1914 Harley-Davidson aka The Silent Gray Fellow

[TMarony]

In an article printed in HOG Tales, Jim McCaslin President and CEO of HD stated
that "The Motor Company put its engineering staff to work and came up with the
best mufflers in the motorcycle industry. So successful, in fact, that they
built a motorcycle that became affectionately known as The Silent Gray Fellow.
Yet in her book, Jean Davidson's Harley-Davidson Family Album, it states
"Because William Harley was a quiet reserved man whose hair had turned silvery
gray at an early age, he was affectionately known as the "Silent Gray Fellow" by the
other founders. And because Bill Harley was the company's respected chief engineer,
the Davidson brothers nicknamed Harley's latest motorcycle in his honor. Which version
is correct ??

[HarleyCreation]

Re: 1914 Harley-Davidson aka The Silent Gray Fellow

Originally posted by TMarony
In an article printed in HOG Tales, Jim McCaslin President and CEO of HD stated
that "The Motor Company put its engineering staff to work and came up with the
best mufflers in the motorcycle industry. So successful, in fact, that they
built a motorcycle that became affectionately known as The Silent Gray Fellow.
Yet in her book, Jean Davidson's Harley-Davidson Family Album, it states
"Because William Harley was a quiet reserved man whose hair had turned silvery
gray at an early age, he was affectionately known as the "Silent Gray Fellow" by the
other founders. And because Bill Harley was the company's respected chief engineer,
the Davidson brothers nicknamed Harley's latest motorcycle in his honor. Which version
is correct ??

Funny, now Harleys are known as the LOUDEST bikes in creation.

Maybe both are right -- sort of.

That would have been a nice appropriate nickname for Mr. Harley in his later years. But almost certainly the bike was not given the Silent Gray Fellow name early on after him, but the other way around and he may have been given the name later on in life in honor of their early civilized gray-painted bike. That way makes more sense.

Mr. Harley had some other nicknames that I have found. In college they called him "Sylvi" Harley (his middle name was Sylvester) and around 1908 another was "Buck" Harley. And of course to us he is mostly "Bill" Harley.

McCaslin is right, although the "Gray" part came first and they tried other things before "Silent" that had nothing to do with mufflers.

In 1908 I have found simply "Gray Fellow" being used and in 1911 "Sturdy Gray Fellow" in use. But also "Quiet Gray Fellow" in 1909 and then "Silent Gray Fellow" in 1911 again.

Funny McCaslin would say that "The Motor Company put its engineering staff to work and came up with the best mufflers in the motorcycle industry."

Isn't that rather cold and anonymous? Why not say that Bill (or Sylvi or Buck) Harley set to work to build the best muffler in the motorcycle industry and put a human face and name on it? I would have. Afterall, they don't have "Engineering Staff - Davidson" on the gas tanks do they?

[LouieMCman]

How come their are no Harley's working there now? I've heard rumors that that's the way the Davidson's wanted it. Or maybe just the way the business worked out?

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by LouieMCman
How come their are no Harley's working there now? I've heard rumors that that's the way the Davidson's wanted it. Or maybe just the way the business worked out?

I don't think that you're supposed to ask that question.

[TMarony]

Louie, I attended a get together
with Jean Davidson and someone asked
that very question. Seems after AMF took
over and began to produce junk, the
remaining members of both families
(Harley & Davidson)
complained about
what the company was doing, and one
by one where forced to leave, all except
Wille G., who kept quiet and did his best
to improve the product.

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by TMarony
Louie, I attended a get together
with Jean Davidson and someone asked
that very question. Seems after AMF took
over and began to produce junk, the
remaining members of both families
(Harley & Davidson)
complained about
what the company was doing, and one
by one where forced to leave, all except
Wille G., who kept quiet and did his best
to improve the product.

Tsk, tsk, blaming poor AMF again....

[LouieMCman]

Maybe we can get it first (or second) hand from someone with a book forward done by a Harley family member? I was just asking to get the historical facts, I'm not a big fan of the Motor Co these days even though I own six of their products.

[exeric]

And while you're at it, perhaps someone could address that worn out sobriquet "HOG". I always thought that was coined after WW2 or later by cutdown and bobber riders who hated dressed out motorcycles. In all of the old periodicals and literature I've read from the early days of motorcycling, I have never seen the word HOG used in reference to a H-D or any other motorcycle.

[Paquette]

The most plausable explaination I have heard for the HOG moniker, goes back to the factory race teams of the 1920's. Ray Weishaar had a small pet pig that he would ride around after a win on the victory lap. The team became known as the "Hog Boys".

[c.o.]

This pic comes to mind............

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by TMarony
Louie, I attended a get together
with Jean Davidson and someone asked
that very question. Seems after AMF took
over and began to produce junk, the
remaining members of both families
(Harley & Davidson)
complained about
what the company was doing, and one
by one where forced to leave, all except
Wille G., who kept quiet and did his best
to improve the product.

I think that Jean's timing of the events might be a little off there. The last Harley who worked there (John E. Harley, Jr. as production expeditor) was "laid off" in the spring of 1982. The AMF period ended in 1981 when a group of 13 company officials bought the H-D subsidiary, so by the time of that "lay off" AMF was out of the picture and the brave new world of Harley-Davidson, Inc. had begun.

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by LouieMCman
Maybe we can get it first (or second) hand from someone with a book forward done by a Harley family member? I was just asking to get the historical facts, I'm not a big fan of the Motor Co these days even though I own six of their products.

Good point. I should really ask and get the details.

The story has been written up in a piece called "The Last Harley" by David Edwards in Cycle World magazine (October, 2003, p.10). It gives what appears to be an accurate version of the story, although there may well have been some additional inside political angle for a thing like that to happen.

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by exeric
And while you're at it, perhaps someone could address that worn out sobriquet "HOG". I always thought that was coined after WW2 or later by cutdown and bobber riders who hated dressed out motorcycles. In all of the old periodicals and literature I've read from the early days of motorcycling, I have never seen the word HOG used in reference to a H-D or any other motorcycle.

I haven't found HOG used early on either and I'm always looking for it and it seems to be of more recent origin.

[HarleyCreation]

Originally posted by Paquette
The most plausable explaination I have heard for the HOG moniker, goes back to the factory race teams of the 1920's. Ray Weishaar had a small pet pig that he would ride around after a win on the victory lap. The team became known as the "Hog Boys".

Can you find a period reference of the 1920s racing team actually being called the "Hog Boys"? That would be worth knowing. If it was used in some old original source it should be documented.

What I have seen is Weishaar's photo that C.O. posted along with the term "piggy mascot" used in the 1920s. Not "hog." If the term had originated in the 1920s and had carried down through the years I think there would be many cases of its use and we would know it, but I have yet to find any. My hunch the connection isn't there and it's an urban myth created by someone who ran across the photo in recent years and wanted to score points now that H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) is such a big deal.

Of course the term "road hog" is a very old one. It isn't hard to imagine a group of sedate Hydra-Glide or Duo-Glide clubbers out for their AMA Safety Award being overtaken by a bunch of young Triumph and BSA riders who then cursed them as "road hogs" which by the early 1960s had been condensed down to the derogatory term "hog."

BTW: when is the last time anybody actually ever said: "My hog" when referring to their bike? Maybe now they do, but not in my day they didn't. The term was known, but it really wasn't used very much if at all. If your bike was a "hog" it was a big hulking piece of crap, not a term of endearment.

[exeric]

I'm familiar with the famous picture of the little pig being bottle fed a Coke but I really never believed H-D's p.r. that claims that is where the term "HOG" came from. First of all (and I'm no farmer) but I think a pig doesn't get classified as a hog until it reaches a certain weight. You could excuse an oversight like that today but not back in those days when most Americans were from an agrarian background. And most importantly, I don't think uptight conservatives like the Davidson's and Harley would have thought "HOG" was a very flattering nicname for their motorcycles. Personally, I would bet you a new "hog" that if you called their bikes "HOGS" you would have got a punch in the nose.