Hey Bandit, we just rolled in from Harley’s 105th birthday bash in Milwaukee… hey, aren’t you almost that old? What? You want us to speak slower or louder? Even though we were there for four days, there was no way to take in everything that was happening around town—even though we noticed that the different venues were grouped closer to the city. (Hey, maybe that’s why traffic was so thick.) Our CA plates ID’d us as tourists, and the splittin’ lanes thing didn’t go over very well with the riders stopped on the freeway. Wha do ya mean “splittin’ lanes” isn’t nation wide? One warning was enough for us to be extra careful not to get caught again… I mean we weren’t about to cook our motors by sittin’ in an endless line of door slammers, sucking up exhaust fumes.
We were lucky enough to get into the Harley museum early Thursday morning and that was a mind blower in itself. We could’ve probably spent a week in there and still not taken it all in. From the museum we skated city streets to Miller Park for the H.O.G. deal, damm, we parked nearly a mile away, but once on the inside things were cool (figuratively, not temperature-wise), we walked around taking in the sights and then hung out over in the beer garden tent, people watching and listening to the bands playing on the main stage or in the beer garden tent stage. We did venture out to check out the stunt teams, but could only catch a glimpse of the action between rows of people, but it sounded good with the screeching tires and the ooh’s and aah’s of the crowd.
The local Harley dealers in the area all had goings on from their own band line-up, to bikini bike washes, stunt shows, and even Jesse James. The local dealers are Hal’s H-D, House of Harley-Davidson, Milwaukee H-D, Racine H-D, Suburban Motors H-D/Buell, Uke’s H-D/Buell, Wisconsin H-D and West Bend H-D.
The factory was allowing tours of some of their plants and we went through the Capitol Drive facility. The Capitol Drive plant builds the Sportster engines and also houses the remanufacturing line, where your Evo, Twin Cam 88 or 96 engine can be brought back to “factory fresh”. Another lesser-known product output of Capitol Drive is the maintenance of non-current parts (over 800, one part number dating back to 1915), everything from four-speed clutch plates and starter gears to panhead and shovelhead tune-up kits.
The in-house alternator manufacturing line was mesmerizing to watch, as each stator pole was wrapped in wire and then the completed unit was tested. Capitol Drive also handles all of the powdercoating for the company as well as “Toolroom” maintenance for the other H-D plants, along with designing and building certain prototype and racing parts. We weren’t the only ones captivated by the plant goings on, there was a solid line of riders going through the Capitol Drive plant from the rear door all the way to the front, with the only break in the line was for a fork-lift truck to pass down an isle.
The Pilgrim Road plant (further north) also had tours but we weren’t able to get there in a timely manner, (the Pilgrim road plant is where the big twin powertrains are built). At the company headquarters parking lot on Juneau Avenue was a stage for the incoming rides and the opening ceremonies, along with the opportunity to “kiss the bricks” of the original factory. The usual other festival venues hosted their fair share of activities, some to a lesser degree, for example the Summer Fest grounds at the Lake Front featured the Potawatomi (Indian Tribe) Pavillion which had a small but informative display by the USW (United Steelworkers) and the IAM (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) of the effort required to build a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle from the early years up to today complete with photos of early shop practices. In the same pavilion, (up near the stage) there was a seminar being given for woman riders—great, maybe we would get lucky—topics included vehicle maintenance, pre-ride checks, eating healthy on the road and (our favorite) helmet hair tips.
–Weezdog
Scott.Wiese@qg.com
There were also instructions on how to safely pick up a motorcycle that has fallen over (we learned from this demonstration ourselves).Further along on the grounds, actually out on a point of land jutting out into the lake, was what was described as a H.O.G. hospitality tent where you could relax and purchase discounted food and drink. But we were a half a mile in walking to get there, so instaed we went next door to the Discovery building where there was an excellent display of Harley’s design of new and custom styling.
The Discovery building came complete with air conditioning and a short loop movie showing skateboarders defying gravity then strapping their boards to their bikes and riding to the next skate park or dry swimming pool. We really liked the air conditioning, so we stayed to study the display a little longer. Back out in the humidity, we trudged back to the bikes hoping to find a nice little bar over on Water Street to get a quick meal and a cool drink.
Now here’s the part you’ll really like… 2008 also marks the 100th year H-D has been building Police Motorcycles. So, of course, at the beginning of the parade through town on Saturday morning were (you guessed it), a hundred or so cops on bikes. Kinda glad they went on past—if you know what I mean.
Over the course of the last few days we had seen and heard over a dozen or so bands which were pretty much everywhere we had gone. But the one band that closed out the whole party was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Veterans Park on Saturday night, what a show. That’s all.
