I remember that well and it made a lasting impression on me relative to Japanese manufacturing capability.....especially Honda. All their bikes over 700cc were redesigned (engine changes) to 700cc or slightly below. The larger bikes such as the GL's were moved to the US. Net result was that Honda paid none of these 'save Harley' taxes. All these technical and logistics changes took place in under a year, if I'm remembering correctly.yeah, I was thinking the same thing yesterday. But, I remember one result of the tariff was the 750s became 700s for a few years because the tariff only applied to 700cc and larger (the actual displacement was in the 690s usually). I was never convinced the Reagan tariff amounted to anything anyway, since the mantra back then was "I'd rather eat worms than ride a rice burner" so it wasn't like there was any significant competition between the brands in the first place. And that tariff only lasted a few years. I had a 1986 FZ750 that I thought was pre-tariff because they went to FZ700 a little later, but maybe it just took a couple years to change the displacement after the tariff was enacted.
Pre 1982, Harley was overpriced junk and customers were treated accordingly by dealerships. On Harley's side, under new management, HD fixed their management and design problems and regained their image....and sales. There were two industrial tales of note during this period.