HD-Museum & Flat Out Friday, Milwaukee, WI
Just Another Regular Day in Milwaukee
That’s right, THAT Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where those beautiful Knuckleheads, Panheads, and Shovelheads come from. Also, the Sportsters, Flatheads, and all the other H-D murdersickles ... Naturally, when you're in the area, you go to where they're all on display, preserved as on the day they rolled off the line, including the legendary special models: the Harley Davidson Museum.
The Company really got their shit together there. (Back in the day, on our way home from the Ice Road adventure, the museum was still a construction site. All we could do was stand around trying to look epic at the visitor entrance.)
As befits a Harley museum, all generations
of engines are neatly lined up here, the history of paint and colour schemes is on display in the tank gallery, and at every turn you stumble across legendary bikes such as Joe Petrali’s record-breaking machine. Joe, one of the most legendary racers of all time started racing for Harley in 1925 (because his then employer, Indian, didn't deliver the promised racing machine on time and the official Harley rider had broken his hand during training). What followed was Petrali’s epic dominance: in 1935, he won all 13 AMA races in his class and set four records. He won every hillclimb championship between 1932 and 1936, winning 47 races in the process. The highlight was the speed record in 1937 in Daytona Beach, FL. On the streamliner built for him by Harley-Davidson with the new OHV Knucklehead engine he clocked 136.183 mph (219.1 km/h)*. This historic machine is on display here in all its eternal beauty ...
Speaking of loud and fast: after taking our time
appreciating the tranquil H-D Museum, we headed straight to a somewhat more, let's say, lively environment: Flat Out Friday. “Go fast turn left” in an indoor version. With rather less “go fast” and all the more “go left.” Compared to the huge venue, the oval was rather small and narrow. Also it was so slippery that they had to cover it with “sticky soda syrup” , whatever that may be, so that no one would be carried out of the curves. The oddball racing classes went from mini bikes to one wheelers, but also included hard-core professional flat trackers who gave it their ear drum shattering best, making Flat Out Friday the perfect warm-up party for the Mama Tried Show.