Russ,
The Wikipedia story is also very inaccurate. Why would Harley-Davidson, a public company since 1965 would be "sold" to AMF? It simply did not happen. What happened is very different: just as for the obsolete British motorcycles, hampered by pre-war thinking, lack of modern features and full of unreliable parts and poor machining, Harley bikes had become obsolete junk
I've owned four bowling ball era H-D motorcycles including a '73 FLH that was purchased from the nephew of the orginal deceased owner. The bike was all orginal and had never been apart. I owned that bike for over 11 years. While not quick or great handling, I wouldn't have hesitated to jump on it and ride it to your coast or exactly what it was designed for.
Not really sure where you pull your misinformation from? How many H-D's have you owned?
I've owned many different brands and style of motorcycles ranging from a 1936 H-D WL, Ducati 916 and my last bike that was a Suzuki GSXR1000.
From my experience I woudn't exactly call your beloved Desmo headed Ducati's exactly maintenace free.
But the company ONLY survived through protectionism: in 1982, President Reagan signed a bill that taxed the Japanese imports a 20% fee on wholesale, this for a period of 10 years. This allowed HD to get the needed oxygen to eventually re-capture some of the more conservative US market..
It was univerally acknowleged that the Japanese were dumping bikes on the US. The tarrif was only on motorcycles over 750cc which is why at the time the motorcycles like the Suzuki GS700 came out to circumvent the tarrif.
The new owners did indeed create an all-new image for the bikes and progressively made them more reliable and usable. By the 1990's, their marketing approach and the help of a few celebrities such as Malcolm Forbes made the bikes more popular, then the organization of owners meets such as Sturgis blew the market wide open. .
Considering the first year of Sturgis motorcycle rally was in 1938, not quite sure why you imply it was in the '90s?
Now if you were inaccurately refering to the formation of HOG or Harley Owners Group promoting the motorcycle along with the lifestyle, I believe that was formed in the early '80s after the 1981 leveraged buyout fom AMF?
Back to the reliabilty issue. About the only thing I see that lends itself to that myth is the rear chain oiler on pre-belt driven bikes. There's a check ball in the oil pump and if the bike sits for long periods of time oil sometimes gets around the check ball and upon start up that oil is blown from the vent tube leading one to believe the motorcycle leaks. With modern O-ring chains the oiler can be turned off and AMF era or pre-AMF era motorcyles won't leak anymore or anyless oil than anything else unless your refering to the way earlier constant loss oil systems of say a VL or DL.