title: The Harley-Davidson Motor Company: An official eighty-year history
author:  David K Wright 
description: Now updated to include the latest motorcycles, this definitive Harley-Davidson history is filled with "inside" information and valuable data. Features Harley-Davidson's entire production history, with special information for restoring any of the classic models. 284 illustrations, 14 in color.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Can a machine have a soul?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “
  
  
  If the knucklehead could talk
  
  
  ”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By Rockford
  
  
  Lewis
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It was born on the Harley Davidson Assembly line in March 1939
  
  
  ,
  
  
  owing i
  
  
  ts existence
  
  
  to the Purchase Order from
  
  
  the California
  
  
  Highway Patrol.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Six
  
  
  weeks later
  
  
  it arrived by rail
  
  
  at the freight depot at the huge rail road switching yard in Roseville, Calif
  
  
  ornia. From there it was trucked to a shop in West Sacramento where it would
  be fitted with decals, emergency red and blue lights, siren, two way radio and
  
  
  a
  
  
  utility box. Having all the CHP hardware installed and tested it was ready for
  its service number
  
  
  to be stamped
  
  
  onto the motor’s left side engine case. Chp03397 meaning it was number seven
  placed into the service of the California Highway Patrol in March of 1939.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Twenty six year old William Matthews, recent graduate of the CHP Academy,
  Motor Office
  
  
  r Core stepped off the CHP
  
  