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Confederate Edition Harley4/15/2021
His dream is to drive around the world; even if it takes more than eighty days.When was this and what happened to it Well, thats the whole story, right.Such was its prowess that it and Indian were the only two motorcycle brands in the US to have survived the Great Depression, even if they, too, did not come unscathed.
Clearly, while Harley-Davidsons are all about motorcycles, they do sell much more. So, when was this, and what happened to the Harley-Davidson Snowmobile Division. And yet, in 1969, Harley-Davidson, a rather successful company at the time, was sold to AMF, as in American Machine and Foundry. AMF streamlined production and slashed the workforce, resulting in labor strikes that further led to inferior production. This was the time people started referring to H-Ds as Hardly Ableson, Hogly Ferguson, and even Hardly Drivable. For a time, Harley-Davidson went bankrupt and was on the verge of shutting down. Davidson for 80 million at the time, and slowly, the brand built itself back up. The snowmobiles were the Sno-Clipper and the Ski-Daddler Power Sleds and in 1966 alone, more than 3,000 units of these were sold with a 175-strong dealer network. In 1968, Ski-Daddlers were being manufactured in the AMFs factory in York, Pennsylvania, where Harleys are made today. At the time, Aermacchis engines were used to power up these snow sleds, much-like in Polaris and Bombardier sleds. The second model upped the engine displacement to 440cc, and there was no third model. ![]() No gas gauge to check fuel, no kill-switch for emergency cut-off, no handle pad for ease of riding, and no storage compartment made these snowmobiles sully the Harley-Davidson name even further although sled-enthusiasts liked the idea. The sleds also lacked in power and performance, so basically they were well-branded duds. After the new investors acquired it, the company churned up profits only in the latter end of the 80s after they ran a tight ship. So this was not expansion, but a diversification no one wanted or needed. Thus the Harley-Davidson snowmobiles are nothing but anecdotal history today. In 2018, he officially flipped and switched sides to the editorial. He lives with his wife, two rascally sons, and is a car and motorcycle nut in his free time. He currently writes for HotCars on anything that has any number or kind of wheels. ![]()
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