Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the home of Harley Davidson motorcycles, so I decided to visit their factory museum for the afternoon.  Once you get through all the construction and detours on the highways, the museum itself is actually quite easy to find, and if you’re not sure you’re in the right place, this imposing entrance will take away all doubt!

By the way, admission is $10 on Tuesdays, and double that the rest of the week.  Very coincidentally, I was there on a Tuesday, yay!

I should perhaps clarify the title of this post before I go on.  The term HOG is an acronym for the Harley Owners Group, although I’d have to believe that the characteristic Harley engine grunt has something to do with it too.   Although I’m a motorcycle fan, I’ve never been inclined toward Harleys particularly, but I’d recommend this museum for anyone with an interest in any kind of motorcycles.  Yes, they’re all Harleys, but it’s still very fun and interesting.

There are two long galleries of historical bikes, one on each floor of the museum, and they make an impressive lineup.

The oldest bike in the collection is this one, with the serial number of one.  I’d like to tell museums that it’s very difficult to take pictures of anything against a lit white background…

The main galleries have examples of significant bikes, one of each model, with a description of each.  Probably the best way to show what they have there is to provide a sampling of some of the bikes I liked and the associated signs.

Really, there were far more bikes that I had the patience to see and read about, so I ended up just skipping down the line and looking at the more unique ones that caught my eye.

Every inch of the place was packed with some sort of display, like this nice collection of tanks leading down the hall.

There was a room entirely devoted to racing Harleys.

The collection of hill climb bikes included an explanation of the sport and significant wins by riders on Harley Davidsons.

It seems that the company dabbled in producing other vehicles at times as well.  Did you know that there was a Harley Davidson boat, golf cart, scooter, and snowmobile?  I certainly didn’t.

One of my favorite sections was the Engine Room, where they had a display of all the engines used by Harley Davidson.  There were touch screen displays there where you could learn about each engine, and listen to the sound of it starting and running.  It was very cool!  There were other displays to help explain engine characteristics and bike balance.

Harley Davidson motorcycles are iconic in the US, and are well represented in movies and other entertainment.  If I remember right, although he used other bikes early in his career, Evel Knievel is best known for riding a Harley in his stunts.  But some Harley owners have also been known for being… eccentric…  They had some of those bikes there too.  Oh my.

And apparently even Captain America rode a Harley.

I thought that Harley Davidson had always been a privately held company, but I learned differently at the museum.  At one time they were publically held, but after a labor dispute they returned to private ownership.

There was a section with signs and advertising that was quite amusing.  Is seems that at one time they promoted motorcycle riding because driving a car was soooo dangerous.  Not only were they safer to drive (!), but motorcycle police patrols would help “curb the slaughter!”

Well, this was all really interesting and somewhat exhausting in its scope.  There was just too much to learn.  But just as you can’t learn to ride a motorcycle by looking at it, you can’t really get the feel for the style and character of a Harley unless you can touch it, feel it, sit on it.  And that’s exactly what they let visitors do!  This was an awesome addition to the museum, and really a great way to end the tour.  I think the big cruiser might be a bit much bike for me, but do you think they’d notice if I took the old bike home with me…..?