Remember reading an article about Honda's campaign back in the 60s about "you meet the nicest people on a Honda" or words to that effect. Motorcyclists had a bad rep due to Hollywood really cultivating the "outlaw" image, and Honda wanted to demonstrate their motorcycles were for everyone else.

Other Japanese bikes were also flooding the American market. They were very successful gaining a foothold in America with small utility motorcycles. They began selling larger bikes to take on their next competitor, the English motorcycles. The Japanese bikes offered similar performance, but were were more reliable.

They really didn't compete with HD until a couple decades later when they entered the "cruiser" segment. Have a feeling they didn't really cut into the HD market very much because HD has a very loyal fan base. Also by this time, HD had collaborated with Porsche with the "Evolution" engine that didn't leak oil like the old AMF "Shovelhead" engines.

HD has done some interesting things over the years. Not many people remember that they once built "motorcross" bikes. I think it was more of a DOD order, so I don't know if they sold many to the public. It was neat seeing HD branch away from just building cruisers. Loved they went into "Super bike" racing too. I think they used a V-Rod for the basis of their race bike.

Glad they're finally getting into electric bikes, but I wish their Live Wire was coming in about $10K less... At least they're selling electric scooters too...