Asylum Mobilitarium

October 2010 Asylum Mobilitarium

Recently at a members meeting, actually for two months in a row, there have been in attendance the new managers and supervisors of the Allen Harley-Davidson dealership.

I’m a charter member of Panther Creek HOG and was there when the Allen store opened with the three owners Big Greg, Little Greg, and Doug Locke. They were great guys and old school Harley people to the core. There were good times and bad back there, but we all survived.

I’m a Harley man down to the core and yes, bleed orange and black. I have never had a street bike from the evil empire, and was kind of confused when the new owners bought the two dealerships. But you know, some riders who maybe at one time had never been exposed to the Harley-Davidson cult and culture, once they are embraced by the fever, seem to come over and say, “What was I thinking?”

The “thing” just takes hold of you, and doesn’t let go. We are the third or fourth or maybe fifth generation of Harley owners since 1903. Many of us can look back and find grainy black and white, or those seventy’s faded color pictures of our relatives riding Harley-Davidson’s. It’s all about being a true American patriot, and riding a true American motorcycle that profits stay in this country. Let the tradition continue.

Buy American, sleep well, and no ghosts of WWII will come to haunt you.

I saw today that Harley-Davidson and its unions had come to an agreement where the existing HD factories located in Wisconsin, will stay for the time being. In the text however, one can see that it was a close vote, and there are a lot of disgruntled union employees.

I had a 1970 Corvette for about 19 years. It was special because it was an air convertible, and it was a 1970 model, which few were made. There was a strike at GM in 1969 apparently. When the workers went back to work, many felt like it was not a good contract. The delayed 1970 Corvette’s did not come off the assembly line until January 1970. I never had any problems with mine, but the majority of 1970 Corvette’s and other Chevrolet’s were known to have some defects that were thought to be a result of sabotage. Like I said, I never had a problem that I thought was a result of someone intentionally doing something to screw up a car, but others obviously did.

I’m glad that HD and the unions came to an agreement. I would have a hard time going to Harley’s 110^th in Milwaukee knowing that some of the factories were no longer there. Just “gutted” I guess is a good word.

Nostalgia is a sentimental way of going back through time. I’ve always been a collector of sorts, from music to books, even Harley-Davidson dealer T-shirts which I have a bunch.

And I often talk about the proverbial old motorcycle in a barn.

That is my dream, to find authentic Dallas Police Harley-Davidson, AMF era or before, but pre-1977.There was a report recently that a DPD Harley that was used in the Kennedy motorcade in November 1963 was going to auction. Despite being a usually reliable source, I never found the bike or the auction. It would be a treasure from the past, with a ghost still in the machine. An old friend once told me about an old Harley hanging from the ceiling of a garage on West Davis St. in Oak Cliff. I used to drive down that street many times looking for that garage, but never found it. Oh well.

We are lucky that our passion for Harley-Davidson provides a wealth of nostalgia and memories and it’s not only old motorcycles that invoke those feelings. Unfortunately there are only so many Harley-Davidson’s that one can own. Unless you’re Jay Leno. Money, space, and the fact that you can only ride one at a time. But there is no limit to photographs, mementos, and memories to collect.

There is over 100 years of HD memories out there. Harley has done a great job of looking toward the future but remembering the past. Even in the pivotal year of 1936, when HD dealers from across the country viewed the first Knucklehead at the annual dealer’s convention, HD had managed to create a new engine that basically looked and sounded like the motors that veteran HD dealers had come to love. Even with the engine as it was, with the four massive head bolts that looked somewhat like knuckles on your hand, the dealers thought that this engine was very up to date and streamlined. But the motor still had the look and sound of the old engines that had served HD so well. The whole bike was very modern and they immediately feel in love with it.

Even today, with the V-Rod and its water cooled Revolution engine (which may in all HD’s someday,) it has been developed with future Harley riders in mind. Harley-Davidson has always done this. The company takes very small steps to attract new riders, but not forgetting the traditional Harley person. It’s worked so far.

As well as motorcycles, there are several good books on HD collectibles that evoke pleasant memories of times gone by. One tome I have trouble with is because it attempts to put a price on objects such as goggles, racing sweaters, and other articles of clothing worn by bike riders of the past. Of course one can’t put a price on memories, so I’m glad that I don’t have the job of valuing the past.

Isn’t it almost impossible to put a price on such articles of clothing worn by riders for many years that experienced memories of his or her own during the first part of the century? There was vintage motorcycle clothing shop in Wichita Falls Texas called Ghost Clothes. I visited the shop in 2004 on the way to Sturgis. At the recent Texas HOG Rally, I looked for it but I guess it had gone out of business. I wonder why? Could it be the economy, or the fact they could not figure a way to accurately place a price on memories.

Certain items like an old dealer clock may go for $1000.00 at an auction, but a metal pin from an AMA Gypsy tour from the 1950’s might be priceless to you if it were worn by a relative or close friend. There are parts books, dealer brochures, spark plugs still in the box with an oily thumb print of some long ago mechanic who put the box back on the shelf because he found it didn’t fit the bike he was working on at the time.

These items, one would have a hard time putting a price on.

And you know, it is comforting these days to be able to hold on to a physical object that was used during a better time.

Harley-Davidson has been around through two world wars, two or three undeclared wars, the Depression, several recessions, assassinations, and other crises that have been bestowed on this country. According to the book "Well Made In America," the company had survived five crisis's as of the printing of the book in 1990. You might say the company is in it's sixth crisis, that being an economy that has gone south. Americans discretionary income is obviously not what it used to be. Luckily, the new management in Milwaukee has decided to lay off workers, and decrease production for the near future in an attempt to wait out this troubled time in American history.

Bill “Willie Hank” Croom

Panther Creek Historian

Youths Gone Astray since 1955