New for 1912!!!

[c.o.]

This pre-16 forum has been a little slow as of late and I thought I would share a couple ads from my recently acquired issue of Motorcycling dated November 2, 1911. I can never get enough of this stuff and I'm amazed at the high quality of the magazine. My scans however may not be as great. I'm going to have to go the way of jurassic and get on one of those photo hosting sites. Here goes..............

[c.o.]

Well it sorta worked.......... I really like this one........ Park your horse and buy a Thor!!

[c.o.]

Here's a shot of H-D's newly acquired property by the tracks........ I seperated the photo and text to make it fit..............

[c.o.]

Oh, and here's a pretty crappy scan of the new Yale......... wow color!!

[exeric]

That's great stuff Cory. The ad about getting rid of the horse is interesting. I have a friend who is a horse and buggy driver/historian. She made the comment that by 1912 the horse to motor vehicle ratio was about 50/50. I didn't ask but I would guess she refered to working horses. What an uncertain time that must have been and especially worrying to older people who saw motorcycles and cars as a threat to their more gentle way of life. Henry Ford is credited with saying that he didn't know if the automobile would be a blessing or a curse to humanity. I have to say that cars and motorcycles were a blessing to all of the beasts of burden that didn't always have a kind and caring master. . . . And future motorheads like us.

[c.o.]

No kidding Eric, I'm sure there were a lot of scepticle and utterly disgusted folks with dim views on the new contraptions. Here's an Excelsior ad..........

[HarleyCreation]

Here's a shot of H-D's newly acquired property by the tracks........ I seperated the photo and text to make it fit..............

I haven't been around much lately. Been busy with The Big Man, pt. 2: "Motor Cycle City." Crazy wild story. What a guy, and he's all ours. Talk about scaring horses!

This is an EXCELLENT time capsule photo of the Harley Juneau Ave. plant in transition. I studied these photos in great detail years ago and they tell a wonderful story maybe we can do sometime.

I can't remember half of what I know, except that you are looking west/southwest in this photo. To the far right you can see the first two sections of the 1910-11 H-D Red Brick Factory. Next to that is the older H-D Yellow Brick Factory that dates from 1906 to 1909 and later razed for another four red brick additions. The building with the chimney is the Buchman (bedspring?) factory. In the foreground is Erdmans lumber & stone yard. The Red Brick Factory gets expanded in 1912-14 to replace the YBF and the bedspring factory right up to 37th St., about to where those lumber piles are. That's where the front office entrance is today.

I've often wondered if any of that Bar & Shield logo still exists on internal walls of the Factory today. Maybe in part it does, altho they knocked most of those tiles out.

Thanks for posting this Cory, you got me going! I love the Harley Factory story. It's as fun as the bikes. If you ever have the chance to visit Milwaukee go there and soak up the vibes. Most all of our beloved old Harleys rolled out of this plant and most of the cool and interesting old timers worked there too.

It's a true "Mecca" and feels like you are visiting a haunted house, but a good haunted house!