AMF Harley-Davidson: when a bowling company owned the motorcycles

AMF Harley-Davidson is the name often given to the Milwaukee motorcycles built while the company belonged to AMF, the American Machine and Foundry company. AMF was one of the largest recreational equipment groups in the United States, and its range reached from bowling equipment to bicycles, yachts and research reactors.

AMF Harley-Davidson at a glance

The sources say very little about the AMF period: the English Wikipedia article on AMF mentions only that the company owned Harley-Davidson for a time, and the German article gives the background of the motorcycle maker. The article is therefore short and claims nothing beyond those sources.

History of the AMF Harley-Davidson

The motorcycle maker

Harley-Davidson Inc. was founded in 1903 as Harley-Davidson Motor Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became known for its motorcycles, a brand that acquired cult status among riders. The company that briefly owned it was a very different kind of business.

American Machine and Foundry

American Machine and Foundry, known after 1970 as AMF, Inc., was one of the largest recreational equipment companies in the United States, with products as different as garden equipment, atomic reactors and yachts. It was founded in 1900 by Rufus L. Patterson Jr., the inventor of the first automated cigarette manufacturing machine. Incorporated in New Jersey but operating in Brooklyn, New York City, it began by making cigarette, baking and stitching machines. After the Second World War it built automated bowling equipment, and bowling centres became profitable ventures; bicycle production was added in 1950. The company also made tennis racquets and research reactors for the US Atoms for Peace programme. Until the mid-1980s its consumer goods included powered model aeroplanes, snow skis, lawn and garden equipment, Ben Hogan golf clubs, Voit inflatable balls, exercise machines, yachts, bicycles, mopeds and scuba gear.

The AMF years

For a time AMF owned Harley-Davidson motorcycles, so the Milwaukee machines of that period are usually called AMF Harley-Davidsons; the video below shows a machine of 1976 badged as an AMF Harley-Davidson Aermacchi SS 250. The sources give no detail of the purchase itself. What they do record is the state of the parent company: ageing production facilities and increasing quality control problems in some product lines caused sales declines in the late 1970s and early 1980s. AMF’s vast, diversified output proved difficult to manage efficiently and, after a series of losses, the company sold off its operations, Harley-Davidson among them.

Design and features

• A conglomerate owner: the motorcycles sat inside a group whose other products included bowling pinspotters, bicycles and research reactors.
• Bicycles as a companion line: AMF entered bicycle manufacture in 1950 with the Roadmaster range, so two-wheelers of very different kinds came from the same company.
• Corporate decline: ageing factories and quality control problems in several product lines led to falling sales in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Sold off: after a series of losses AMF disposed of its operations, ending its time as a motorcycle owner.

AMF Harley-Davidson versions

• AMF Harley-Davidson: the name used for the motorcycles sold while AMF owned the company.
• Harley-Davidson: the maker’s own name, used before and after the AMF period.
• Aermacchi SS 250 (1976): a machine carrying both the AMF Harley-Davidson and Aermacchi names, shown in the video below.

More motorcycles are in the AMF collection.

Video: 1976 AMF Harley-Davidson / Aermacchi SS 250

Video on YouTube.

Sources

• American Machine and Foundry, English Wikipedia: company history, products, ownership of Harley-Davidson, decline
• Harley-Davidson, German Wikipedia: founding of the motorcycle maker, brand reputation