HARLEY-DAVIDSON MUSEUM
On Milwaukee’s riverfront lies the largest single-make motorcycle museum of all – the Harley-Davidson Museum. Phil West gets the tour
Harley-Davidson Museum, USA
Single-make bike museums don’t get any bigger or more lavish than the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, USA. Located on a 200-acre downtown site, it’s the focus of the Harley-Davidson ‘Campus’, a $75million project which opened in 2008. Housing two large shops, a bar/restaurant, events building and park, it was conceived as the hub of the H-D experience and has become the city’s biggest international visitor attraction. In July, it will be host the 120th anniversary ‘Harley Homecoming’, which is expected to attract 100,000, while the whole campus is now run by the great-grandson of one of the company’s four original founders, Bill Davidson.
Awall decorated with engines
The ‘Engine Wall Experience’ displays every historically significant Harley engine, from 1903 through Knuckle and Panheads, Evos, XRs, etc up to the latest RevolutionMax. They’re all fully explained, specced and you can even hear the distinctive rumble of each one, via speakers mounted behind.
1970s XR750
One of the most iconic Harleys of all, built in response to a 1969 AMA rule change allowing ohv 750s in US racing. The first Sportster-derived ‘ironhead’ versions overheated and were underpowered, but an all-alloy short-stroke version from 1972 was a big success, winning 29 of the 37 AMA championships from 1972-2008 making American heroes of riders like Jay Springsteen, Chris Carr and Scott Parker. In addition, US racer Cal Rayborn famously won three of the six races at the 1972 Transatlantic Trophy aboard the road racing XR-TT version, while Evel Knievel used XRs from 1970 right up to his final jump in January 1977. The XR750 is not only the most successful American flat-track racer ever, but also the bike of choice for daredevil Knievel in his later career, infamously cartwheeling one at Wembley in 1975 when attempting to jump 13 buses.
Serial Number One
Harley-Davidson began when childhood friends Bill Harley and Arthur Davidson began experimenting with a prototype motorcycle, then got Arthur’s brothers Walter and William involved. They famously founded the company out of a 10 x 15ft shed behind the Davidson’s family home in 1903. This was the result – the most photographed machine in the museum and the only one protected behind glass. ronically, it isn’t actually the first bike – but a close approximation to it. It’s actually a first year (1903) engine held in a 1905 frame. “What
