Bikernet Book Review: Harley-Davidson Museum Masterpieces, by Dain Gingerelli with photography by Randy Leffingwell

 

A hearty Hello from the great Midwest to all my bro’s at Bikernet.com. I’ll start with the usual “Where did summer go?” and continue from there. The answer to that timeless question is that I spent the time tracking down a health issue the doc’s laid on me in late June: Langerhan’s Cell Histiocytosis. LCH is a rare disease that is like cancer but not. It’s like an auto-immune disease but it’s not. It’s like bone marrow cancer but again it is not. So, I spent big bucks and lots of time going to Northwestern Memorial in Chicago and Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the doctors said there is nothing we can do at this point but wait. Wait for what?

 

I even called upon my riding bro Merle, the medicine man, to check me over. I have made some promises to get myself right and plan on keeping them. The verdict is still out but I plan on going down fighting if it comes to that. The world is colored a little differently and the Black Hills even more beautiful realizing just how short our time on Earth really is.

 

I took the “H-D Masterpieces” book from Motorbooks along on a trip to the Rapid City thinking I would just write the review, but I didn’t get a chance to sit down in front of a computer for a whole week! It was relaxing in a way, after I got over the initial computer withdrawal. I also went for long stretches without use of a cell phone, which was also liberating.

 

At a gas stop in Murdo I found out about Twila Merrell’s final auction out in scenic, South Dakota. The town is financially closed except maybe one gas station is still open for regular business. She sold off the contents of the historic Longhorn Saloon and a couple of the remaining old buildings. It was the end of an era watching those homemade welded tractor seat, oil and milk can, barstools, with the horseshoe footrests go on the auction block. Through the sale ring slipped literally a ton of rocks and gem stones, fossils, lots of Native American art, Cowboy paintings, beer signs, and damn near anything else you could think of. I was kinda glad I wasn’t driving my pickup. I would have been tempted to haul all those relics including those original cowboy cartoon drawings that hung on the walls back by the pool table.

 

Motorbooks brings us another instant classic with the official Harley-Davidson Museum Masterpieces handbook. Author Dain Gingerelli got the chance to wander the vast H-D Museum and pick the bikes for Randy Leffinwell to photograph. Many of the more unusual models I’ve seen over the years are covered and their origins explained, such as the 1952 Rikuo manufactured by Sankyo Pharmaceuticals in….Japan.

 

Also covered is the origin and history of the 1961 Model C Sprint manufactured by the Italian motorcycle company Aermacchi. Here’s what Motorbooks said about Museum Masterpieces: Ask just about any motorcycle fan, and they’ll tell you that Harley-Davidson builds the ultimate motorcycle. And the motorcycles housed in Harley-Davidson’s Archive Collection represent the best of the best. Harley-Davidson Museum Masterpieces tells the story of this amazing company through the incredible motorcycles it builds, selected from the hundreds of motorcycles in the Archive Collection. Portrait-quality photography of the book taken by expert lenseman Randy Leffingwell reveals the remarkable journey of America’s motorcycle company, from its humble beginnings to its nearly century-long dominance of an entire industry.

 

The photos are sharp and the commentary insightful with a generous four pages minimum for each featured bike. We get to see the Captain America and Billy bikes, the FLHs, ’70s Sportsters, the Denim Fatboy and on through the CVO Electra-Glide to the V-Rods.

 

All in all this is (hopefully) the first in a series of beautiful photographic journals documenting the expanding Harley-Davidson collection. I have one complaint. I’m going to bellyache about the size. The book needs to be BIGGER, which I know would increase the price, but this photographer and these bikes deserve an enlarged format.