Forget about deciphering the Rosetta Stone and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. We're after the big cheese of codes. And that would be Wisconsin cheese. Case in point, what do all those numbers and letters mean when confronting the odd and obfuscating system employed by Harley-Davidson over the past 100 years to designate the company's bike models? From the first F-Head and Model O to the Es, Us, Vs, and Ws to the FLSTCI and beyond, it can get confusing. But beneath the arcane mutterings of alphanumerical mumbo-jumbo, there is some method to the Milwaukee semi-madness. But right from the get-go, we ran into some major controversy.
In conducting research for this article, we spoke with several restorers/historians/collectors and also chanced upon a book written by Herbert Wagner, an authority on Harley-Davidsons and the author or contributor to five books on the subject. He also served as a consulting historian for H-D's annual reports. In discussing his fifth (and especially significant) book Myth, Reality, and the Origin of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 1901-1909, he says his research had shown "how the story of Harley's beginnings had been thoroughly screwed up by past generations of deceptive advertising." He goes on to say that H-D even got its own birthday of 1903 wrong and that the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle did not appear in the historical record until the autumn of 1904, while marketing attempts didn't begin until 1905. In fact, his research findings demonstrate that the first complete H-D wasn't sold until 1905 to a Wisconsin country mailman, Peter Olson. Wagner calls the 1903 founding date a "creation myth" and goes on to say that, first in 1908 and again in 1970, the company issued this incorrect historical information. (You can probably see where this is going relative to our quest for the accuracy/interpretation of Harley model designation and nomenclature.)
Wagner even sets the mystery off and running when he mentions that H-D began numbering its bikes in 1909. He asked, "So what happened to 1903-1908?" No answer. Whatever the accuracy of the founding year, he also says, "For me, the folklore and facts surrounding early Harley-Davidson only add to the company's famous mystique and allure. After all, baby Harley-Davidson wasn't writing history, baby Harley-Davidson was making history. In fact, the Harley motorcycle of 1905 helped set the pattern for all American motorcycles to the present day. Other builders-including Indian-would follow Harley's lead. Incredibly, in 1936 Bill Harley and the Davidson brothers did it again when they re-invented the American motorcycle with their fabulous 61-cubic-inch overhead-valve model, commonly known as the Knucklehead. It all adds up to one thing: While Harley-Davidson might have messed up its early history, Harley-Davidson got its motorcycles right."
Looking for more answers, we went to Mike Smith, one of the country's premier bike restorers and motorcycle historians, to give us his take on the H-D numbers game.
He started with a surprise statement. "I don't think the names came from Harley-Davidson." "Huh?" we stammered. Then he went on to explain. "I think they probably started out as street-given names. For instance, 'L-' and 'F-head' were automotive terms, not Harley terms. The L-head has to do with the flathead car motors like the Ford V-8. Everything had to do with their valve arrangements from the early car days. (The F-head design featured a side-mounted exhaust valve and pushrod-operated overhead inlet valve.) Harley's very early bikes had letter designations in the company's catalogs. The serial number on the bike, however, often had nothing to do with the letter in the catalog. For example, the Model 1912 might have had a model A, B, D, D, or F, while the serial number on the bike that they used in 1912 was a "B," indicating bikes manufactured in 1912, because in 1911 all their motors were stamped with an "A." Today, people get tripped up on bikes, say the 1917T. In the catalog the number references it as a Boardtrack racer, of which only a couple were made, and are now worth half a million bucks. However, 95 percent of Harley's street bikes were also marked as a 1917T. The serial number on the bike had nothing to do with the catalog. About 1916 Harley came out with the J Series, and again it had nothing to do with the serial number. When they went to the 74-inch motor, they added the D. The J meant it was a 61-inch, while the D meant it was 74 inches. But now if you look at all the serial numbers that go with the J or JD, they included up to three more letters that further defined the motor-for example, the JDCA. Why they came up with those letters, I don't know. I'm not sure, but some of the letters might have had something to do with export. The F was also a 61-inch, while the FD was a 74 just like the JD. Other letters further described the compression ratio, whether it was set up for sidecar or sport solo, or whether it had iron pistons or not."