Messrs. Harley and Davidson weren’t the first Americans to wonder how far they could go by putting a motor on a bicycle. Inspired by the early work of a French inventor, by 1903 hundreds of small operators were tinkering with motorcycles in the U.S. but only Harley-Davidson, operating from a shed in Milwaukee, was in for the long haul.
The Harley-Davidson Source Book is a handsomely produced coffee table book with many full-page photos of the motor company’s bikes along with archival images illustrating more than a century of corporate and mechanical evolution.
As author Mitch Bergeron points out, Harley-Davidson built thousands of models over its history. The Source Book omits the many dead-ends to focus on dozens of pivotal models—the ones that pushed the Harley brand forward. Specifications as well as narrative descriptions are given for the popular Low Riders, Super Glides, XLH and XLCHs, Duo-Glides and so forth. After 125 years the wheels keep turning at Harley, Bergeron, a motorcycle enthusiast and custom builder, concludes The Source Book’s with the sleekly configured Pan America touring bike and the all-electric Livewire.
