An American Adventure, pt. 1
Charlie ticks off a list:
A billionaire’s H-D collection, Evel Knievel’s bones and wheels that are riding across time: that’s about the size of Charlie’s sporting try to shorten his motorcycling to-do list. If you know that Charlie has been translating W&W’s stories into French, is an active collector of Harley and Indian memorabilia and is creating that special road dust patina beautifying his jeans in the saddle of his Shovel and Flathead, it won’t surprise you that shortening this list can only be done in one place: the USA.
But Charlie’s plan is bigger than just ticking off boxes on a list: together with his mate Frank Margerin, famed French comic artist and creator of the "Lucien" rocker character with his Elvis hairdo and a Triumph under his butt, he’s set out to write and compile a Harley infused US diary complete with photos and Frank’s drawings.
What better place to start this V-Twin themed pilgrimage
than in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And what better place for resting your head than the Schroeder Hotel, where in the November of 1935 in the Crystal Ballroom the first ever Knucklehead was presented to the Motor Company’s dealers. The last 90 years saw other H-D bikes premiere here; every egg at the hotel’s breakfast table has more or less been boiled in motorcycle history.
Well rested and well fed they then took a deep dive into the bowels of the Company, into the Harley-Davidson archive. Its boss, Bill Jackson let Charlie browse the millions of artefacts for two days. Charlie, aficionado of everything Harley, was elated, but the sheer number of things, original photo prints, trophies, bikes, engines and whatnot brought him to the limits of his travel plans. When would be the next time (if ever) to check out the x-rays of Evel Knievel’s broken bones, or stick your nose into Arthur Davidson’s personal diary …
… just then an invitation from Jean Davidson popped up,
to pry the two Frenchmen away from the archives: Jean, born in 1937, Walter Davidson’s grand daughter and Willie G. Davidson’s cousin, invited the pilgrims over for drinks and a chat. She’s full of grand anecdotes from her long life, some of which no doubt will find their way into Charlie’s account of his travels. For example this one: when she was twelve her father came home to the family’s home on lake Pewaukee on a brand new Panhead. He wanted her to try the bike out, gave her a quick tour of the workings, and off she went, directly into the waters of the lake down at the end of the lawn …
The private and pretty exclusive moments didn’t end here:
Steve Magnatta opened the doors to his monumental collection of Harley memorabilia: thousands of items, merchandise articles, toys, banners and flags, small parts, dealer collateral, catalogs dating back to 1920. In Cleveland, Bruce Linsday showed them round his collection of vintage American motorcycles, the oldest Harley (from 1905!) in working condition among them... (to be continued...)