I was having breakfast recently, at my usual joint, getting my usual egg and meat burrito, when one of the regulars - a guy who had turned 90 - approached me with an offer. He knew that I rode my Harley Davidson motorcycle most every day and wore one of my 12 do-rags. Pretty hard to miss I was a motorcycle rider. Anyway he said that he had a bunch of books that I might be interested in: one was about harley davidson history. Of course I told him yes I would like to see the books.

Later that week he was back in with a small box of books that were on specific autos or automakers - some on cars or automakers no longer in existence - and a book on the norton motorcycle and one on harley davidson history. What made them gems to me was that they were written in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Harley Davidson book was a Ballantine’s Illustrated History of the Car Marque Book No 12, written by Maurice D. Hendry, published July 1972.

The book covers such topics as: Mr Harley and the Three Davidsons, Racing Supremacy, In peace and War and The Largest Motorcycle Factory in the World. Wonderful illustrations and harley davidson history going back to the 1901 a draftsman named Bill Harley and a pattern maker named Arthur Davidson “spent evenings and early mornings experimenting with a two-wheeled dream in a basement workshop in Milwaukee,” according to Bob Green, who wrote an introduction to the book.

As I read through the book, I could almost visualize riding a 1936, 61-inch OHV model cross country, much like three-second generation Davidson boys, Gordon, Walter and Allan did with earlier 1930 models. No interstate highways, no semis, no windshields, just dust, dirt, wind and rain blowin’ in your face. What fun; what an adventure. (Well maybe my 2005 Road King would be a more comfortable ride, and it does have a windshield to keep stones and bugs off you and a comfortable seat and electronic ignition. Guess I’m a little spoiled.) But the Davidsons’ trip hearkens back to my oldest brother taking a cross country trip in his Indian motorcycle in the early 1950s when he was 18 years old.

If you are a Harley enthusiast, this harley davidson history book is a must read.

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Tags: harley davidson history, Harley Davidson mtorcycle, norton motorcycle