61 OHV in 1935 Harley Dealers' Convention Photo

[exeric]

Everyone has a motorcycle story, and I mean everyone. Motorcycles have been a ubiquitous feature of modern life since the beginning of the 20th century. My Mother is from Iceland and she remembers a terrifying ride in the late 1920's on her cousin's J model Harley. My Dad's best friend raced Indians in the 30's. My uncles had motorcycles, it goes on and on. I would bet that you could stop anyone on the street and hear an interesting motorcycle story. From my own point of view, I love hearing motorcycle stories and urge our members to share some of them with us.

[HarleyCreation]

Re: book!

Originally posted by Chopperdave
I would love to get a copy of your book as well!

Its all about the "oral" history, that is the stuff that when gone, is truly gone.

thank you!

dave

Dave,

I'll sent you an email.

Thanks

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As to the oral history, we were too late on the scene to obtain first-person stories about Harley's origin years, 1901-1908. The oldest rider that I ever spoke to was a guy who started riding in 1916. The oldest Harley-D Factory worker that I spoke to started work there in 1919.

Things were better for the 1920s and esp. the 1930s. There were still a fews guys who worked in Harley's Engineering & Experimental Depts. (Petri, Kauper, etc.) who remembered significant things about the origins of the Knucklehead/61 OHV model, plus the truly great unsung hero William H. Davidson. Also a few old dealers (Uke, Krueger, Martin, etc.) and 1936 EL original owners. Those guys have now mostly gone over to the "Spirit Farm" and I hope the scene there looks something like the 1935 Dealers' Convention photograph posted above.

But there are still loads of guys who remember the late 1930s and up. Their stories should be recorded too before they are lost forever.

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by HarleyCreation
Here I've cropped and expanded the three guys standing up near the stage in the Green Room of the Schroeder Hotel in Milwaukee where the 1935 Dealers' Convention took place. Until now I have not tried to identify them.

Anybody want to take a first crack at it?

Since nobody else did, I'll take a crack at this one myself.

The guy in the middle could be Hank (Henry) Syvertsen, Harley's racing dept. chief around this time. Photo is blurry but that looks sort of like him and I think he was a little on the short side. But it's just a guess....