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| | Description | Who knew, one hundred years ago, that the freedom-loving, speed-hungry, cutting-edge motorcycle fanatics who founded Harley-Davidson were making history along with bikes? The Harley-Davidson Collection, showcasing a century of bikes that shaped motorcycle history, brings that history to gleaming life in page after page of motorcycles beyond compare. On the eve of the opening of the historic Harley-Davidson Museum, this book gives motorcycle enthusiasts an opportunity to pore over the bikes in the collection, and to linger over every detail that made Harley-Davidson such an icon of American open-road power and performance. With exquisite, detailed photographs and histories of the hundred motorcycles in Harley’s collection, from serial number one built in 1903 to the latest low-slung Softail, high-revving VRSC, and touring models, the book captures the excitement of the best-known motorcycles in the world. All that’s missing is the patented roar, which readers are invited to supply.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Darwin Holmstrom | | Hardcover: | 408 pages | | Publisher: | Motorbooks | | Publication Date: | October 03, 2008 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0760331847 | | Product Width: | 3.06 centimeters | | Product Height: | 2.68 centimeters | | Product Weight: | 0.07 pounds | | Package Length: | 12.3 inches | | Package Width: | 10.7 inches | | Package Height: | 2.0 inches | | Package Weight: | 6.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 27 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 27 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Wonderful Collection of Photographs Oct 28, 2008
By David
First of all, Amazon's photograph of this item is misleading. The book is 12" wide and 10 1/2" tall. This is important, because the wide format allows the numerous full-page photographs of the motorcycles to be viewed in the proper perspective.
Secondly, the quality of the photographs is spectacular. It's one thing to see a crystal clear studio photo of a brand new bike in a brochure, but to see all of these incredible motorcycles photographed this way is a real treat.
Thirdly, the motorcycles in the collection go well beyond the usual suspects. The early-century singles and twins are there, of course. But there are also several pages devoted to their early bicycles. Military and racing bikes (vintage and modern) are also featured. The biggest surprise (to me) was the nice little selection of 1960's Aermacchi lightweights. Most Harley people choose to ignore these bikes, but they are part of H-D's history, and deserve to be included in their archive and this book. The AMF era is well-represented, including an experimental 1100cc OHC Twin in a triangulated frame that looks more Japanese than Harley-Davidson. There's definitely no shortage of modern-era machines, up to and including the 2008 Buells.
You get about 400 pages of georgeous photographs and concise summaries of H-D's motorcycles through the years. There's much, much more to this book than this little review can cover.
Nearly everything sold in America is produced in China, and that includes this book. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying more money for a book that was printed by men and women in North America. But that's just me.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
A Harley book like no other Oct 29, 2008
By Rider Boy
I honestly thought I would never buy another Harley-Davidson book. I thought I had seen and read everything there was to see and read about the Motor Co. I was wrong; the amazing collection of motorcycles photographed for this book is the equivalent of finding photographic proof of the Loch Ness monster, Sasquatch, the Yeti, and the little gray space aliens who crashed at Roswell all in one volume. Think about it--this book includes a Nova touring bike. Prior to the opening of its museum, Harley-Davidson would not even admit the Nova existed, much less allow it to be photographed. It has an XA sidecar rig with a driven sidecar wheel. Make that it has the XA sidecar rig with a driven sidecar wheel, since the Motor Co. only built one for evaluation, and this is that one. It has Harley-Davidson serial number one: the very first Harley-Davidson motorcycle ever built. How would a person put a price on a bike like that? It's literally priceless, since the only way to purchase that bike would be to purchase every share of Harley-Davidson stock on the market and buy out the owners. But it's in here, in heart-stoppingly beautiful photogrpahy.
The text is good, too. You'll buy this for the photos, but even though it's brief, the history presented here is filled with new, previously unpublished information.
Now I will not buy another Harley book. There's no need to; this one has everything a Harley fan will ever need.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Very good price, very fast shipping, and much more than I thought I was buying Dec 23, 2008
By Michael Grizzard
I bought this book for a family member for Christmas and I was somewhat worried if it would be "enough" by comparison to some other books I looked at. I received it quickly, paid $37.00 for it when it retails for $60.00, and the book is HUGE!! It's loaded with great photography, details, and there is no wasted space. I'm not a Harley Davidson fan and I found myself flipping through it for an hour in amazement of how in depth it is. I'm certain that he'll enjoy the book and it's a great conversation piece for anyone wanting to know a bit about Harley Davidson. I highly recommend this book for any collection.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
The Motor Company book actually worth buying Jan 12, 2009
By New England Yankee
What this book is NOT: It is not just another pretty HD picture book of the type that floods the transportation section of your local bookstore. It is not a customization book, a chopper book, or any of the other familiar genres.
What it IS: This book is a high-quality, comprehensive "catalog" of Harley-Davidson's motorcycle collection, much of which is on display at the new museum. Extensive descriptive notes accompany each entry, and the photos are stunning. Because the collection itself is extensive and this book covers all of it, this single volume covers more HD topics like engines, frames, company history and marketing, etc. than any book out there. While this would make an excellent coffee table book, it is actually much more, and I've spent many hours reading through it.
Between the quality and coverage you can't go wrong. This is the HD history book to buy. Amazon's price is excellent - I doubt you will find better.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 H-D Archive Collection Nov 30, 2009
By Kenneth J. Aiken
"Kenzo"
I'm reminded of the last scene in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The successfully recovered the Ark of the Covenant has been crated, loaded on a forklift, and the camera pans out to show a seemingly endless secret warehouse filled with similar crates that presumably hold other lost treasures of the world. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company Archive Collection was sort of like that: a secret warehouse filled with motorcycles for every model year, special machines that have disappeared from public view, and bikes whose very existence were mere rumor.
We now know that The Motor Company has been stashing motorcycles away in secret since 1915. That was the year in which the Davidson brothers and William Harley began saving at least one motorcycle from each model year. In 1919 they enhanced the collection by seeking out and repurchasing important motorcycles manufactured since 1903. Months before the opening of the new Harley-Davidson Museum, Randy Leffingwell set up his photography studio in this secret warehouse within the Juneau Avenue complex and began documenting the collection.
This lush coffee-table book might be "the gift" for Christmas 2008. It weighs just over seven pounds and contains more lush photographs on these 407 pages than I can count. If this tome contained nothing but Leffingwell's photographs it would be well worth the $60 price tag. However, the text written by Darwin Holmstrom provides so much unique information that this becomes an encyclopedia that's absolutely essential for any collector or restorer of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
1912 Model X-8-A
"In the summer of 2004, Archives staff cleaned this motorcycle and installed a new drive belt. In the process of their examinations, staff members discovered that this machine has several engineering prototype features and experimental changes. Some components appeared to be handmade. The freewheel pivot was welded onto the frame, which had an extension welded onto it. In addition, this vehicle has an experimental rear hub actuator, perhaps as a prototype or update for the freewheel mechanism introduced in two-speed hubs in 1914.
For 1912, the company introduced a new frame that enhanced riding comfort through an innovation it called the `Ful-Floteing Seat.' This invention put some of the helical coil springs from the cushion front fork into the seat tube to provide additional compliance to the Troxel seat. The Motor Company manufactured 545 belt-drive motorcycles in 1912, selling them for $235 apiece when equipped as this example."
Motorcycles featured in this book begin with serial number 1. Yes, the first motorcycle manufactured by H-D still exists and was completely restored in 1996-97. The authors then jump to the 1906 single, followed by the 1907, and then to the only surviving example of the 1909 Model 5-D, their first V-twin. The book doesn't document every machine in the archives, but does include many models that I've never seen published.
Over the years specific motorcycles have disappeared from public view only to reappear with the opening of the new Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. The 1936 EL Record Bike on which Joe Petrali twice broke the American Straightaway Record on March 13, 1937 is one such machine. Others, like the 1981 Nova and the 1975 Model OHC-1100 Experimental, never even saw the light of day. The 1995 XL-1200 Biker Blues bike designed by Wyatt Fuller had never been publicly shown before the museum opened this summer and now joins the earlier 1994 FLSTN Fat Boy Biker Blues custom that appeared at events until 1998.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the secret of this vast collection was a conspiracy that went far beyond the staff that lovingly maintained it. The first Buell Blast to roll off the assembly line was signed by every person involved in its design, engineering, and manufacture. The 2003 Ultra Classic Electra Glide with sidecar that was built to commemorate the Motor Company's 100th birthday was dismantled, the parts sent around the world to all H-D facilities where employees signed them, and then was reassembled in Milwaukee. There are over 10,000 signatures on the bodywork making this one of the most unique custom jobs in the world and it was never publicly displayed! I thought that three people couldn't keep a secret unless one of them was dead, but the existence of the archive collection proves me wrong.
There are models featured with sidevans and sidecars, others as fully equipped military and police vehicles, and the servi-cars. Road, track, and hillclimb models from different eras range from experimental and custom to championship bikes that proudly wearing "1." In addition to Sportsters, Fat Boys, and Glides, less-familiar models are also showcased. Two chapters on "lightweights" include the ML-Rapido Baja; MC-65 Shortster; the M-50 and M-50 Sport; Model H Sprint; the BTH Scat; the Model B Hummer; and the S-series models. However, if these are not quite your idea of what a Harley should be, how about the D-3 golf cart or the Y-440 snowmobile? H-D also had a line of bicycles that were produced at the closing of WWI. The Model 420 Motorcyke Tank Bicycle of 1917 doesn't look like an antique since it fits right in with the current motorcycle-retro bicycle scene and H-D's1918 Model 8-18 racer is a beauty even by 2008 standards.
I think everyone has a "dream machine," that if-price-was-no-object motorcycle model that they would choose as their perfect ride. Mine has always been the XR-750 fitted with a café fairing and enhanced performance. After looking through this book my fidelity has been shaken by the appearance of 1977 XLCR-1000 Café Racer and I'd buy a 1994 VR-1000 in street trim if I could afford it.
The Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Archive Collection is much more than eye-candy, it's a key reference book and essential for anyone for rides, wrenches, or writes on Harley-Davidson motorcycles . . . or ice yachts, or snowmobiles, or bicycles.
See all 27 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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