HARLEY-DAVIDSON. Tony Middlehurst (Hardback) 1990

 HARLEY-DAVIDSON by Tont Middlehurst.

There aren't many automotive manufacturers left, two wheeled or four, which can truthfully include the phrase Established 1903 on their letter headings. harley-Davidson can. In nearlt ninety years of continuous production, swinging from the boom times of the late 1910's and early 1920's to the desperation of near bankruptcy oin the early '30s and the 1960, Milwaukee's best-known firm has grown from a back-yard garden-shed operation into a major corporation conservatively valued at several hundred million dollars. The intervening period saw many disasters and triumphs, and intrigues which on more than one occasion affected the lives of politicians right up to Presidential level.

H-D, a company which typifies the 'American spirit;, has always strongly resisted any outside influences which threatened that spirit. Their products have as a consequence alway been spirited in themselves, big-hearted machines plowing theor own unique furrow in an age of identikit quickfire consumerism. For enthisiasts nothing can compare to the low roar of a Harley. Bought and lovingly cared for by bikers, many are chromed and polished, many more customised and decorated until they resemble mobile works of art. Their owners are then ready to gather at Daytona or cruise the freeways to show off their prize possession - a gleaming Harley-Davidson.

This lavishly illustrated book takes a look at the history of Harley-Davidson, at the characters who made that history live, and at the bikes which today hold a special, almost generic, place in the public's conciousness.

A LARGE SIZED 14.1/2" x 10.1/2" (37 x 26.5 cm) hardback published in 1993 by Magna Books