Military Harley Davidson Army Bike Harley Davidson Wla Military Motorcycle

Harley engineers took an existing civilian bike the wl and adapted it for military use with several changes.

Bicycle tires for sale at walmart. Around 1987 the military motorcycle production was sold to harley davidson and they were built by h d. Theyre riding around on the harley davidson wla which first saw production in 1940. A small number of electric start mt500s are around.

Similar to the bikes that black jack pershings men rode into battle against pancho villa the model 17 featured harleys. Harley produced thousands of wla models for the us government in wwii but it wasnt until 57 that the feds would tap harley again. Harley davidson isnt a stranger to badge engineering motorcycles and if you look back over the long arc of motorcycle history there are very few established marques that havent at least dabbled with rebranding bikes.

The harley davidson wla is a harley davidson motorcycle that was produced to us army specifications in the years during and around world war ii. Just 418 were ever built and harley would never make another v twin bike for the military again. The harley davidson mt350 motorcycle was built in the usa starting in 1993 and was derived from the earlier armstrong mt500 built for the british army.

Never supplied to the british army but believed to. Army training military dispatch riders in the 1940s. The mt350 appeared in 1993 as a development of the m50 official designation of the electric start mt500 and continued until 2000.

The reason harley bought the mt500 stateside was the hope of acquiring a military contract with the richest armed forces. While harley isnt very forthcoming with details about the military bike project its believed that fewer than 500 examples left the company. This time they wanted a patrol bike and the company responded with the harley davidson sportster xla.

Check out this quick 30 second vid of the us. At the end of the 90s harley davidson wanted to get in that juicy military market and seduce the richest army in the world the us army. Armstrong motorcycles was set up in bolton in 1981 having taken over the former clews competition motorcycles ccm founded by alan clews.

Harleys dedicated military model during the war was the model 17fj.