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Thread: BMW/Harley

  1. #11
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    Ya, could very well be a gag. Doesn't really matter to me, I don't have a Harley or a BMW, and have no plans to get either one. Just was an interesting article.

  2. #12
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    Yeah, Hans Gruber was a Bad Ass, he had an H&K P7.

  3. #13
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    "Hans Gruber" is the big tip-off... reminds me that I should go back and re-watch "Die Hard' (for the million'th time)

  4. #14
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    If the story were true it would mean Harley Davidson would go from expensive and unreliable to expensive and unreliable to the 3rd power with a German twist. All that marriage would produce is a BM...with no Winners
    Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a "B"
    What does the B stand for? B-Courteous. B-Safe. B-Seen.....B-CNU on the road!

  5. #15
    Senior Member valkmc's Avatar
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    Harley actually built a BMW copy during WWII. The military wanted a shaft drive motorcycle. I got the chance to see one once. An older gentleman I worked with for a while had one. Harley only built 1000 and supposedly stop building them because of the success of The Jeep. Here is a pic of one.
    Harley-Davidson-XA-Right-Side.jpg Harley-Davidson-750cc-XA-Military-Motorcycle.jpg

    The one I got to see was reconditioned in original form and actually ran quite well. The old guy told me he would go into biker bars and start talking about HD's with shaft drive and make a few bets for beers then take the crowd into the parking lot and drink for free. Of course, he always had the bike on a trailer but would start it up for everyone. Sorry if this is off track for the thread. The history teacher and bordem of teaching at home made it hard to resist.

    Edited to add a pic of the HD XA reconditioned!
    Last edited by valkmc; 05-10-2020 at 10:14 AM. Reason: add a picture

  6. #16
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    If Harley built a water-cooled shaft drive, they'd start making money..............

  7. #17
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    Here is a link that show's one running. It also says that they sold some to Russia. this could explain why Russia does not get along with the west. Like many people it was probably their first and last HD buy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxbTq5ttWY

  8. #18
    Senior Member valkmc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by woody View Post
    Here is a link that show's one running. It also says that they sold some to Russia. this could explain why Russia does not get along with the west. Like many people it was probably their first and last HD buy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxbTq5ttWY
    That's funny!!!

  9. #19
    Senior Member Travelor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by valkmc View Post
    Harley actually built a BMW copy during WWII. The military wanted a shaft drive motorcycle. I got the chance to see one once. An older gentleman I worked with for a while had one. Harley only built 1000 and supposedly stop building them because of the success of The Jeep. Here is a pic of one.
    Harley-Davidson-XA-Right-Side.jpg Harley-Davidson-750cc-XA-Military-Motorcycle.jpg

    The one I got to see was reconditioned in original form and actually ran quite well. The old guy told me he would go into biker bars and start talking about HD's with shaft drive and make a few bets for beers then take the crowd into the parking lot and drink for free. Of course, he always had the bike on a trailer but would start it up for everyone. Sorry if this is off track for the thread. The history teacher and bordem of teaching at home made it hard to resist.

    Edited to add a pic of the HD XA reconditioned!
    They have a BMW look alike from WWll at the H/D museum in Milwaukee.

  10. #20
    Senior Member Az Wingrider's Avatar
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    In regards to the Harley Davidson XA. At the beginning of our involvement in WWII the army felt they needed a desert warfare motorcycle. The Army gave Harley and Indian contracts to build and develop a desert motorcycle. Harley's effort was the XA. It was a horizontally opposed flathead twin with a foot shifted 4 speed transmission, shaft drive and a plunger rear suspension. Harley admits this was a close copy of the BMW R-71 that the German army was equipped with. By the time got the XA in production things had changed, the war had left Africa and moved on to Europe and the Army had decided the jeep was better suited to their needs of a light duty utility vehicle, the Army no longer wanted a desert motorcycle. The Army took the 1,000 that it had contracted for and total production was 1,011 units. This was the only Harley ever with a shaft drive and the first Harley with a foot shifter and the first Harley with a rear suspension but not the first opposed twin. No XAs were shipped overseas.

    Harley did build approximately 90,000 motorcycles during WWII. The vast majority of these (about 80,000) were the WLA and WLC models. The WLA was a 45 cubic inch flathead V-twin with a 3 speed transmission, a tank shifter and foot clutch and no rear suspension. It was a very durable motorcycle and had a compression ratio of 5 to 1. It would run on very poor gas and even kerosene. 27,670 of these bikes and enough spare parts to build 5,000 more were sent to Russia under the Lend Lease Program. Since USSR has opened their economy in the early 1990s a large number of WLAs and parts for them have shown up on the market.

    As regards the URAL motorcycle currently made in Russia it is also a close copy of the BMW R-71. In 1938 Russia purchased 5 R-71s in Sweden and reverse engineered them to create the URAL. In 1944 URAL changed from a flat head to an overhead valve configuration. After the war they began civilian production and although the still look very similar they have been modernised and upgraded a lot in the last 10 years

    If you would like to see a Harley XA look me up the next time you come to Phoenix, we have a very nice one in the Buddy Stubbs Museum.

    Regards
    Az Wingrider
    Last edited by Az Wingrider; 05-11-2020 at 08:08 PM.

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