A Review of The Milwaukee Harley-Davidson Museum

As you drive south down 6th street, leaving the tall buildings and urban landscape of Milwaukee's downtown, the first thing you will probably notice is the art deco design of the 6th street viaduct, but after that, rising on the east side of the street, you will see the black and orange industrial buildings of the new Harley-Davidson Museum.

The museum has been in the works for more than 20 years, though you could say it has been in the works since 1915, when the far sighted owners of Harley-Davidson Motor Company started pulling one bike of each model off the production line and storing it in a warehouse on the west side of Milwaukee. They even went to the point of locating previously sold bikes, and placing them in the warehouse as well, in an attempt to capture the complete production history of the company.

You have to turn East off 6th street to get to the museum, driving along a wide road with angle parking. All the parking is free at the museum, but as you get closer to the large blocky buildings you are faced with a sign "No Cages Allowed." Only motorcycles get to park near the doors, cars are forced farther away, but not so bad it is not walkable. In fact, the closest car spots are really just across the street.

The outside of the buildings are dark with the occasional flash of chrome, or motorcycle touch like coils of chain wrapped around a column and then stretched to a pile on the ground. There are three buildings, and only The Shop, the merchandise store, is labeled on the outside, but there are staff to direct you.

The doors to the museum itself are tall and opaque, the handles no more than a fold of metal running around their entire height. The door swings open easily to a foyer and another set of doors. These appear stainless steel with a similar handle arrangement. Through these doors is a large lobby, with the ticket kiosk to the right, and a small hands on display under some stairs leading up on the left. Again, a staff person is there to direct you where you need to go next, and encourage you to start upstairs once you have your tickets. In fact you can't go far anywhere in the museum without a staff person being there to help you or explain something.

There are chained off aisles for the ticket counter, but if there is no line you can also walk right up to the desk. With your tickets you get a map and a chance to purchase an audio tour to supplement the signs and displays around the building.

Up the stairs is a central galley of motorcycles, three abreast and stretching the length of the building. Four other galleries open out to the central one with the motorcycles, two on each side of the central gallery. The bikes start with 1905, with a few gaps until 1915, restored bikes with gleaming metal and white tires. They are really more bicycles with motors than motorcycles like we know today. The central line of bikes cover Harley-Davidson's production until 1947. Each motorcycle on display has a sign, explaining features about the model or years. Some pieces of information are repeated, such as during the depression Harley-Davidson did not change anything from one year to the next other than the color to save money and lower costs. Each sign also states if the bike is original (unrestored) or restored. Most are in an unrestored condition, cracked seats and all. A sign explains any motorcycle can be restored any number of times, but it is only original once.

The first gallery, to the left as you come up the stairs displays the engines Harley-Davidson has made since 1903, with a bank of computers that allows you listen to each engine run. Also in this room you will find displays on the four stroke engine, on the centrifugal force generated by the tires and flywheel and how it helps the motorcycle stay upright, and you get to crush a Miller Lite Beer can demonstrating the force of the piston inside the engine.

The next gallery covers Harley-Davidson's racing history. A large reproduction of part of a board track with full sized models from the era perched on it dominates half the central area, each model with a small sign explaining features particular to it. Along the walls there are signs, journals and memorabilia from other racing events. Hill climbs, endurance racing and road racing that Harley-Davidson dominated until the mid 1970s. Pictures of famous racers and motorcycles in the woods or on hills, as well as videos of races and racers from the early day of road racing fill the rest of the room.

Across the central galley the next room covers Harley-Davidson history during World War II. The famous XA model, the only shaft driven motorcycle Harley-Davidson ever produced, though it was eventually rejected by the military. The naval model is also displayed, and several of the police bikes from after the war. Features of the bikes are covered, and there are videos of Harley-Davidson's war effort.

The last gallery on the upper level covers the one of the stranger bits of Harley-Davidson history. The bike simply called Serial Number One. Found in the warehouse, some of the parts are stamped with the number one, and the belief is it is the oldest Harley-Davidson in existence. Parts of the bike are not from Harley-Davidson's earliest days, and exactly where the bike came from before it was discarded in the warehouse is a mystery, part of Harley-Davidson's lore.

In the same room as the Number One bike is information about the earliest Harley-Davidson's dealers and marketing. Ledgers and notes under glass talk about new bikes and new dealers, service and sales.

Just before the stairs a hallway leads to a walkway to another building, containing the restoration areas of the museum. During the week you can watch the motorcycles being worked on, but little of the building is open to the public. The hallway itself has displays of gas tanks with different graphics from over the years.

Stairs lead you down to the lower level of the museum, and the next bikes in the chronology are at the bottom. Also on display is the concept bike Nova, with a four cylinder engine liquid cooled and fairing. The motorcycle never entered production, but several features did find their way onto later models.

The next area covers the AMC years of Harley-Davidson, and the near collapse at the end of those years. Boats and gold carts, as well as the Italian designed Sprint and a scooter intended to challenge the Honda Dream.

After this room is a simple, circular room with a video looping covering the employee buy-out of AMC, and original stock options under glass. New paper articles announcing the sale and purchase in large letters, and finally a large wall with individual pictures of owners and their bikes, dating back to the 20s. Small video displays with current owners talking about their bikes and why they purchased a Harley-Davidson to begin with.

Leaving this room you enter the largest room in the museum. As well as the final, three wide gallery of motorcycles leading up to the modern bikes, there are several displays of custom motorcycles, donated to the museum from private owners. The need to customize, and the beginning of factory custom bikes are covered. The Rhinestone bike, covered with glued on stone and extra lights draws the eye from anywhere in the room. Reproductions of the Easy Rider bikes are on display, along with a large wall with factory custom options. Three computers allow you to construct your own custom bike, which then shows up on a screen for others to see.

Near the end of the gallery of motorcycles is the design room. A clay mock-up of the V-Rod, as well as sketches and design notes fill the room. Robots, testing the frame or going through the motions of welding, move behind glass in a memorizing never ending loop.

Leaving this large area, the last area of the museum is dominated by a huge screen, showing roads and landscape moving past. In front of the screen a dozen motorcycles sit bolted to the floor where you can sit on them and imagine yourself on those roads playing past on the screen. As you leave this room, a massive guest book with several pens wait before you re-enter the lobby you first came in.

Of course there are a thousand other things to see, read and touch. On the grounds various displays make it seem more like a park. The grounds are open 24 hours a day, and patrolled by security. The museum is open 9-6 during the summer, except Wednesdays, when it is open until 8pm.