I feel like those 80s motorcycle tariffs are why the US motorcycle industry is so uncompetitive today. In the 80s, HD got fat my making bikes that wouldn’t be viable anywhere else in the world. HD didn’t have to compete because tariffs guaranteed their market. Meanwhile Honda, Yamaha,. Kawasaki, Suzuki were developing a lean, lightweight model, we saw the convergent evolution of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle and lean production processes. It was specifically those tariffs that made the big 4 what they are today - basically unstoppable.
I feel like those 80s motorcycle tariffs are why the US motorcycle industry is so uncompetitive today. In the 80s, HD got fat my making bikes that wouldn’t be viable anywhere else in the world. HD didn’t have to compete because tariffs guaranteed their market. Meanwhile Honda, Yamaha,. Kawasaki, Suzuki were developing a lean, lightweight model, we saw the convergent evolution of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle and lean production processes. It was specifically those tariffs that made the big 4 what they are today - basically unstoppable.