Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/895972
with over 2,000 dealers in 67 countries. It was Harley's "Wrecking Crew" racing team -- a name it earned through its dominance of the sport in the mid-1910s, and one that Indian's top race crew would also later adopt -- that helped propel Harley to the top. Today, Honda Motors is counted as the bike maker with the highest output, but it builds everything from small scooters to Gold Wings, from 50 cc engines to big 1,800 cc blocks. In the world of big bikes with engines 601 cc and over, Harley- Davidson is s ll the king, and in the U.S. s ll commands a 50% share of the market. 3. The first Harley-Davidson carburetor was made from a tomato can (maybe). According to many sources, the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle had a single-cylinder engine, a top speed of 25 mph -- and used a tomato can for a carburetor. Unfortunately, this one may be more fic on than fact. While online reference Encyclopedia.com cites it as part of the company's history, and the book Everything You Need to Know: Harley-Davidson Motorcycles men ons it as part of Harley lore, others are more skep cal. In another book, At the Crea on: Myth, Reality, and the Origin of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 1901-1909, author Herbert Wagner discounts the story. The grandson of the company's founder, Willie G. Davidson, is also doub ul, no ng, "I can't see them se ling for something so primi ve." 4. Clothing accounts for 5% of Harley's total sales. Sure, Harley-Davidson sells a lot of motorcycles -- over 262,000 bikes in 2016 alone -- and they account for the bulk of its $6 billion in annual revenue. But Harley-branded gear generates a he y chunk of change too. Although general merchandise represented just 5.4% of revenue last year, that s ll translates into almost $285 million worth of leather jackets, boots, T-shirts, jeans, and more. It is the apparel that helps even non-owners iden fy with the Harley-Davidson lifestyle, and gives its riders an edge as some of the most die-hard, enthusias c, and loyal brand representa ves anywhere. 5. Harley once made motorcycles in Japan. Despite its image as an icon of American manufacturing, Harley-Davidson also has facili es in India (opened in 2011) and an assembly plant in Brazil. It was recently cri cized for its plans to open a new manufacturing plant in Thailand. Yet these were not its first forays into foreign manufacturing. It licensed the Japanese company Sankyo to build copies of its bikes for the Japanese market during the Depression, with produc on beginning in 1935. It's said it was the Japanese bikes that kept Harley afloat. A er World War II, though, produc on was never quite the same, and the bike business was sold to Showa in 1950. Though the division stopped manufacturing the bikes in 1959, Showa con nues to supply parts for Harley-Davidson today, notably its front forks. 6. There's a reason Harleys are called "hogs." The name "hog" is synonymous with Harley- Davidson bikes, and though you might expect it to have something to do with their imposing, hulking size (or sound), in reality, the nickname was adopted because Harley racing team member Ray Weishaar owned a piglet, which became the team's mascot. A er winning compe ons, team members would take a victory lap with their porcine mascot. Coca-Cola pegs the emergence of the nickname to a 200-mile race in Marion, Illinois, in 1920, where Weishaar was photographed giving the piglet a drink of Coke a er the Harley team took all three top spots. 7. The Wild One may be the first movie featuring a Harley. While 1969's Easy Rider is viewed as the quintessen al Harley-Davidson motorcycle movie, and could be the first movie where its bikes took center stage, it was the 1953 classic The Wild One with Marlon Brando that gave Harley its first featured big-screen performance. Of course, Brando wasn't riding a Harley, but rather a Triumph Thunderbird 6T. However, Brando's nemesis, Chino, of the rival Beetles motorcycle gang (played by Lee Marvin), straddled a 1950 Harley- Davidson Hydra Glide. Addi onal fun fact: The Beetles motorcycle gang is said to have helped inspire a rock band to later name itself something very similar. While the band's name was also a play on Buddy Holly's band The Crickets, and a reflec on of the type of music they played, The Wild One was a favorite of one early member of The Beatles. new louisiana law exempts motorcyclists from anti-masking arrests By David "Double" Deveraux Motorcyclists in Louisiana score a big win! Efforts of motorcycle rights advocates paid off when the Louisiana legislature approved a law exemp ng "persons driving or riding a motorcycle" from the state's an -masking statute. (See Louisiana State Legislature- HB161). The Louisiana House passed HB 161 on a vote of 95-0 on June 5th, 2017 following a mass majority approval by the state Senate on May 30th, 2017. The legisla on is on its way to the Governor's desk. The MPP reported in November of 2016, following a trip to Louisiana as a guest speaker at a Louisiana Confedera on of Clubs and Independents (LCOC&I) mee ng, MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY NEWS WheelsOfGrace.com Volume 9 Issue 4 39