FOR REASONS THAT ARE HARD TO FATHOM, American motorcycle manufacturers seem to struggle making motorcycles that are not big V-twins, with established companies resorting to foreign firms to provide small and medium-capacity bikes. Most famously, Harley-Davidson bought Aermacchi, while Indians had a small sidevalve single made by Blackpool’s Brockhouse to sell as an Indian, tried a Vincent engine, and imported rebadged Royal Enfields. In the Clymer years, Indians came with engines from Velocette and Royal Enfield and Italjet frames, and there were Taiwanese-made two-stroke Indian tiddlers.
One of the more unusual efforts to slap on the Stars and Stripes was American Eagle Motorcycles – a great name for a motorcycle company, even if it didn’t actually make any motorcycles. It was established in 1967 by former Honda and Suzuki concessionaire Jack McCormack, the man who came up with the slogan “you meet the nicest people on a Honda”. McCormack started American Eagle when Suzuki took its importation operation off him and moved it in-house in the USA. He sued them, won, and used the substantial pay-out to set up the new company.
There was never any American Eagle motorcycle factory. He started out with a big ad budget and small racing team while selling off-road bikes in a classic example of ‘Badge Engineering’. These were made in the UK, by Sprite Engineering in Oldbury, in the West Midlands, which did similar deals with Belgian and Australian companies. Sprite machines
