This is the continuation of a story begun on our September 2013 Home Page. To go to an archived version of that page, click here: September 2013 Home Page Archive. To return to this month's actual Home Page, click on the Signal Corps orange Home Page menu item in the upper left corner of this page.

continuing...

Imagine too… a Harley fuel tank from that era, with the original piping and logo painted on it, hanging above your bed, where your wife’s picture used to be. Now that is heaven.

By the time 1906 rolled around, business was picking up handsomely. The Harley Boys added a couple of staff, until the company included all of 6 full time people (most families at that time had more kids than the boys had employees), and moved into a 28’ x 80’ factory. WOOO-ah! 28’ x 80’!

In spite of this, they managed to produce 150 bikes that year.

It took a bit longer to expand their business, because much of their early year’s sales were based on local word of mouth. But by 1913 they were “hotting up” their operations.

In that year they moved into and occupied a brand new (built for them) 297,000 square foot facility, with the capacity to produce 28,000 motorcycles per year. The actual number of bikes produced that year are sketchy, but what we do know is that by 1918 (4 years later) they were recognized as the largest motorcycle company in the world.

By 1918 they had dealerships in 67 countries… and within a few short years thereafter (1920), they were producing at their peak of 28,000 bikes. Not bad for a couple of determined kids with a good idea.

AHHHhhhh… don’t you love it? American capitalism. I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

At any rate, if you remember sitting on your dad’s lap and listening to stories of his early years, then you know about the stock market crash of 1929 (it was kind of like the one in 1987, only a billion times worse…). Both Indian and Harley managed to make it through, albeit not without consequences.

In 1929 production at the boy’s factory fell to only 3,703 bikes. That was down quite a bit from the 22,350 they had produced the year before.

So what did the boys do? Easy-peasy… they rolled out a "special" bike to be sold to police departments. Little different from their normal bike, it had a few accoutrements added to it (e.g. a siren) and was repainted to cater to the police department involved. It worked… sales went up, proving that the Harley Boys were not only good mechanics, but knew a thing or two about marketing.

From selling to police departments to selling to the military it was little more than a hop-skip-and-a-jump for the boys… especially with WWI occurring in the early years of their business' growth and WWII in the middle years. For while in most people's minds war is a travesty, in the minds of government contractors war is a God send. 

For the Harley Boys WWI brought the sale of over 20,000 bikes to the military. In WWII 90,000 were sold. In both cases when the wars were over many of these bikes made their way back into the civilian sector as war surplus. If back in his days your dad rode a Harley… it is likely it was one of those built for the military that made its way into the post-war civilian world, only to find itself lovingly cared for and rolling along underneath your dad's butt... and maybe your mom's too.

So far so good… for the Harley Boys it was turning out to be a nice story without misery. Until, that is, the post war period hit and the nice isolationist mentality that America had before the wars changed for good.

One of the benefits of foreign wars is that if they are fought well they bring stability to America. One of the detriments is that no matter how they end, they bring more foreigners to America. In 1946 foreign motorcycles hit America in full force. The biggest competition came from Britain and Japan.

Considering all of the GIs that had spent time in both Europe and Asia during the war, it was only normal that they came to understand and see the world differently than they had before leaving the farm. So true is this that there was even a song about it back then, with lyrics that that asked "how you gonna to keep 'em down on the farm, once they've seen Paree (sic)."

And so it was, American men of the 50s saw British bikes as having a more sporty appearance than the war surplus Harleys and Indians that were making it onto the market. In addition to this, the foreign bikes were cheaper and… gosh… do we really have to say this… more reliable. Add to this post-war tax laws and it was cheaper to buy a British bike…or the much maligned rice burners from Japan… than a Harley or Indian.

Harley tried to respond, but its marketing muscle seemed to have waned. Maybe it was burn out on the part of management, or maybe they just needed to update their bikes. Thinking it was the latter, the Harley Boys tinkered with their original design and came out with something new.

Their first effort was the legendary Hydra-Glide, with the infamous Panhead engine. It was a heavy machine compared to the rice burners coming over from Japan (… ok, we can’t resist… isn’t’ meat heaver than rice anyway?) and so it didn’t sell well. Part of the reason for this was that the Hydra Glide was a "man's" bike... that happened to be introduced at a time when more and more women were taking up riding. The result was that when it came time for the "man" to buy himself a bike the opinion of his softer gender friend made its way into the picture... and since she often struggled to keep the Hydra Glide vertical when stopped at a light, it simply made sense for the "man" to opt to buy something that she could handle a bit more easily.  After all, there's nothing quite so embarrassing as a lady stopping at a street cornr and having her bike roll to the side and fall on the ground while she struggles to keep it up.

Whether it was the fact that women kept falling over when trying to mount and ride the bike by themselves, or something else… the fact was that the bike didn't sell well. By 1950 Harley’s market share dropped to a dismal 6%. Worse, by 1950 40% of the motorcycles being driven in America were foreign made.

Gulp.

And if all of this wasn’t insult being added to injury, one of America’s heart throbs and stars decided to ride a Limey bike in his greatest movie. In 1954 Marlon Brando, then 30 years old, mounted a British Triumph and rode it in the movie The Wild One.

Traitor.

To try to overcome this debacle, Harley introduced the Sportster in 1957.

Well promoted as the “father of the superbikes,” it was three years too late and the public yawned.

While Harley slovenly slept through the interceding years doing little to rise from its lethargy, the American biking community began to grow. And when it did, as always happens in America, it discovered the beauty, wonder, and brilliance of home grown American products, goods and services. Slowly but surely American men… dare we capitalize and emphasize that… MEN, as in the Marlboro type… discovered the Harley Davidson.

Some 10+ years after Brando unknowingly put down American bikes, another heart throb came along. In the 1969 cult film Easy Rider, Peter Fonda… sporting the montage of Captain America… brought Harley Davidson back into the spotlight when he rode a “chopped” Harley Davidson Electra Glide with a Panhead engine.

For those returning from Vietnam, the whole scene of these two rebels riding the country side… just seeing the America they believed in… said it all. High or straight, the idea that this was MY AMERICA made everyone who saw the movie want to ride. And at this point, no British, Italian  or Japanese bike would do, even if they were better bikes.

The fact was, Captain America and the 2.59 million Vietnam Vets that actually served in-country (out of the 8.2 million that met the official classification of a Vietnam Era Veteran but never set foot in Vietnam)  brought back from war with them not only a love for America, but a love for all things that were truly American... like Harley Davidson. Captain America, the personas of Hopper, Fonda and Nicholson, and the nearly 3 million Vietnam Vets that served brought Harley Davidson back to life again.

As for the truth about Peter Fonda’s bike… while few may know it, four bikes were customized and made for him to ride in the film. So coveted were the bikes that three were stolen by the time the film ended… and the last remaining one is reported to have been destroyed in a fire on 14 December 2010. The fire reportedly occurred in a collector's warehouse in Austin, Texas. Reportedly, we say, because others say the bike was never in the warehouse. Whatever the truth, the bike disappeared for a while only to reappear again at the National Motorcycle Museum, in Anamosa, Iowa, with signs saying it was restored by Peter Fonda. For our part, we're just surprised to hear that there are museums in Iowa.

As for the original frames, motors and bikes that were used to create the Captain America bike(s) used in the movie, they were purchased from the Los Angeles Police department… get this… because Harley Davidson’s executives refused to provide free bikes for the production. Somehow, between the time when Bill and Art started the company and marketed the hell out of their bikes, up to the 1960s when new management took over, Harley lost its marketing prowess. The original owners may have known how to promote their bikes, but the fancy new boys in three piece suits that replaced them didn't have a clue.

As though this was not enough, in the late 1960s the motorcycle market began to shift again. Much of the shift was brought about because of the impact the on screen Easy Rider chopped Electra Glide had on American men as they saw it growling its way down the back roads of America. What they saw was the epitome of freedom. For many of them, having spent 6 years in the military during the Vietnam War, the freedom to act that they saw in Easy Rider instantly made them realize not only what they fought for, but what they wanted again in their personal lives.

That "freedom," something that sat deep inside every Vietnam Vet of the time... something that can at best be described as an ephemeral feeling of being in control of one's own destiny... was epitomized by the very nature of Peter Fonda's bike.

What "nature" did his bike epitomize? It epitomized Captain America's character. That is, it was HIS bike. It was not an off the shelf or out of the showroom bike like everyone else's on the street. Instead it was HIS bike. He chopped it to look the way he wanted it to look. He painted it to express his character. And he rode it like he dominated it. That is, for Captain America it was his world, and he dominated the world it represented.

Because of this a trend swept across America, and in the process the idea of ordering customized bikes came to the market. The Japanese saw the trend, and having adopted W. Edward Deming's methods for quality control, production process management, and JIT inventory logistics, instantly used these methods to offer and make bikes to fit each and every buyer’s personal design desires… within reason, of course. Harley on the other hand not only did not see the trend coming, but didn't recognized it when it hit. The net result was that again the foreigners, that is, the Japanese, British and Italians, scooped up the market while Harley Davidson's earning dropped so low that the company became unsustainable as a going concern.

Forced to find money to cover its operating expenses, it started looking for a buyer. The American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF) bought the company for $21 million, a pittance when one considers that Harley is, was, and always will be as American as the Washington Monument, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, or the Golden Gate Bridge. Imagine buying the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon for $21 million, and you will know what we mean. Harley Davidson is America.

And so it ended… after 66 years the Harley Davidson company and family owners no longer owned the company.

Strangely, AMF… a pretty good company when it came to bowling… had no idea what to do with a motorcycle company. They allowed quality to slip, marketing to fail, incented labor problems, and overall watched as sales fell even further. By 1980 Harley was a brand name that no one wanted anything to do with. But hey… we are Americans, right? We see silver clouds where others see scud.

In 1981 thirteen of the best and brightest senior executives in the company stopped forward and said this has to stop. Acting as a group they purchased Harley-Davidson for $80 million. Shortly after that, in 1986, they went public selling two million shares of stock and in the process returning the company to public ownership.

From there the company has gone on to prosper. Not always the way shareholders wanted to see it… but at least in a way that will preserve this national heritage. Harley-Davidson… a true national heritage as great as Boeing, GE, AIG, Microsoft and many others. Whether you like these companies or not, the world knows them… and there from the world knows America.

        Trivia

In case you have wondered where the term the Hog came from, in the 1920s a team of farm boys who won more motorcycle races than they deserved became known as the Hog Boys. To celebrate their wins they would put a pig on their Harley and take a victory lap… and so their Harleys became known as Hogs. In 1983 Harley… now beginning to put into practice the marketing techniques that Bill and Art understood, formed a club for Harley owners and called it the Harley Owners Group…or HOG.

As to some of the technical stuff…

There have been a number of different “glides” produced by the company. The  first hydraulic front fork was called a Glide and was released in 1949. It morphed into what was called the Duo-Glide in 1958. The Duo-Glide had rear brakes and a hydraulic rear suspension. After that came the Electra-Glide (1965), which had an electric starter, although what that has to do with “gliding” we don’t know. The Electra-Glide was followed in 1971 by the Super-Glide… and ultimately the Wide-Glide in 1980. No, the Wide-Glide is not meant for wide hipped women, it's just a marketing term... maybe not the best, but a marketing term no less.

Continuing, Harley has had almost as many “heads” as it has had glides. Now, don’t get us started here on the term heads… instead let’s just look at the facts. First there was the Flathead. The Flathead got its name from the shape of the cylinder head cover. Originally introduced in 1929, it housed a 45 cubic-inch side valve engine.

Later came the Knucklehead. The first V-Twin model, it came out in 1936. Really… 1936! Because its cylinder covers were shaped like clenched fists, it was  called the Knucklehead. As a unit it featured 2 fuel tanks with an instrument gauge positioned between them. If you own an original, you are a truly lucky person, as they are much coveted and were only produced up to 1947, and not a minute longer.

The next year the Panhead came along. AHHhhhhh… the Panhead. Made with aluminum cylinders that were about as unreliable in terms of structural integrity as any piece of aluminum could be when heated beyond its norm, the Panhead Harleys nevertheless set the world a twitter. Believing that they had a winner, even then Harley-Davidson did not deign to look at their public image from a marketing standpoint. Instead, they simply told themselves that they had the most perfect motorcycle on the market and persisted with the Panhead until 1965.

By 1965 Harley came to realize that while nostalgia and love of the Harley story meant a lot, making decent bikes meant more. The answer they came up with was called  the Shovelhead. With a 74 cubic inch engine, and a design that made the back of the cylinder covers looked like the back of a shovel, the name was inevitable.

If you look at the history of Harley engines, you can see how both technology and Harley have progressed. It’s a little bit like how the Signal Corps has grown. In 1903 Harley’s engine had a volume of 25 cubic inches. By 1965 the Shovelhead had a volume of 74 cubic inches. In 1984 Harley introduced the Blockhead (yes… we know… that’s what your wife calls you…) with an 80 cubic inch engine.

What’s next?

Who knows. But, if you are a Harley aficionado, you are in good company. We at ArmySignalOCS love Harleys, even though many of us ride rice burners.

 

             

Additional Sources

Some photo above courtesy of HubPages. Click here for more photos.

 

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This page originally posted 1 September 2013