the competition from international competitors to harley-davidson made harley-davidson motorcycles better, much better. my first harley spent the winters as the most beautiful ornament in my living room, parked right beside my sofa in my manhattan apartment without ever dripping a drop of oil. i convinced friends of mine who had only ridden japanese bikes to buy harleys. harley-davidson requested that the protective five-year tariff be removed a year early because harley didn't need it anymore. after the tariff was removed, harley's ceo actually said, for years we tried to figure out why the japanese were beating us so badly. first we thought it was their culture. then we thought it was automation. then we thought it was dumping. finally we relialized the probl was us, not them. they had been making a terrible product and doing it in an inefficient way. in addition to designing and building a better motorcycle,