Motoring in Spain - Harley
Sensual mystique of a legend
Harley Sensual mystique of a legend
FROM MODEST BEGINNINGS A CENTURY AGO, THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON HAS SURVIVED ALL MANNER OF CRISES TO BECOME A MOTORCYCLING LEGEND – THOUGH, AS CHARLIE FLINDT WARNS, A LITTLE MORE TROUBLE MAY BE JUST AROUND THE CORNER
You’ll all be familiar with "generic" names. When cleaning the house, we suck up dust with a Hoover, even though most of us will not be using that particular brand. You might make a few notes with a Biro, although it’s actually a ballpoint pen. What has happened is that one particular make of vacuum cleaner or pen has become the most famous one – and the easiest to say – and ends up as the everyday name of choice. It is quite a compliment to the likes of Hoover and Biro – even if they do get very upset if we forget to use capital letters.
Curiously, in the world of motorbikes, there’s one name that is more famous than all the others. It has more legend and mystique attached to it than all the others put together. But it has never become the generic term for a motorbike. You never hear anyone point at any old motorbike and exclaim, "Look! There’s a Harley-Davidson!" They will only do that if it actually is a Harley-Davidson. Harleys are unique, individual and distinctive – they’re not like any other bike on the road.
The history of Harley-Davidson is the stuff of legend. In 1901, the 21-year-old William S Harley finished his first designs for an engine designed to fit onto a bicycle. But only two years later, he had joined up with his boyhood friend Arthur Davidson to produce the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle – built in a three-metre by five-metre wooden shed.
The company’s progress was rapid and spectacular. In 1905, the first full-time employee joined H-D. In 1906, the shed was knocked down and replaced with a nine-metre by 27-metre factory, to house the extra six workers who had been employed. By 1907, there were 18 employees and the factory had doubled in size. The next year, the first machines were delivered to the Detroit police force, and in 1909 perhaps the most significant event in H-D’s history occurred – especially if you’re a bit of a petrol-head: the V-twin engine is introduced on a Harley.
This engine is probably the most distinctive feature of a Harley. And bear in mind that there are plenty of distinctive features to be found. It was an air-cooled 811 c.c. two-cylinder, with the cylinder 45 degrees apart. Fast-forward to the modern-day catalogue, and what do you find on a Harley-Davidson?
Well, let’s say you’ve set your heart on one of the Dyna range – perhaps the FXDWGI Dyna Wide Glide. (Short snappy names have never been a Harley-Davidson speciality.) What you will find nestling under that famous teardrop-shaped fuel tank is the Twin Cam 88 engine. It’s an air-cooled twin, with cylinders 45 degrees apart. It has crept up a bit in the capacity stakes (up to 1450 cc) – and crept up a lot in the power stakes – but the designers of the 1909 Model 5-D would recognise it at once.
They would probably recognise by ear as well as by sight. There’s something about the design of the V-twin which gives it a distinctive (and there’s that d word again) noise. It’s all to do with the way the two pistons are connected to the crankshaft – giving an unorthodox and uneven firing cycle. In fact, the noise is so special that Harley Davidson tried to "trademark" it in 1994. Not surprisingly, bike manufacturers who also used v-twins kicked up a bit of a fuss, and after six years the application was wisely dropped.
A more recent fuss has also developed over that distinctive noise. For many, it’s too damn loud. This has something to do with H-D owners taking liberties with the silencers to enhance the noise. Anyone living within a few miles of such a "customised" machine will know exactly what I mean.
This is becoming an issue as more and more people discover the joys of taking to the road on their bikes. Such an issue that the CEO of Harley-Davidson, Jim Macccaslin, has started a campaign to curb the noise. On the Harley-Davidson website, he makes an impassioned appeal for owners to keep their machines quiet, or risk legislation that will silence that famous noise forever.
What a tragedy that would be. It survived the Great Depression of the 1920s – one of only two US manufacturers to do so. It survived a fairly rocky spell in the 1970s when new owners slashed the labour force and cut investment; the new wave of Japanese bikes nearly finished off the historic Harley name. Luckily, the cavalry, in the form of 13 senior executives, bought the company back. They decided to concentrate on Harley-Davidson as the retro-styled American dream machine. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Harley Davidson is a pure slice of American legend. From Hollywood-style humble beginnings over a century ago, it has embodied the Stateside dream of power, open roads, and the triumph of individuality. After seeing off Depressions, wars, poor industrial practice and the Japanese invasion, it would be tragic if that distinctive thud-thud was silenced by noise regulations.
Harley-Davidson owners won’t let that happen. You can bet that they’ll be riding those long, straight roads into the red desert sunsets for many years to come. It’ll just have to be a bit more quietly. And they won’t be riding a "motorbike"; they’ll be on a Harley-Davidson
