The Ford 289 is more well known. My Ford 427 cu in actually displaced 425 cu in. They did not want it confused with Oldsmobile. They were also directly competing with the Chevrolet 427 cu in.
Not as bad as the Honda CB350 actually only displacing 325.6 cc.
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Seems like many motorcycles got bumped up to the next displacement if they went a few cc’s over the lower one.
They rounded down a fraction on this one
but they eliminated the wimp’s electric starter and raised the exhausts from the Dream model and I owned one for a few weeks for $20. in 1970 on Okinawa. I’m amazed that Harley was able to stay in business with competition like Honda biting their heals.
Oh never mind. I was going to make a smart remark about an ignorant person versus what used to be called an idiot. Still you got me confused about is it a Gulf or a Golf? Either one makes about as much sense as the other if you think about it. The one you would drive along the coast with and the other you’d take it to the course on Wednesday afternoon if you are still working.
“Idiot” which comes from the Greek prefix “idio” meaning self, originally meant someone who’s entire world was the village he lived in and never traveled out of. Someone who knew everything about the village he lived in and nothing about the rest of the world.
The same prefix gives us the word “idiom” a phase which has a meaning not deductible from the literal translation of the words. “son of a gun” or “jetz gibt das Donnerwedder”.
Harley Davidson almost didn’t stay in business, thanks to the mismanagement of AMF who owned the company for a while.
They maybe made good bowling equipment but my first mower was an AMF. It was a terrible piece of equipment. Self-propelled etc. but first run in the back yard the wheel came off. Just poor engineering. After many parts, I just bought a Toro instead.
As far as idiot goes, I wasn’t going back that far but mostly to the 1900’s and the state institutions.
They were hurting before AMF. But I agree AMF didn’t help them much. The ONLY Harley I ever drove was a Harley (AMF) 3-wheel golf cart.
The only HDs that did not go over well were the Italian made small displacement bikes back in the day but those have become somewhat collectible now also. HD also made a “Cow Glide” as it was called by bikers which had a Jersey cow black/white seat along with B/W paint. Gag. Great bikes but the seat would have to go to storage.
Harley has continuously raised the bar on hideous extravagance in glitz in recent years. Somewhere under all that useless scrap iron and plastic is a perfectly good chopper.
