30 Strange Features on Old American Motorcycles That Had a Brilliant Purpose

A dispatch rider in 1944 runs a Harley down a French road at night, and the headlamp in front of him shows barely a few feet of pavement. That was on purpose. Thirty odd features, thirty reasons, starting with the one under your seat. In this video: ✓ The lamp that lit a convoy without showing the sky ✓ Why a bicycle seat spring sat under Harley saddles ✓ The tow bar that let one man do two jobs ✓ The grip that set the spark by hand ✓ A rifle case bolted to an Army Harley ✓ The motor kit that turned a bicycle into a motorcycle ✓ The scooter built to jump out of airplanes ✓ The four-cylinder bike that hummed instead of thumped Look at all thirty again and a pattern shows up. None of these parts came from a designer's sketchbook. They came from a rider who was cold, or a cop who couldn't be heard, or a shop owner who needed one man to do the work of two. If one of these parts rode with you, say so in the comments, and tell which one you were glad to have. They were part of the machine in a way that's hard to get back, and every one of these features is a record of that bond between a rider and his bike. Harley #IndianMotorcycle #VintageMotorcycles #Knucklehead