Service record?

[Chi-Town Scooter]

Hi All,
I'm in the process of purchasing a '42 WLA Harley and was wondering, has anyone been able to track down the military history of their bikes? I have the last owner's info (60 plus years of garage storage), the previous owner's history and I understand that he was the person who got the bike from the Army.
I just thought that there might be a way to contact the Army (transportation/motor pool?) and see if there were records of where the bike had been stationed during the war. Has anyone ever tried looking in this, have any success, additional ideas? Thanks!
Bill

[EricOlson]

Hi Bill, great timing on your post. I have been doing a bit of searching on my own but have been unable to come up with any resources online. I too would like to get any available service info on some military bikes. I'll be hoping someone on here knows a good place to start. Also, anybody have a good resource for parts for these bikes? Specifically I would like to see about some military fenders for a UA Big Twin. They look like these ones I saw in Dixon this year. (Beautiful bike by the way, it was for sale but I didn't get the owners contact info before I left. Anybody know who it belonged too and how much they were asking?) Thanks.
Eric

[rwm]

i think if you call 1 800 red tape you'll get all the info you need. i had to be a wise arse once today.getting info from the army will be real hard. you'll find the parts you need.swap meets are great start. ebay and other internet sites. will help.
http://resurrectioncycle.com/ that should help. if you contact them they can give you better info. on parts

[ricmoran]

I can tell you this, that once a bike becomes government property, shipped to issue, and then issued to the troop, anything can happen.

Serial numbers and NSN's are changed as needed, when engines blow up, parts are scavanged just to get the equipment running again and when this happens, specifically at the front no one cares about serial numbers. PM, there was enough of it done to keep the machine running, but I think this was only what was utmost and required.

Talking with Peter Sinet from MoCo last week about serial numbers from the 30's, Peter advised there is no records to show what a bike was built as as these records have long since been gone.

Imagine the US government, bikes from Korea or WWII, heck today they have a hard enough time with current tactical fleet information let alone equipment that was written off many decades ago.

And then, many of these machines were left in country, to be taken up by the general population to be repaired and used. Then these bikes have been sold from the 50's, 60's, 70's....how in the heck could anyone keep the records over that time?

THe government can't even keep track of the budget.... ;-)