Harley-Davidson Once Sold Snowmobiles

Autumn is quickly shifting into winter in several states this week, as a foot of snow is falling in South Lake Tahoe and the white stuff is blanketing parts of New Hampshire. Although I’m 11-plus years removed from living in the Midwest, I carry fond memories of zooming around Pelican Lake in north central Wisconsin on my parents’ snowmobiles, striking fear into my wife as my brother Joel and I raced across the snowy ice at a squillion miles an hour.

So it was rather enlightening to discover that the venerable Harley-Davidson made and sold snowmobiles between 1971 and 1975. Corporate parent American Machine And Foundry Corporation (AMF) owned Harley and Aermacchi, which manufactured the two-stroke engine in its Italian facility. Harley advertised its "exclusive new transmission/drive unit with a 4.5:1 ratio for explosive acceleration off the mark" and a 10-inch disc brake.