The Nova

[Chris Haynes]

In the winter 1981 I made a trip to the MoCo when getting my dealership franchise finalized. I was given a tour of the Juneau Ave complex. I was blown away when I went into the prototype area and saw almost one of every brand of motorcycle made. I asked how much they spent on buying the competitors machines. I was told that all the motorcycle makers gave each other their latest machines "For evaluation". My host at the time had someplace to go and gave me directions to my next appointment. As soon as she left I quickly moved over to the corner of the room where the welding curtains were pulled together and clamped so no one would see what was there. As I opened the curtains I saw what had only been a rumor. There sat two different designs of The Nova. A twin and a four. A few months later I was invited to a factory event in Van Nuys, CA held in a warehouse. There were all different brands of dealerships represented there. The MoCo was showing it to people in the motorcycle industry. Taking us on guided rides through this industrial complex which was deserted on the weekend. It was there that I got to throw my leg over the Nova and take a ride. After we all had rides on them it was back to the warehouse where we had discussions about it and filled out forms giving our opinion about this and that.
A few months later Vaughn Beals, Harley's CEO, made the announcement that the Nova Prototype project was completed. But from the information gathered at the presentation events around the country the MoCo decided it was not the right time, or place for this new motorcycle. Many who rode it compared it to a Gold Wing.
A few years later I was again at Juneau Ave. I was talking to the curator of the museum. A gentleman named John Gadke. John told me he just happened to be walking by the loading dock when a forklift came by carrying a Nova. It was headed for the recycling roll off. John grabbed it and the other remaining prototypes and had them taken to the archives. If not for that there would be no evidence of the Nova project today.

[exeric]

Chris, was the Nova engine farmed out to Porsche ? I saw pictures of it in the old Supercycle magazine and it looked ghastly. However, Supercycle really had an attitude to H-D because they wanted them to go out of business so their own parts business would flourish. That sure was a weird time to be in the motorcycle business. I'll bet you've got some great stories.

[Chris Haynes]

From my understanding a design company that did work for Porsche was hired to do work on the Nova.
In later years The MoCo actually did tie up with VW/Porsche for help on their new line of liquid cooled machines that will be coming to a dealership near you in the future.

[bmh]

While a little off this topic, back in the 80's I had a chance to get a peak in the "barn" on the property at the York assembly plant. This barn contained most of the collection of the companies bikes. they were supposed to be rotated in and out of the Rodney C. Gott museum that was there. This seldom got done as to get any bike out of that building you needed to start moving all the bikes out untill you got to the one you wanted as they were parked so close you couldn't walk between them. What a lovely sight that was.

[Chris Haynes]

While a little off this topic, back in the 80's I had a chance to get a peak in the "barn" on the property at the York assembly plant. This barn contained most of the collection of the companies bikes. they were supposed to be rotated in and out of the Rodney C. Gott museum that was there. This seldom got done as to get any bike out of that building you needed to start moving all the bikes out untill you got to the one you wanted as they were parked so close you couldn't walk between them. What a lovely sight that was.

I was in "The Barn? in 1981. The bikes were all parked backed in to the walls next to each other. There was lots of room for walking and looking at the machines. At that time there were only around 75 or so bikes in the collection. There were also a few bikes on the 5th floor of Juneau Ave. One of these was covered up but I could see a 21" wheel peeking out from under the cover. I pulled back the cover and there was a nice Knucklehead chopper. I was told, "Don't touch that one. It's Willie G's bike.

[bmh]

Would've been later in the 80's maybe 87 or so. Alot more than 75 bikes in there. most of the stuff towards the front was newer production stuff. looked as if they had started keeping one of each model instead of just one each year as I heard they had been doing. They were still doing R&D at York at that time on the track out back so some of those may have been used for testing. The first couple of fall open houses they had there they would have new model test rides on that track. That was ended when abuse\damage became a problem and the new GPS tracking was phased in. Thats when they moved most of the open house away from the plant and over to the fairgrounds. Got to peek in the barn by tagging along with a freind who worked for a subcontractor for Harley. Funny thing is at the time I got to look in there I didn't really have an interest or appreciation for old bikes, it was all custom all the time for us and I was still prettty new to the Harley thing.