Table Of ContentsamiLiM^
A PICTORIAL CELEBRATION
D'SCAPOED BY
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PUL UC iJBRARY
Lafayette Public Library
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PICTORIAL CELEBRATION
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First published in 1993 by Osprey,
an imprint of Reed Consumer Books Limited
Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 6RB
and Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Toronto
Reprinted 1994
© Copyright Reed Illustrated Books
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or review,
;is permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Ac :, 1988. no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval sysu or transmitted in any form or
i
by any m< ans, clc ronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording oi other- ise, without prior written permission.
All enquirii ;hould be addressed to the publisher.
[SB ; 8! '32 241 2
Edii Ban on
I'ag .inn
Print (I in Italy
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
IN THE BEGINNING...
7
CHAPTER TWO
IRON ICON
22
CHAPTER THREE
VENERABLE V-TWIN
36
CHAPTER FOUR
HOME ON RANGE
THE
58
CHAPTER FIVE
COUNCIL
STYLE
94
CHAPTER
SIX
GATHERINGS
120
imN
CHAPTER ONE
THE BEGINNING...
IN
Come
the year 2003 that they could not cope with
Harley-Davidson - mass production; the result
America's legendary was that Bill Harley enrolled
motorcycle manufacturer - in a four-year course at the
should be celebrating a remark- University of Wisconsin. He
able centenary. The company later became the technical man-
has grown from the humblest ager of the company while the
origins, and somehow survived Davidson brothers took care
all kinds of fluctuating fortunes of the production and sales.
along the way to their present By 1907, H-D Inc had been
pre-eminence. Arthur Davidson formed and production had
and William S Harley, who ini- shifted to the present Juneau
tially met in 1901, first began Avenue address. Two years
tinkering with two-wheelers in a tiny Milwaukee shed later, the first Harley with a V-twin engine was made.
just 15 feet by 10 feet, helped out by two of It had cylinders splayed at a 45° angle, like the mod-
Davidson's brothers. Bill was the guy with pencil, ern bikes, but churned out a paltry 7 bhp - not too
while Art wielded the spanners. But the first machines much rumble there. Less than a decade later, Harleys
hardly breathed fire - the small displacement four- were ridden by the public, police, competition riders
stroke single cylinder engine of the first "Silent Grey and most importantly, the military. During the First
Fellow" pushed out a very modest 3 horsepower and World War, some 20,000 machines saw active ser-
was equipped with bt't-driven rear wheel. vice, and enabled the first US soldiers to press into
Arthur's brother, Walter Davidson, played a Germany in 1918.
significant role by introducing to the fledgling com- With the war out of the way, Harley-
pany a German engineer with experience in motorcy- Davidson entered the 1920s like the rest of America -
cle production. The first three bikes constructed were in a mood of optimism. Production expanded, new
virtually hand-made, but demand ^oon exceeded sup- models were introduced with improved engines and
pl\ ~nd company hat to tal on more workers, features, and bike sales took off. A host of V-twins
pr< ^0 motorcycles in the \\ 1906. Despite contributed plenty of noise to the "Roaring
the that bi i fo :rs of the -ipany were Twenties". Around this time a Harley even won the
skill ' mechaii they ame to the conclusion first ever moto-cross, at Camberley, Surrey, England.
THE BEGINNING
N
A B Sparks scored victory in a two-leg race over a 30 Even stock still, the beefy XR Sportster flexes its muscles.
mile course. Little did everyone realise, however, that Note the absence ofa front brake - no messing raw
the Depression was just around the corner. A drastic courage. Good job there's a skinny disc at the back.
shakeout of the US motorcycle market ensued as sales High-level exhaustpipes and aftermarket Supertrapp
plummeted, and many manufacturers went to the wall "silencer" gave plenty ofground clearance. Round the
leaving just H-D Inc and Indian as the major players. other side ofthe engine twin carbs feed in the juice. In
In 1936, further new machines appeared the 1970s, Harley chose the celebrity route to ward off
under the Harley banner, including the legendary the increasing attraction ofJapanese imports - Evel
"Knucklehead" ohv design. But no sooner were Knievel did some amazing stunts on an XR750, while
things settling down than another major conflict Cal Rayborn was winning races and set an outright
intervened. The unavoidable truth, of course, is that speed record. Later, Mark Brelsford andJay Springsteen
no matter how unpleasant or distasteful the Second would win around the halfmile on the 85 bhp XR750.
World War was, for suppliers of machinery like
Harley it provided darn good business. No less than
90,000 bikes were built for military purposes, the fitted to the big bikes. Sadly, the following year saw
WLA
vast majority of them V-twins. the death of Arthur Davidson - the las: survivor of
Come peacetime, Harley returned to improv- the original founders. But soon there was a birth to
ing its domestic models, debuting the Panhead in celebrate - the K model of 1952 with hydraulic sus-
1947 and, rather less gloriously, an excursion into pension fore and aft would fi z years later be meta-
un-Harley-like small-bore two-strokes! Major morphosed into the first Spot .ster.
improvements were also seen in the suspension At the start of the "Swii ing Sixties', Harl
department in 1949 with the first hvdraulic forks announced an agreement wit ermacchi of It,
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
Descended from the overhead-valve Big Twin of 1941, One of the most resonant names ever in
Hydra Glide of 1949 and Duo Glide of 1960, the Electra motorcycling appeared in 1965 - the legendary FLH
Glide made its debut in 1965. Despite the presence ofa Electra Glide. A derivation of the Duo-Glide, but with
handlebar button to fire up the motor, Harley kept a 12-volt electrics and a push-button starter, the Glide
kickstart on the bike, just in case. As it turned out, the was an immediate success and still is a quarter of a
electric foot worked fine in good weather, but when there century later. At the close of the Sixties came a
was a bit ofrain or moisture in the air, gave up the momentous event in the history of Harley-Davidson
ghost. The extra 75 lbs ofequipment that comprised the Inc - merger with the AMF (American Machine and
electric start also did little to aid what was already a Foundry Co) conglomerate.
rather modest performance; maximum speed being a With the launch of the Honda CB750, 1969
mere 98 mph. Modern 11 volt electrics were also marked the start of the invasion of Japanese large-
introduced on the new "King ofthe Highway" at this capacity machines - an area Harley had had to them-
time, while most other two-wheelers still relied on selves until that point. But there was room for many
eeble 6-volts. manufacturers during the '70s, as the motorcycle
market continued to boom. Cal Rayborn recaptured
who f r (most two decades produced a variety of the world speed record for Harley in 1970 on a V-
often -ess-than-perfect" lightweights adorned with twin, putting the icing on the cake for the company's
the H-D nameplate. One good thing to come out of all-round competition successes, and boosting sales of
thi Ftali American mar age • ^ a clutch of 250 cc road-going machines. By the end of the decade,
an». j GP wor' 1 champions ;r>s attained by Harley-Davidson production was up 350%, though
Wa mk
v- i in ^~0s, ridin very rapid quality control suffered as a consequence, and cus-
twi hnder t\\ stroke tomer dissatisfaction with AMF rumbled on.
H
