Harley Davidson Motorcycle by Tony Middlehurst #HD52

New.  Hard Cover.  The book measures 14 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches and has 112 pages printed on high quality glossy paper.  There is some minor shelf ware on the cover jacket.

Contents:  Introduction.  Three men and a shed.  Expression and depression.  Indian troubles.  Knuckleheads and Panheads.  New models and economic problems.  The best Harleys ever.  Selected specifications.  Index and acknowledgments.

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 nearly 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 in the early '30s and the 1960s, Milwaukee's best-known firm has rown from a backyard 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.  Harley-Davidson, a company which typifies the 'American spirit', has always strongly resisted any outside influences which threatened that spirit.  Their products have as a consequence always been spirited in themselves, big-hearted machines plowing their own unique furrow in an age of indentikit quick-fire consumerism.  For enthusiasts nothing can compare to the low roar of a Harley.  Bought and lovingly cared for by bikers, many are chromed and polished, many more customized 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 consciousness.

The Author, Tony Middlehurst  is a highly experienced motorcycle journalist and author.  An avid motorcycling enthusiast, he has travelled all over the world testing bikes, including thousands of miles on many different Harleys.  A motorcycling writer for more than 10 years, he is a former editor of the major British magazine Superbike and his previous publications include The Pictorial History of Motorcycling.