Part Two
They say numbers don't lie. I say they don't tell the whole truth, either. Usually that's because these numbers are presented in isolation, not in context. This exercise might be no different in the end, but I think it's worth a go, if only to try to shed a little light on a storied history.
Just to keep things somewhat manageable, I'll stick to a few ground rules. First of all, the only motorcycles included in these annual production figures are overhead-valve V-Twin models. Second, the stats begin in 1936, because that was the first year of overhead valves. Third, I'm lumping all models together for each year. Fourth, all notes, snide remarks, coy ramblings, and useless trivia are of my very random selection from various sources and reference materials-including my imagination.
The purpose is a bit nebulous, but hopefully enlightening and somewhat entertaining. The hope is that you'll get something out of it you may not have thought of before, and that will help you appreciate what the last 70 years have been about for this company, its machines, this nation, and the riders who came before.
Last issue was our first installment, which covered the years from 1936 to 1950. So naturally we're picking up where we left off.
Note: All production numbers are cited from The Encyclopedia of the Harley-Davidson by Peter Henshaw & Ian Kerr, Chartwell Books, 2006.
1951: 8,303. MacArthur was fired by Truman, the Rosenbergs got fried for revealing atomic secrets, and the 22nd Amendment took effect, so we couldn't keep a president for more than two terms. Indian lost the war. Harley barely had time to catch its breath before another one started, this time with the British. It's true that Norton and some others snuck over here way earlier, but it was Edward Turner's Triumph twins and England's "export or die" policies that turned a trickle into a tide.
1952: 6,700. Practically everybody in prosperous post-war America was not buying motorcycles. They were buying cars! Detroit could do no wrong, most folks couldn't spell Volkswagen (yet), motorcycles were noisy and dangerous and ridden by ruffians, after all-but none of it was Harley's fault! The Company tried for that squeaky-clean apple-pie image in all its ads, to no avail. Production slipped, Charlie Chaplin left the country in exile, Nixon went on TV to explain away a shady $18,000 slush fund, and Ford and GM built more damn cars-millions of 'em-than they would for the next 30 years! It didn't help that panheads got about 10 percent more expensive than the year before, coming in at $970.
1953: 5,337. As BSA, Triumph, Norton, and some lesser luminaries such as Velocette and Vincent started showing up in more garages and on more starting grids, H-D looked less and less viable. The Big Twins cost a lot more than the competition (and weren't really competitive in competition), and the flathead K-models weren't close to fast enough, compared to a new Triumph Thunderbird 650. The big deal for H-D this year was that it finally sold more foot-shift Big Twins than tank-shifters! Meanwhile, Stalin croaked, and Ike started building freeways. In the movie The Wild One, the good guy pretended to ride the Triumph, and the bad guy ("more fun" Marvin, ex-Marine) really rode the Hog. 'Nuff said?
1954: 4,757. Harley's whole range was getting a bit stale...no changes...nothing really new and exciting, except maybe the company's 50th anniversary. The I Love Lucy show had more going for it as the most popular thing on TV. Nixon wanted us to step in and help the French with a little problem they were having in Dien Bien Phu Vietnam, and Eisenhower announced the explosion of the first hydrogen bomb.
1955: 5,142. "Rock Around the Clock" was Bill Haley's contribution to the soundtrack of the film Blackboard Jungle. Rock and roll may not have been born then, but that was sure as hell when it started kickin'! The Motor Company decided to hot-rod the pan a little by debuting the FLH, with 8:1 compression and polished and flowed intake ports.
1956: 5,806. Jeez-polio vaccines, Allen Ginsberg poetry, Presley's "Hound Dog"...and Peyton Place! Who says the '50s were tame? Even the FLH got hotter cams to go with all the goodies from the previous year's model, and you could buy one for $1,123. The only trouble was that the damn Brits were outselling the only surviving American by quite a bit-and for a lot less! The one thing that wasn't as successfully imported from England was the Caf Racer culture. Kind of cool to start a bike at a roadside caf, drop the needle on your favorite rock-and-roll tune, then blast through your favorite "loop" as close to the "ton" (100 mph) as possible and get it all done before the song was over. Shame we missed out! Best use of a record we ever heard of, long-playing or otherwise!
Ah...1950...no freeways (jammed or otherwise), no Elvis, no eight-track players, Lucy & Desi yet to be loved-lots less to worry about. All the same, there were still robbers and cops, and a select few of the latter were privileged to ride police bikes like this one. Plenty fast enough in those days to catch most any speeder, even without the Motorola! Indian was still selling the odd copsickle,but most were set up like this panhead, complete with left-side front brake lever, tank shifter, and mechanical siren that rubbed on the tire, giving out that peculiar wailing noise we remember best from classic film noir.