Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Harley Wings over America, Part Three. On to the Big Apple!

After a visit to the Harley factory museum at York PA. I left for NYC.
The factory tour was suspended while new models were starting up on the line.

Rodney C. Gott was the chairman of AMF.
The board was responsible for saving Harley Davidson.

I never got the chance to wear this badge.

A low key sign for a source of so much history.

The streamlining caused instability at speed, 136 mph.

The museum was very interesting. Antique Harley Davidsons were not commonly seen although some of the chopper magazines began to feature articles on vintage bikes. Joe Petrali rode a streamlined EL twin to a new speed record. The EL was the new for 1936, OHV 61 ci. twin. This bike was the father of all following big twins. I had seen the bike pictured in a black and white photo in a book, but was not prepared to see the actual bike in that appealing shade of blue.

The streamlining was removed for the top speed run.
It looks like the paint has held up better than the leather.

Never would have expected this.

The prototype of the OHC Sportster was quite surprising, as HD had the reputation of being excessively tradition minded. Perhaps the most telling vehicle on display was the green and white '58 Panhead. Such a beauty. Everyone who saw it asked the question, "Why can't they build a bike that beautiful now?" Well they did. The return to Classic styling is what saved the company and almost damned them at the same time.

Quite the bike!

The Seventies were not the most tasteful decade.
The boat tail seat didn't work out on the Sportster  or the new Superglide.

As I mentioned before in the Summer of 1979 there was an uneasy social malaise in the air. There had been reports of fights at gas lines although I never witnessed any altercations, There was a free floating anxiety that was pervading the country.

Ready or Not, Here I come!

Adding to the mania of the day was worry of where Skylab was going to crash to Earth. Satillites have to follow the law of gravity and fall back to Earth sometime. The concern was whether or not the debris would be completely burned up upon re entry into the atmosphere. The path of the orbit put it over much of the United States. It ended up landing somewhere in the Arctic.

Three Mile Island

That about sums it up.

Passing by Harrisburg PA which was the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.  This is only a short distance from the Harley Davidson factory at York. Three Mile Island was the site of a near melt down of a nuclear plant. This had occurred in March of 1979, just a few months earlier. Luckily the incident was contained, but some radioactive steam had to be released. Still, tragedy was averted and life goes on. (Things did not go so well at Chernobyl, just seven years later). Everyone was bit jumpy until that space station finally crashed. Duck!

Passing by Valley forge in Pennsylvania I dumped my bike hard.

I had kept my map in the top pocket of the tank bag. I was approaching  a junction where I was unsure which road to take and spent a little too much time checking the map. When I looked up, the car in front of me had braked suddenly. I hit the front brakes hard, locking the wheel. The bike skid and went down on the left side, spinning into the intersection. I went down hard on my left leg and knee, My left boot toe was worn through to metal. My left knee and calf where scraped and bloody where the pant leg had abraded. My left elbow and forearm got pretty scraped up also. Luckily I wasn't struck by any following cars. My poor bike just slid into the intersection on it's side.

My reaction was to jump up immediately and move my bike out of the road. Some motorists stopped and helped me to move the bike to the shoulder and asked if I was okay.  I was already getting sore but I knew that there wasn't anything broken. As fate would have it, I had stopped earlier in Fort Smith Arkansas and  bought a silver and black, stars and stripes design helmet, ( I wasn't about to get a Confederate design) as I knew I was now about to enter the  helmet law states. Lucky for me!  I had left California without a helmet.

I hadn't felt it, but my head must have had some contact with the pavement as there was a scrape on the back of the helmet. I told my helpers that I didn't need an ambulance. I really didn't.

I checked out my bike. Damage was limited to a broken shifter and clutch lever. The end of the left handle bar grip was ground up a  bit and the lower edge of the left saddlebag was scraped up. I didn't realize that the windshield was cracked and that one of the bolts holding the fender brace had broken. I had "cushioned" the bike's fall with my leg. I wanted to continue on until I could find a Harley dealer and fix my bike. I attached a small visegrip pliers to the end of the broken clutch lever and I could still use the twisted remnant of the broken alloy shifter lever to change gears. I set off slowly down the road.

I stopped at nearby market and bought Mercurochrome, gauze bandages, tape and large, square, self adhesive bandages.

I went into a gas station bathroom and surveyed the damage. Lots of fairly light roadrash and scrapes, that oozed blood.  Nothing so deep that I felt that there was any real danger of tissue damage. I washed all the affected areas with soap and hot water, and dried off with paper towels. This was a very clean well equipped wash room! I applied the Mercurochrome and applied  the bandages and gauze. My pants were ripped but since I hadn't been wearing my leather jacket it hadn't sustained any damage. Skin will heal but that jacket cost me money!

I made my way up the road and found a campground in New Jersey and set up my tent. I remember waking up in the early morning darkness feeling very sore and for a moment, disoriented.             Where was I? I looked around and saw the tent and then I remembered what had happened. The thought of the accident filled me with a sudden deep sense of sadness, and I felt very alone. Was my adventure at an end?   How badly was I hurt? Could I continue? I didn't think that I was really injured, just a little beat up. I was beginning to feel sorry for myself until I opened my tent flap and stared out into the darkness.

Photo source: Mike Lewinski

Just then I saw small flashes of light flitting among the trees. What could this be, was something wrong with my vision too? No, these were fireflies. Fireflies! I had always wanted to see them. They had seemed like an almost mystical creature to me. I took this to be a good sign. What ever happened next, I would deal with it tomorrow

The twin Towers

It kind of chokes you up to see it for the first time.

This was the view from inside the Lady's torch.

Touring through NYC as a motorcyclist just passing through wasn't easy. In a car you can hide and lock up your gear, what can you do on a motorcycle? I really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I decided to follow the lead of Blanche DuBois ( look it up if you don't know who she is!), and depended on the kindness of a stranger. When I parked in the lot, I asked the attendant to keep an eye on my bike and gear. Obviously he must have, because my bike and gear was fine when I returned. I guess all New Yorkers aren't as bad as their reputation! As I was driving around the city I passed some of those stripped out, abandoned cars, that I'd seen on the TV, so maybe some of them are that bad!

I wasn't planning on spending the night in town, so I kept on going.

Through to Upstate New York. Once I left NYC everything seemed to go downhill. I was tired, sore, and in a hurry to get back home. There was a terrible headwind all the way across the state and I had to jettison my windshield which had been damaged in the crash. The headwinds made my back, neck, and arms ache. I camped at a KOA at Herkimer where I met a group of riders from Connecticut, but I still spent a depressing night. At Lowtown NY I had to fix a broken bolt in the fender /saddlebag mount. I headed up into Canada at Highway 81 above Watertown. This time it took longer to get in. Traffic is crazy and no one goes 55 mph. I spent the night in Peterborough. The weather was cloudy and cold. The next day it rained. My ride around Lake Ontario wasn't very pleasant.
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The lowest part of my trip was on the day that I drove from Peterborough to Iron Bridge. It was cold and rainy and the campground was infested with mosquitoes. I must have gotten bit at least fifty times on my back and arms. There was a sauna available to the campers and I decided to gave it a try. Walking from my tent to the sauna building was like facing a gauntlet of mosquitoes! Those darn things would crawl along the  zippered tent door and window, trying to find a way in! It was a miserable night. The next morning I made a run for it to Sault Ste. Marie. I saw Cook Nielson's ( of Cycle magazine fame) van at a coffeeshop where I had breakfast. He gave my California plates a quizzical look, but said nothing. I was glad to be back in the US. The ride through Michigan was dreary. Wisconsin was a turning point for me, things began to look up. I spent a really relaxing night at a pleasant motel in Norway Wisconsin, The motel provided a nice Continental breakfast in the knotty Pine, wood paneled lobby. I chatted with the manager who was very friendly.

That morning I began to anticipate my last week on the road. Passing through Minneapolis/Saint Paul I picked up a new windshield. The Harley dealer sold me the windshield off one of the new Superglides that was on the showroom floor. I had kept the windshield mounting brackets on my bike's triple clamps (which are different on the Sportster ) the windshield was identical and bolted right on. As a bonus the shield had been pinstriped to match the showroom bike. Having a windshield really increased the comfort level when fighting the many headwinds.  My morale improved immensely. The Thrifty Scot motel in Owatonna provided a good room for 13.00! The weather warmed up and the helmet came off. I made it to Badlands National Park.

The Badlands national Park.

Things were much simpler back then.

Through the Badlands of South Dakota I made my way to the Mt. Rushmore monument. Things were a lot more basic in those days. Today this is a highly developed site, with a huge parking structure, viewing stands, displays and  a large snack bar /restaurant. And of course gift shops! A couple of years ago my Wife and I visited the site and I told her how much it had changed. I had heard of the Crazy Horse monument back then, but didn't take the time to stop by.  We stopped on our last visit and were amazed. It's incredible and well worth seeing.

Despite all the anticipatory signs, I didn't stop at Wall drug. Maybe next time.

That was the biggest storm cloud I had ever seen!
Those are the Black Hills in the background.

Up across the Continental Divide.

The Bighorn Mountains. Pretty rugged territory.

After the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore I headed north for the Bighorn Mountains. I kept waiting for that giant cloud to unleash thunder and lightening on my head. I've since experienced some horrific thunderstorms on my last visit to the area. Back in 1979 I managed to escape the storm. I spent a cold night in Buffalo Wyoming.


The Bighorns are tall mountains, one pass was over 9,000 ft. At that altitude it was cold. My bike was running pretty good but the third gear ratio jump made it a bit uncomfortable. Lots of time was spent running in second and third gear. The road was too steep and twisty to keep it in fourth. Running through the mountains I passed a caravan from Indiana State University. There were 15 vehicles full of Geology students. They waved as I went by.

Not my photo but my memory. I've gotta take my Wife there.

The next day I rode through Yellowstone Park and made it all the way to Idaho Falls. It was a long day. That's probably why I didn't take any pictures of Yellowstone, maybe that, combined with the fact that I had been there just last year. Rick and I had passed by the Grand Tetons and had spent the night in Jackson Hole. I was feeling like a real adventurer until I met a fellow in camp who was riding his bicycle cross country! He had ridden through those same Bighorn mountains several days ago. Now that would be a real adventure.