August 29, 1919 Ted Gilbert became the first motorcyclist to pilot a machine to the top of the rocky butte near Portland, Oregon. His machine of choice was a Harley-Davidson Sport Twin. 4,045 feet above sea level, Larch Mountain is 11,000 feet of narrow, brushlined trail. Rugged and heavily timbered, with huge boulders, sharp stones, and logs lining its sides, it had previously withstood all attempts to reach its summit on a motor vehicle. The three-mile climb took 2 hours and 20 minutes and needed neither chains nor a tractor band to help the
Sport Model along. A big sign measuring 4 feet by 6 feet nailed to the side of a mighty fir tree marks the time, the name “Harley-Davidson Sport Model,†and the name of its rider, so that when Mazamas and various other organizations of mountain climbers would later reach the top, they would be able to see that other things besides goats and nags could climb the hazardous cliffs of Larch Mountain. Harley’s Sport Model can also be credited with other endurance feats. H.C. “Hap†Scherer rode a Sport Model to break the Three Flag Record in 1920, riding from Canada to Mexico in 64 hours, 58 minutes, breaking the previous record by more than 5 hours. He also smashed the Denver-Chicago record that same year, riding more than 1,260 hilly miles for nearly 48 continuous hours. Throughout its life, 20,000 miles were accumulated on Scherer’s Sport Model, a testament to its agility and endurance.
August 27, 1949 Jimmy Chann set his record time of 11 minutes and 18
seconds at the 15-Mile Championship in Milwaukee on August 27, 1949.
This was the second year in a row that he won the Championship. It was
also a week after he won his third 25-Mile Championship in Springfield,
Illinois. Chann was a very successful rider to race for Harley-Davidson.
He raced for Harley-Davidson in the 1940s and early 1950s. During that
time, he won several national championships and set numerous records. In
1953, he was seriously injured during the Daytona 200 and his career
ended shortly thereafter.
August 24, 1958 Harley-Davidson swept the 1958 racing Grand National
competition held in Du Quoin, IL, marking the fifth straight year that
Harley was first in the nation. Leading the pack was Carroll Resweber
with 36 points. One point behind was Joe Leonard in second place. Three
new AMA records were set: Joe Leonard won the 200-mile Beach-Road Course
in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 11.3 seconds and the 50-mile, 1-mile dirt track
in 34 min, 33 sec; and Carroll Resweber led the 20-mile, 1-mile dirt
track race in 14 min, 5.12 sec. Harley had an additional seven
outstanding victories throughout the year.
August 14, 1915 , over 150 Harley-Davidson employees and their
families gathered at Army Lake for the first company picnic. The picnic
featured games, prizes, and music and was, by all accounts, a great
success. L. C. Rosenkrans, Harley-Davidson’s staff photographer, took
several photos at the event in 1915. These images were among those
recently re-discovered in 2012.
