I certainly don’t need another motorcycle, and I certainly can’t afford another motorcycle, and I shouldn’t let the fact that I have a motorcycle on loan to my ex-wife’s husband (there should be a shorter way to say that — maybe “successorhub” or something) let me think that there’s an open space in the garage.
Nevertheless. There is a Nighthawk “S” for sale in Columbus. As a kid, I thought it was one of the coolest motorcycles ever. It wasn’t a racer-replica — it was just a cool thing. And, as it turns out, we have Harley-Davidson to thank for its existence, and the United States Government to thank for the existence of Harley-Davidson.
Can any of you identify this track? I’m pretty sure its Willow Springs. I recognize the corner station that appears on the left about halfway through the ad. Might be “Streets Of Willow”. Even with a pro rider on it, the Nighthawk 700SC isn’t exactly capable of a Marc Marquez shoulder grind. Not to worry; it was a shaft-drive street cruiser, meant to hustle between stoplights and absolutely capable of doing so. It had a big-bore, short-stroke variant of the Nighthawk 650 engine and managed a 12.35@107.46mph quarter-mile for the magazines. For comparison, Car and Driver managed 13.3@107 in a privately owned 1986 Testarossa the year after the Nighthawk “S” was introduced.
But why wasn’t it a 750? The answer was simple. Harley-Davidson, America’s last motorcycle company, was in the middle of being rescued from AMF’s disastrous mismanagement. It was taken private by a consortium of nine investors including a member of the Davidson family. Stuck with an antiquated, unreliable lineup and facing dealers who were furious over being saddled with too much unsellable inventory, H-D looked likely to fail in the face of fierce competition from the Japanese manufacturers.
President Reagan signed a massive tariff in April of 1983, increasing import duty for bikes over 700cc from 4.9% to 49%. In 1987, at the request of a revitalized Harley-Davidson eager to earn goodwill with the American public, Harley asked the government to end the tariff. The rest is history; although it was hit as hard as everyone else by the 2008/2009 crisis, Harley-Davidson is in good shape today and easily sells all the $40,000 touring bikes it can build to an increasingly wealthy (and grey) clientele.
In the years of the tariff, the Japanese Big Four (Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki) showed their agility and competitiveness by immediately dropping their 750cc bikes to 700cc. There were VFR700s and FZR700s and so on. And a few people continued to pay whatever it took to get behind the handlebars of a Japanese literbike. The Gold Wing was already US-made at that point and it wasn’t affected by the tariff; in fact, you can argue that Honda’s utter dominance of the touring market was assisted by having the only genuinely reliable tourer for sale at a reasonable price in that era. Kawasaki had a USA facility as well but its American-made six-cylinder Z1300 wasn’t as well-regarded as the Wing.
Economists, both amateur and professional, will tell you that tariffs harm the country that enacts them. And that’s true, from a strict maximization-of-utility standpoint. Certainly the overall transaction price for motorcycles went up during the tariff years. But it preserved jobs that would have otherwise been lost. The American motorcycle industry could have simply disappeared for all time, the way the British auto industry did. I would suggest that our country benefited more overall from the retention of Harley-Davidson than it suffered from increased motorcycle transaction prices.
There was another factor at work. The yen, as long-time readers of this blog already know, was undervalued at the beginning of the Eighties. As it rose to a price that more properly reflected Japan’s economic power, prices of Japanese goods rose as well. Think of it as a reverse tariff — simply by pricing your items in yen and building them in Japan, you could make 40% more money or price your products 40% cheaper. What the 49% tariff did was equalize that, and once the yen had risen to an appropriate point, it was no longer necessary to adjust it with a tariff.
Most of you already know I’m going to talk about China now. For years, that monolithically-managed entity has manipulated its currency in such a fashion as to effectively wage war on the United States. Yes, you Econ 101 graduates, the United States has benefited in the short term from cheaper products and services. But in the long term, what’s happening is that China is building an Arsenal of Capitalist Psuedo-Communism with the proceeds of this war, the same way the United States used WWII to become the biggest manufacturing power in the world. The Chinese don’t think in terms of economics, which is why their markets are wacky and investing there is a game of roulette. They think in terms of jobs, in terms of capacity, in terms of power.
So they’re playing chess while we play Tic-Tac-Toe.
Back to the Nighthawk. It was available as a Nighthawk 750S in Canada but nobody seems to have ridden the two bikes back to back so there’s no way to know whether the extra 50cc made a difference. The point on which everybody seems to agree: they were brilliant motorcycles. Here’s the $1500, two-owner example on my local Craiglist:
I like the idea of buying it, stripping it down to the last nut and bolt, and refinishing/rebuilding the whole thing with all the spare time I do not have and will never have. Or I could just scrub it up a bit and ride it as is. What I would most like to do is get together with my brother and his School Bus Yellow Boss 302 to take a photo in tribute to the original catalog cover. Isn’t it interesting, by the way, that the brochure for a 1985 motorcycle features a 1970 car as an example of what’s cool? But that’s a discussion for another time.
Bravo! China’s war on the United States has been economic, both parties are to blame and blind to this.
Oh yeah, those bikes were among the best of the universal Japanese standards, once owned a 1980 650 custom, great bike.
I think your are right about Willow Springs. I grew up near there, and won the 250 amateur class of the 4 Aces Grand Prix there once.
And the key difference between Reagan saving H-D (and even the bailouts of GM and Chrysler) and the collapse of the British car industry is that British Leyland took nationalization as a license to keep producing garbage, where over here the rescued companies at least got their shit in order product-wise. If it hadn’t been for the Evo engine, Harley would still have gone bust tariff or no.
incidentally, people ask me why I’m going after a Sportster 1200 in the face of all of these Japanese cruisers which are “better.”
1) I like them,
2) in 2015 “better” means I might have one more issue with a Harley than a Honda; unlike 1978 where a Honda “just worked” and a Hardly-Ableson would enrage you.
3) Customizability. If I go to Honda.com and look at the roughly equivalent cruiser (the 1300 Custom) I can choose one paint color (any color so long as it’s black,) two optional seats, etc. A Sportster 1200C offers 15 different paint colors, 9 seat options, four different windshield styles, a half-dozen bag options, two engine options, etc. Japanese bikes are cheaper because you take what they give you, which is not all that different from Japanese cars. The option selection on a Camry or Accord is very sparse, you pretty much have to go up a trim level to get something additional.
4) I’m something of a homer anyway, and Victory bikes are just too damn big for me, and I don’t like the “vintage” look of Indians.
I sure like that Forty-Eight Sportster but apparently it’s cheaper to buy an Iron 883 and do the 1200 kit.
There’s also the Street 750 which, a bit of a kerfluffle over the brakes aside, seems like a good bike.
Last but not least, my favorite recent Harley — the XR1200 in orange.
like I said on RideApart, I want to like the Forty Eight. But the 2 gallon gas tank just kills it.
I had one of these for about five years, and it’s a great bike. The 16″ front wheel means you are stuck with bias ply tires. It weighs more than you’d think looking at the narrow little thing, but the performance is sufficient and it’s quite smooth. The digital gear counter and the fuel gauge are things that every bike should have. My understanding is that they really were the last hurrah of the air/oil-cooled standard bike as real liquid-cooled faired sportbikes started becoming a thing.
Anyway, it’s a shame the original black chrome exhaust is gone.
Agreed… and I appreciate you chiming in with some real-world experience on it.
Nah… Suzuki carried the air/oil cooled mantle pretty much right up until 2006.
Love the Nighthawk! Drove several different versions in the 80’s and early 90’s. A do-everything standard that looked cool and was fast enough without the repli-racer image. And a glaring hole in today’s motorcycle market. There are very few standards being produced, and most are more of the beginner bike variety. Our choices today are between boy-toy crotch rockets, cruisers, and ADV machines. Of those, the ADV are closest to the do-everything bikes, but most are fairly ugly. The new Africa Twin might be nice, though I’m still half-looking for a lightly used CB1100.
You really need to write up some reviews on your bikes! Especially the CB1100.
Those are great bikes. Buddy has one identical to the one in the photo. He found a guy who has his own bone yard of these things — has just about anything you’d need should something need to be replaced.
I say get it, ride it and leave the patina and original-ness.
BTW, that’s pretty nice of you to loan a bike to the ex’s husband. When adults can get along, it sure benefits the kids.
I prefer the term Husband 2.0. All the bugs were worked out 😉 We really do appreciate the loan…unless you are trying to get him killed.
If I’d wanted to get him killed, I’d have handed over the VFR800!
That post had me laughing at my phone at work yesterday. Got a couple odd looks…
Wow. I had that exact brochure on my wall as a kid. A friend of mine in high school had one and I hated him for it. That generation of Nighthawk is my favorite, and the one pictured is the most unmolested I’ve seen in a while. It looks like only the exhaust has been tampered with. Unfortunately in Houston it seems like all the great UJMs have been gruesomely chopped up into cafe racers and bobbers. You’ve got to buy it to remake the brochure picture with Bark! Give it to your son along with the 993 when the time comes, they’re both examples of superb engineering from an era that is unlikely to return.
I call all of my ex’s relations my out-laws, since they’re not my in-laws anymore.
Gotta love 80’s Japanese bikes! Still got my ( one year only ) Nighthawk 550 — the engine looks very similar.
These were good little UJM’s , a fellow V.J.L.A.’er had one and rode the snot out of it , like most Hondas it just ran and ran…..
I’d be interested in that old Ford pickup if it’s not rusty , a short bed and had the i6 engine….
-Nate
Love that econ story - it’s always fascinating how changing market and regulatory conditions affect product development.
However, my Austrian school of economics fanfare (on moral grounds) doesn’t allow me to dismiss the following:
a. You’ve often railed against corporate meddling in US politics - and I can agree with that sentiment - government should not pick winners and losers or kraft industry specific policies. Once given power to meddle the results are less than stellar. Allowance of corporate meddling in politics is why Harley got that bailout, with which you happen to agree with because you like bikes, Harleys and undeserved jobs security. How much did that cost Harley in political donations and support? You can’t have it both ways - if businesses are to stay out of politics then politicians need to stay out of free markets. There is no good middle ground.
b. Economics are fascinating because for every seen cause and effect there is always a less apparent cause and effect. It’s easily seen that Harley got bailed out as a result of tariffs - voila, jobs were saved. What’s not seen is free markets at work if Harley was allowed to fail i.e. additional US jobs created elsewhere. An expansion of Gold Wing production in the US perhaps. Or maybe Victory and Indian bikes filling in demand for heritage cruisers with better looking and more reliable products. Perhaps, Harley would eventually re-emerge a la Hostess as a more efficient and streamlined operation albeit without taxpayer footing the bill. Marketplace is way more complicated than simplistic policies that politician craft in an attempt to streamline it.
In the long run those bike tariffs saved US jobs as much as cash-for-clunkers spurred auto sales.
Creative destruction seems like a great idea until your own job is eliminated. After that - not so much.
While I agree with many of your points, a true free market tends to be a race to the bottom. There needs to be some guiding and adjusting to make it happen. Saving the last US based anything may not make economic sense but it makes excellent political and patriotic sense. Even if you ignore political contributions many Americans would back saving Harley so it makes perfect sense.
“…many Americans would back saving Harley so it makes perfect sense.”
It only makes sense when the cost of saving a company is unseen by the consumers. There is no need for gov’t to get into this when Americans can save a company by buying corporate bonds. Be a patriot buy a bond! Because you know…motherhood, apple pie and Harleys!
Of course, that probably would not have happened because not enough people valued Harley enough to save it if their own money were involved. It was only worth saving if the perceived cost for doing so was a seemingly harmless economic policy that saved jobs and cost nothing - incorrect on both counts.
So where do you draw a line if politicians and businesses are to trade favors. Save Harley but not Hostess - bail out Goldman Sachs but not Lehman Brothers - what a mess!
Not a fan of Reagan, but his administration deserves credit for sparking the transplant auto industry with its “voluntary” import quotas. It was wise to recognize that the economic benefit comes from the point of assembly, not from the location of the HQ.
What Would Trump Do (WWTD?!) … he is playing up to the big labor by threatening tariffs on Mexican-made domestic brand autos
NAFTA isn’t going anywhere, even if Trump wins (which he won’t.)
They’re slick bikes, especially in the red-white-&-blue color scheme on the ’86 models. My dad bought one to flip and I managed to ride/wreck it a couple times before he sold it. They’re pretty damn heavy, but carry the weight well - as the commenter before said, they’re well-balanced bikes. Be forewarned: the clutch hydraulics are a bitch, even with a MityVac.
Also, make sure the kickstand spring is securely hooked. Lost some skin due to that oversight.
Check out the movie Kill the Messenger (about the reporter that broke the CIA cocaine-for-freedom fighter funding), the protagonist rides that very bike in red-white-and-blue. Just watched the movie last weekend and remembered your post — I’d never seen one in RWB before. Good movie. Good bike.