX250 and XLCR-1000, and in 1981, yes, they decided to get rid of the H-D. Finding himself in such an interesting situation and trying to somehow gain time, Harley-Davidson first of all undertakes a very dirty trick: it uses its connections in the government. And Ronald Reagan signs a decree imposing a tariff of 45 percent on all imported bikes with an engine capacity of more than seven hundred cubic meters, from the 83rd to the 88th year. Not to say that this played a big role: the Japanese roll their eyes, emit a Japanese “pfft!” and simply reduce the volume of the smallest engines to seven hundred. At the same time, increasing the volume of larger engines, since there is nothing to lose anyway. And the same Yamaha V-Max appeared after the introduction of the tariff, so… the devil knows how much this tariff helped Harleys.
A prototype Harley-Davidson Nova with a V4 engine. It included many not-so-American solutions: a gas tank hidden under the saddle; an engine developed together with Porsche. On the other hand, it would still be a much more American motorcycle than a Yamaha or a Honda. And the fact that the Germans had a hand in the engine seems to automatically indicate its potential sportiness and performance. And yes, of course, the V4 engine just needs to be liquid cooled, since the inner two cylinders are sandwiched between the outer ones and the air cools down frankly badly. Where is the radiator, then? And it's also hidden under the seat. Actually, the air intakes on the sides of the fake gas tank are designed to supply air to the radiator. And the fake gas tank itself is just a big empty box for all the same air.
Instead of throwing all their money at developing a new cruiser as soon as possible, AMF amused itself by releasing something that people who bought Harley-Davidson motorcycles didn't need for nothing. Here are just a few examples. Perhaps the most striking failure is the MX250: it was released in 1977, and ... dealers simply refused to allocate space in their showrooms. In 1978, H-D literally shoved the MX250 into dealers - and, of course, they stayed there. It is said that of the 900 bikes assembled, most of them were never sold. In the same 78th year, production was curtailed. The XLCR-1000 was built from '77 to '78 and was a slightly more successful model, but only when compared with the MX250. Because in general, it also failed miserably. The fact is that there was an attempt to make a so-called cafe racer... that's just the geometry left over from the cruiser. Just like the long wheelbase. As a result, the target audience of cafe racer enthusiasts noted such advantages as "narcoleptic maneuverability" and "lethargic performance" in the XLCR-1000. About three thousand American cafe racers were gathered.
In general, with grief in half, by hook or by crook, Harley-Davidson still reaches one of the prototypes before release, and in 1984 it released five models with the new Evolution engine. In general, H-D achieved everything necessary: the new engine was much more productive than the old ones, did not heat up as much and was many times, many times more reliable than previous models. So Evolution, for obvious reasons, is considered the engine that saved the Harley and Davidson company. As Hagerty writes:
“Models with the Evo engine have appeared … like a cavalry division flying over the horizon to help encircled infantry with antique rifles, seconds before an imminent massacre.”
If this had happened a few years earlier, perhaps Japanese bikes would not have been able to leave such a deep mark on the American motorcycle industry. But what happened happened, and there were consequences… very ambiguous. Yes, Harley-Davidson has survived, and their image on the custom scene and among fans of American cars is still unparalleled: although Japanese V4s are very common, the vast majority of custom motorcycles are still based on the American V-Twin. However, things were already somewhat different. The Japanese felt confident in the cruise ship market, and continued to produce new models, finally realizing what a custom scene was, and correcting all sorts of little things like design – if there was some kind of absurdity in the early models, by the mid-90s, Japanese motorcycles were virtually impossible to distinguish from Harleys without detailed inspection.
It's also a Harley-Davidson Nova. Just not a working layout for developing an alternative design. Of all the prototypes built, only five remain, of which only two are working, including the orange one in the previous set of photos. H-D didn't really want to abandon this prototype at all: after all, a lot of effort, years of time, and tons of money were spent on it. In the end, in 1981, the bike was already planned to be produced at the factory, and only a sudden change of management put an end to these plans. Yes, such is the irony: AMF, with its love of experimentation and new territories, nevertheless tended to Nova, rather than Evolution. But the new management decided to exchange, in fact, a fully finished motorcycle for a safer option in the form of a standard air-cooled Evolution engine. It was logical: Harley-Davidson would definitely not have survived another setback at that moment; a reliable, classic bike was needed, which the audience had been waiting for from the American company for a long time. In addition, with an eye on the "successes" of AMF, people would probably perceive the unusual motorcycle as a continuation of the "innovative" approach of the previous owners - which was not needed at all by the new bosses, who tried their best to wash off the corporate raid in the eyes of the public and regain the image of an independent American manufacturer. Nevertheless, not everyone liked the idea of pushing Nova: it is known that, despite everything, at least in '82, someone among senior managers, despite the critical situation, continued to siphon money for the Nova project, giving funds to people who tried to attach the bike at least somewhere. We were looking for investors outside the company, and even found a factory... but in Italy. Of course, there was no strategic point in launching a new cruise ship in Italy... In general, in the end, Nova still went on the shelf. And it's sad.
By the way, in addition to the liter V4, Harley-Davidson planned to equip Nova motorcycles with budget four-cc two-cylinder engines, and the most sporty models... with a 1.5 liter V6 engine! That's definitely a radical decision. If only the project had survived to mass production.: Nova, of course, could have been a truly epic failure, but it seems to me that the bike had every chance of phenomenal success. And almost twenty years before the appearance of Boss Hoss.
In the two thousand years, Asian bikes, in fact, became more American in spirit than, in fact, American. In 2002, Harley-Davidson released the V-Rod, a high-tech, very lightweight bike with a Revolution engine that was developed with the help of Porsche. The design of the motorcycle was very strange, obviously not classic – in our country there was a nickname of the Road. The engine was liquid-cooled, and the gas tank was fake – the real one was located under the saddle… Yes, yes, it’s as if Nova has finally reached release. But the radiator was located in front, not under the saddle, so a fake gas tank doesn’t seem to be very appropriate. And anyway, of all the design options, Nova chose, apparently, the lousy one. The engine capacity, of course, was 1.1 liters, but… The same Honda started production of the VTX 1800 model a year earlier, with a huge 1.8 liter engine. In 2004, Kawasaki will respond with a fully two-liter Vulcan 2000 model. And that Vulcan and VTX were both absolutely classic American bikes by design: heavy pigs with gas tanks in front of the rider.
A chopper with a two-liter Kawasaki engine from the Cobra Customs workshop. Of course, specializing in Japanese engines, they could not pass by an engine of this size.
And an article about this motorcycle from Cycle World magazine for May 2004. By the way, at the bottom of the pages you can see a whole scattering of Japanese custom designs from the Cobra workshop, including the already mentioned Magna-fied and Flame, as well as the Red Rider with a VTX 1800 engine.
Of course, in May 2001, the Red Rider had its own article. Indeed, among connoisseurs of Americana, even if you simply say "my bike has a 1.8 engine", this will definitely cause at least approving and respectful nods of the head. Even if the engine is Japanese. And even if the bike is also custom...
In general, the history of the 80s turned out in a very interesting way twenty years later: H-D began to make unusual sports V-Rods, and the Japanese competed in a purely American way to see who had the bigger engine. The Asian invasion did not go unnoticed. Nor has the exceptionally poor quality of the Harleys of the 70s gone unnoticed: although H-D motorcycles have become much more reliable after leaving the AMF, memories of their lousy quality probably still live. Even one of the founders of the Hells Angels, Ralph Barger, wrote the following in his 2000 book Hells Angel:
“The Hells Angels started riding Harley-Davidsons mainly because, unlike today, they didn’t have much choice. In 1957, you either ride a Harley or settle for a Triumph or a BSA. Indiana had already stopped building at that time, and it was always important for the Hells Angels to drive cars made in America. But speaking purely from the point of view of quality, I personally don’t like Harleys. I drive them because I’m in a club and it’s an image, but if I could, I’d seriously consider a Honda ST1100 or BMW. We specifically missed the train by not switching to Japanese models when they started building big bikes. I usually say fuck Harley-Davidson. You can buy an ST1100, and he can fucking drive 180 kilometers an hour all day, right from the factory. And even though it’s probably too late to change cars now, I think it would be a good move, because Japanese bikes are much better assembled today – and much cheaper.”
Chopper with VF 750 type V4 engine. In fact, it's just a 1995 Honda Magna with flames and long forks, which, in general, directly demonstrates how accurately the Japanese had learned to copy the design of classic American bikes by the mid-90s.
It's not a 1940 Indian - it's a Kawasaki Vulcan 800 Drifter from two thousand years ago. And it's hard to call it custom: there are no changes to the engine, body or frame in this motorcycle. Only custom painting.
Summing up, I would say that everything is not so bad. In terms of cars, the Japanese have not really mastered the American rules of the game and, despite the existing Hemi, have not built even the most modest pony car. Therefore, in the 90s, the Japanese invasion led to the emergence of the import tuner scene, which, with its drift and everything else, seemed to be a direct opponent of the classic American custom scene. But in terms of motorcycles, Japan seems to be successfully playing on both fronts. And while continuing to produce sportbikes and so on, the land of the rising sun makes cruisers quite well, which feel more than appropriate: heavy, chrome-plated, with good engines – both large and classic, and very unusual. In general, in the 80s, the custom scene simply became much more diverse, which allowed for a variety of interesting and creative projects. And this is, without a doubt, a big plus.
