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In 1917, the United States entered World War I and the military demanded motorcycles for the war effort. Harleys had already been used by the military in the Pancho Villa Expedition, but World War I was the first time the motorcycle had been adopted for combat service. Harley-Davidson provided about 15,000 machines to the military forces during World War I. - Wikipedia

Patrick from the Corsica, France chapter of Harley-Davidson poses in front of St. Peter's Basilica on June 16, 2013. Lauren Cater/CNA. Vatican City, Jun 16, 2013 / 09:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Harley-Davidson owners flocked to St. Peter’s Square today for a chance to greet Pope Francis, and they came away struck by his friendliness and closeness to the people. “To be here and see the Pope is absolutely amazing. He’s so friendly, he’s just so friendly,” said Bob from the Lakeside, England chapter as he spoke to CNA June 16. His fellow Lakeside member Harry agreed. “He’s so friendly,...

MILWAUKEE—Some motorcycle enthusiasts feared Keith Wandell might be the outsider who drove Harley-Davidson into the ground. Instead, he may be remembered as the guy who kept the motorcycle maker on the road. Wandell grabbed the handlebars at the motorcycle maker in the heart of the economic crisis in 2009. Harley lost $55 million that year, as buying a motorcycle stopped being an option for many consumers. "We had to make, quickly, some big, bold, decisions," he said in a recent interview. Wandell was the first CEO from outside Harley, so those decisions were watched closely. Not all were well-received. He...

A friend sent this to me, and I think it's worth sharing. A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and - Pow! - hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion lets go of the girl. The biker brings...

Ukrainian immigrant Dmitry Khristenko has found scrap watches an ideal medium for use in creating miniature tributes to American cultural icon Harley-Davidson... among other things: More at Reaganite Republican _________________________ Deviant Art

TOKYO (AP) -- It must have been a wild ride. Japanese media say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in last year's tsunami has washed up on a Canadian island about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) away. The rusted bike was found in a large white container where its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, had kept it. He was located through the license plate number, Fuji TV reported Wednesday. "This is unmistakably mine. It's miraculous," Yokoyama told Nippon TV when shown photos of the motorcycle. Yokoyama lost three members of his family in the March 11, 2011, tsunami...

Harry on a Harley... look away, Charles: Prince dons a red bandana and aviator shades, then hits Arizona highway on a £11,000 classic bike They are pictures certain to gladden the hearts of Prince Harry’s female fans. Looking tanned, fit and macho, the Prince jumped on a classic Harley-Davidson motorbike on Friday and roared off across the Arizona desert. One person unlikely to be impressed by his exploits, however, is his father Prince Charles, who doesn’t share his sons’ passion for motorbikes. Harry owns a Ducati 848 and a classic Triumph, and Prince William a Ducati 1198. But Charles admitted...

Over the years, Jerry Booth has seen many patriotically themed motorcycles but never one as ornate as the one he saw when he traveled to Tennessee a few years ago. Booth, a veteran and the organizer of this year's West Virginia Harley Owners Group Rally, saw the bike at a rally there three years ago. He loved it and the message it carries so much that he invited the owner to the event in Charleston. Tod "Weirdo" Wooldridge, owner of the 1986 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide, happily accepted. The bike is decked out in American regalia. It's painted front to back...

Milwaukee-based Iconinc bike maker Harley-Davidson on Tuesday said it will start an assembly facility of its motorcycles in India by the first half of 2011, making it the second facility outside the US. "This investment will allow us to improve our market responsiveness and production flexibility while reducing the tariff burden, which we expect will drive growth over time by making our bikes more accessible to India's consumers," said Harley-Davidson Motor Company President and Chief Operating Officer Matthew S. Levatich. The company will set up the new facility near Bawal in Haryana and expects the assembly facility to be operational...

It is being reported that now that David's murder was a case of mistake identity by a low-level member of the Los Zetas drug trafficking organization. The source also informed us that those responsible for Hartley's death are believed to have disposed of his body and that the Zeta hierarchy was conducting a damage-control operation to punish those responsible for the death and to distance the cartel from the murder. The source further reported that the murder of the lead Tamaulipas state investigator on the case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas -- whose head was delivered in a suitcase to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_wVCrcZtlo Jim’s update: Missy mentioned on a recent video how parenting has changed for her without television’s anesthetizing influence over the children and the distractions provided by other electronic amusements in our home. I affirm her assessment. While the attitudes of the children are drastically improving – and we delight in that – we acknowledge that we, by necessity, are becoming more attentive, engaged parents. And that often means we are finding ourselves saying things that we wouldn’t normally say. For example… (Photo) GIRLS! DON'T PUT YOUR LIPS ON THE AQUARIUM! Harvest is well underway here in Rozetta and this...

The chief executive of Harley-Davidson Inc. has urged Wisconsin employees to approve an unpopular labor contract Monday, telling them the motorcycle company is prepared to move on without them if they turn it down. CEO Keith Wandell wrote a letter last week telling the workers it's up to them to decide whether they want to remain part of Harley's future. "We are on a course to build a competitive company for the future and a business that is sustainable long term," the letter said. "Nothing can get in the way of this objective." The workers, who make motorcycle engines in...

MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson employees in Wisconsin are being asked to vote in favor of a labor contract that will freeze their pay, slash hundreds of jobs and hand large volumes of work to nonunion workers. As bleak as the proposal sounds, employees may have little choice but to accept it. If they don't, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. has threatened to move its last two Wisconsin operations to another state, leaving about 1,350 employees out of work. Employees are scheduled to vote on the proposed seven-year contract Monday. The results should be available by the evening. The Milwaukee-based motorcycle company blames its...

MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson Motor Co. and its union leaders reached a proposed labor agreement today that could keep manufacturing operations and hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin. The proposal still needs to be ratified by union workers and approved by the motorcycle company's board. Workers are expected to vote on the contract Sept. 13. Harley previously had said labor costs at its operations in Milwaukee and Tomahawk, Wis., were too high. The company threatened to move production to the Kansas City area or another U.S. city if Wisconsin workers wouldn't agree to certain labor concessions. The company declined to reveal the...

<p>SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has lept on a Harley Davidson and roared into an international biker convention in southern Ukraine.</p> <p>Around 5,000 bikers from Europe and beyond gathered in Sevastopol for the annual festival Saturday on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.</p>

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine, July 24, 2010 (AFP) - Leaving a cloud of dust in his wake, a black-clad Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin roared into a rally in Ukraine on a Harley Davidson and hailed bikes as a "symbol of freedom". Putin drove into the rally of bikers on the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea astride a gigantic three-wheeled Lehman trike conversion Harley Davidson motorbike, wearing dark glasses and waving his black gloved hands.

John DeHoop loved Harley-Davidson motorcycles: He rode one, had a tattoo of one and outfitted the family room of his White Bear Lake home with Harley memorabilia. Before he died of cancer at age 55 in May, DeHoop told his wife, Kathy, he wanted a motorcycle hearse at his funeral. During their rides along the St. Croix River, the couple had seen a Harley hearse parked outside Afton Leather, a motorcycle-apparel shop in Afton's Old Village. "He wanted that hearse," Kathy said. "Before being cremated, he wanted to go for one last ride."

Having climbed aboard an American icon at one of the most difficult points in its history, Keith Wandell has been driven by an overriding thought: Don't let Harley-Davidson become General Motors. Now, nearly a year into the job, Harley's chief executive officer has cut millions of dollars in costs, eliminated thousands of jobs and brought a sense of urgency to the world's largest maker of heavyweight motorcycles. Some of the changes, particularly the job cuts, have been painful. But in his first extensive interview since taking the reins, Wandell told the Journal Sentinel last week that the actions he took...

Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle maker, reported a fourth-quarter loss Friday, its first quarterly shortfall in 16 years, hurt by restructuring costs and the sluggish economy. Harley-Davidson has come under pressure over the last year as the tight credit markets and the weak economy led consumers to shun purchases of its high-end, heavyweight motorcycles. The company has been reorganizing its business through layoffs, factory closures and closing or selling unwanted brands. Harley said shipments of its bikes to dealers in 2009 fell 27 percent, to 223,023.

A planned promotion to support Second Amendment rights gets pulled. On December 1st, Bloomington's Herald Times posted a database of current gun permits. The local Harley-Davidson shop in Bloomington was outraged. A long-time advertiser with the paper, owners saw it as an unnecessary and dangerous practice. They planned a promotion with Cosner's Guns - Buy a Harley, Get a Gun. Just as soon as it was planned, it was pulled. The NRA has blasted the newspaper as well, saying the list makes it easy for criminals to target homes with or without guns.