ALL THINGS MOTORCYCLE

HARLEY-DAVIDSON OPENS MUSEUM IN JULY

This July, the all-new Harley-Davidson Museum is opening in ... Where else? Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Apart from all the celebrities like Jay Leno (almost a guaranteed attendee, if not the Master of Ceremonies) and many of the RUBBIES (Rich Urban Bikers) who got turned-on to Harley by Leno and a lot of other celebs, the crowd will mostly be made-up of us "regular" folks like us.

Celebrities have long been attracted to the full-throat burble of a Harley, going back to Marlon Brando in the 1953 flick, "The Wild One," (though serious film and bike buffs know that Brando rode a Triumph in that film, but Harleys were featured as the rides of some of the "gang of bikers" who terrorized a California town called Hollister. Inspiration for the movie came from a story in LIFE magazine, which was as popular as POPULAR MECHANICS and READERS' DIGEST in the "day," with a near full-page photo, which years later was admitted to have been "staged" for the photographer, which forever lent motorcycling its "criminal" and  "rebel" air.

"What are you rebelling against?" a member of the town asked Brando's character in "The Wild One", and, Brando replied, "What've ya got?"

There had been earlier "cycle" movies from the '20s and '30s which, if they didn't have much to say for themselves in the way of script, acting or directing ... If nothing else, they memorialized board track racing, a born-and-bred American style of racing which started in Los Angeles. Several miles of boards were attached in the shape of one of today's NASCAR "bullring" tracks, like Bristol, for instance, with fast straights and high-banked corners where speeds were even higher than on the straightaway. A fall almost always meant significant damage to the racer and bike, of course, but "splinters" from these tracks actually killed more than one contestant. The "Speedway" racing bikes of today are related to these "board-trackers"; no brakes, a single four-stroke cylinder of 500cc and fuel, "modified," with nitro-methane. No joke, these machines, now ... or then.

Of course, one of our other all-time favorite celebs, Robert Blake, added to Harley's mystique through his movie, "Electra-Glide in Blue". And we'll allow the Harley people to have their full say about their grand new museum:

In March of 2005 the city of Milwaukee and Harley-Davidson Motor Company signed formal agreements related to Harley-Davidson's purchase of the Museum site at Sixth and Canal Streets near downtown Milwaukee. In late February 2006, designs for the Museum were unveiled. On June 1, 2006, Harley-Davidson launched construction of the much-anticipated Harley-Davidson Museum with a groundbreaking ceremony. The event held on the future Museum grounds at Sixth and Canal Streets in Milwaukee was attended by hundreds of invited guests, including state and local government officials; representatives of Harley-Davidson riders, dealers, suppliers and employees; current and past company executives; and local business and community leaders.

HARLEY TO SPONSOR "ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP"

It's a marriage made in Hell, these two deserve each other, no man shall tear this asunder (unless some checks start to bounce) ... A true world icon, Harley-Davidson, is now a major sponsor of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And who, as we like to say, can argue (dare argue?) with that?

Harley-Davidson has enjoyed amazing success by appealing to two very different segments of society in the USA; the first group we'll call the "hardliners", those people who may have spent time on the fringes of society and are truly "rebels", people who didn't belong to "motorcycle groups", they belonged to "clubs" with names like "Hessians" and "Hell's Angels". These are the hardcore Harley owners, and the company was brilliant in co-opting that lifestyle as their own. The second group of Harley owners are newer, wealthier, younger and more likely to add sound-baffling to their bikes because the noise bothers their wives. These people are generally known as "Rubbies", the shortened version of a derisive term, "rich, urban bikers". There is another, third important group of Harley buyers, those riders in other countries who feel that Harley is the epitome of the "American lifestyle". There are many Harley clubs in Japan, for instance, which may have hundreds of members, and they all might be over 65 years old; not too bad in a country where the average new Harley costs $30,000 and above. And the Harley exhibit is always one of the best-attended (and among the largest) at the Tokyo Motor Show. A visit to the Harley website offers visitors a choice of some 25 different countries from which to get sales information. Click on this line to visit "Harley World" in Japan. Worldwide, their "Harley Owners' Groups" (HOGs), have been a tremendous success in organizing Harley owners and bringing new buyers "into the fold". Harley has just made another tremendous business decision in deciding to become the first major international product sponsor for the "Ultimate Fighting Championship".