August 2011 Asylum Mobilitarium

August 2011 Asylum Mobilitarium

Arguably the most famous Harley-Davidson is Peter Fonda’s ex-L.A.P.D. bike “Captain America,” from the film Easy Rider. Next may be the “Billy Bike” that the late Dennis Hopper also rode in the famous movie.

Among all other Harley’s probably one would rank the iconic World War II Harley-Davidson WLA “Liberator” as being up there as one of the most famous bikes of all time from Milwaukee. Recently I was contacted on Facebook (apparently not one of the 6 million that have left FB this year,)by a friend of mine that reported that his Harley dealership in another state, was giving away posters of the new “Captain America” movie that features our hero riding a WWII WLA. I believe he had to give blood (literally) to obtain this poster that I have found out, is rapidly becoming collectable. He was gloating somewhat knowing that Willie Hank would want one. Alas, I contacted a good friend of mine at a local HD dealership who said they had been (trying) to give those things away but nobody wanted them! Yep they were gone.

I found out that there were five WLA’s built for the film, and that at least one will go to the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. One will be auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson in the Fall for charity, and the others are spoken for as well. The character was created during WWII by Marvel comics as a patriotic super hero fighting the Axis. He rode a WLA Harley in the original magazine fighting for the forces of good. The trailers I’ve seen show the subdued backgrounds and clothing that one would expect of a country that was part of a world war. Also, the characters are all impossibly good-looking.   By the time you read this, we will know how the movie rates.

  As we’ve noted before, HD built around 88k WLA’s for the American military and other countries during the war. Russia received most of the exported WLA’s. There were different versions depending on the requirements for that branch of the military, or even a different country. A modified bike was built for the Navy, which was a model U. The Canadian Army had their requirements which when developed, was called a WLC. Strangely, Canadian WLC’s were not supplied with the famous machine gun scabbard that graces most WLA’s. WLA’s and its cousins were built from 1940 to 1952.

Basically the WLA was a civilian Flathead 45 that had its frame strengthened, the fenders moved out to provide clearance for mud and other debris. The electrical system was upgraded for the expected heavy load from radios, lights and other military equipment.

New for Harley was a hand clutch, foot shift that probably kept the founders of HD up at night since they considered that set-up not very Harley like. Only the British did this up to WWII. There was a skid plate a mere 4 inches off the ground since for some reason, Harley didn’t expect its bikes to go off-roading during war time. The WLA was capable of speeds only up to 68mph, built the machine was well built and according to reports, extremely reliable.    

Indian built military motorcycles for the U.S. during the war too. The company saw the first contracts coming in 1942 as sort of a breath of fresh air. The company had not recovered as the war started from the Depression and saw these contracts as a new start. However the famous mis-management at the top once again did no favors for the Wig-Wam. Harley decided that it would not completely ignore the civilian and police market during the war. Indian went full tilt in production and didn’t slow down (as HD did) when the end of the war was in sight.

Indian did not recover from WWII and lasted only until 1953. Harley was then the only American motorcycle manufacturer left standing in the mid 1950’s of the literally hundreds of start- up companies that began operations at the turn of the century.       

August 2011 Dallas Police Shield

August 2011 Dallas Police Shield

Facebook lost 6 million users last year in the U.S. I have my opinions about the social networking device but that doesn’t matter. Before it implodes like the British publication “News of the World” and in the meantime the DPD FB page recently showed pictures of the department’s squad cars since the early forties. Yes, we had black-and-whites before the new Chargers!

Here are some personal DPD squad car memories for what it’s worth. Remember the gum ball Vis-A-Bars that your had to hit with your flashlight to make them turn? The term Vis-A-Bar was a brand name. No matter what the City bought later, to most officers during this time, the thing on top of the car was called this.

The dreaded and damaging City car washes would roll over the bars, press them down, and the chains inside that turned the lights would finally slow down due to friction of the bent bars. Nobody found a way to straighten the bars either! We finally went from all red to red and blue around 1982. Officers really wanted the blue lights. Many D.I.S.D. squad cars mysteriously went from all blue lights, to red and blue! Speaking of the killer car washes, if they ever worked, the one at Central had oil that it would spray all over the car. It would harden later and was hard to get off.  

In 1973 I was involved in a wreck downtown. I was 17 but remember the “Freeway car” that showed up. The Traffic officer had a white hat on, the car had a blue hood and trunk, the rest of the car was white. It also had a full length Vis-A Bar! To my Grove raised mind, he looked pretty cool! Plus, he charged the other guy with the wreck since the officer was also from the Grove. Kind of kindred spirits!

When I hired on we drove 1977 Pontiac Le Mans. These had red bucket seats. The year before, the 1976 Le Mans had blue bench seats. The reason for the buckets is so you and your partner would have one less thing to dislike about each other. That being how far the seat was pushed back! These were great cars. We used to turn over the air cleaner and it sounded really cool to us 21 year olds! The garage people repeated said don’t do that and threatened us with ratting to our supervisors since they said it would screw up the timing, plugs, tires, first born, you name it.

My first squad car with a full length Vis-A-Bar was a 1985 Plymouth Gran Fury. This car was the first DPD squad car to have an AM-FM good time radio! Wow we thought we were up there with the L.A.P.D! The radio shop installed my first computer during the Fair about 1987 in this car. I knew one Tactical officer that received a 1983 Dodge Diplomat. This may have been a mid-year or test car, since there were not many on the department. It had an AM goodtime radio. I believe that this may have been the first (marked at least) squad car to have anything other than a police radio.

Then there was the infamous 1975 AMC Matador. Maybe the worst car in the history of the DPD. The air conditioner was great but the interior had a cheap plastic smell. It was slow as hell. Of course the police equipped Matador that was shown to the City buyers had all the go- fast stuff. But equally of course the City went the cheap way out and bought the librarian version.

The 1979 Chrysler Newport’s had police radios and switches that were mounted sideways. I always wondered what City whiz-kid thought this up. The unit was attached to the dash instead of the floor for some reason. In 1980 it was relabeled a Gran Fury, both were good cars. This was another car that had the turn over the air cleaner option! Before that there was the big, big 1978 Plymouth Gran Fury that had a shotgun mount under the dash that made it almost impossible to retrieve the weapon if you needed it fast.

Next month, the best squad car the DPD ever mistakenly bought.

W.H.Croom, II #3973 retired. www.asylummobilitarium.blogspot.com