Charley
Good point on the collaboration attempt that failed.
Here is how I came to know HD as a kid. Like myself many kids got hooked on HD riding the BAJA - 100 (and its progeny) which was a competitive bike when raced by HD in the 1970’s, and the the SX series bikes which were the step to the sportster and the bigger bikes later on the street.
Hindsight is 20-20. How many kids like myself created riding skills on these small Harleys and then transitioned to the V twin? I think many.
In fact the Aermacchi Harley Davidson collaboration in the 1960's and 1970's was significant given the sales acceleration that HD had in the 1980’s through 2005 at least after the kids who rode the smaller bikes got hooked on the big bikes.
After HD abandoned the starter bike market in the late 1970's the kids still had 15 years to ride and wear out the remaining used small bikes.
This was my first HD:
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