So there I was; cold one in hand, snacks, and Bit Bulls and Parolees on the big screen (and they say cable is a vast wasteland!) when I spy one of the "guest stars" with some Bar & Shield ink on his right arm. Couldn't miss it, even among the mass of bighouse tats, there it was, big and loud as '73 Shovelhead with straight pipes. As the cops muscled our new found friend into the confines of a black and white Crown Vic, wifebeater now in shreds (is it mandatory to sport one if you have a record........or plan on starting one? I'm just saying), I got to thinking.........yeah, nothing good is gonna come of this exercise.
Just what is it about Harley-Davidson anyway? Why all the HD tattoos, and not just on scary guys, but soccer moms, teachers, and your accountant? And it's not just ink, think about it, how many times a day do you see a Harley logo on the back of a mini-van, or on some kids t-shirt at the mall? Say you're a big time company and wanna give your pedestrian product a dash of cool? Easy, just strategically pose a Harley nearly anywhere in the frame, and presto! Your jeans, shoes, car, financial services, or ED cure now possess a magical dose of genuine American culture cred. We know it's true............but are we sure why?
Let's face it, there's no shortage of "cool" brands, many of them born right here in the U.S. of A.; Levi's, Ford, Apple, McDonald's, GAP, Jack Daniels, Coca Cola, Budweiser, Smith & Wesson, Marylin Monroe, the list is nearly endless. And yet, with few exceptions Harley-Davidson stands nearly alone, but not because of the Motor Companies magic with metal. That's right, what's going on here transcends the motorcycle, it's way deeper than that fellow Chromies, which is why the imitators, cloners, haters and cheaters will never achieve anything close to Harley's stature, its relationship with riders in particular, and the culture in general.
OK, so what's the big deal? To start, Harley's an American company, an old American company. It's simple, if you're gonna be an American icon, you need to be American, basic stuff really. Which means you design here, you build here, your DNA is here. You're not a transplant of economic/marketing convenience....... see, I don't care if you "assemble" your bikes in Marysville Ohio, or wherever, have a corporate headquarters in sunny California......your heart, your soul isn't American, and we know it. Harley is genuine homegrown, with all the good and bad that that entails (and yes haters, I know there are foreign parts on every HD, and it kills me, I'm workin' on it).
Harley's are original, you will NEVER hear the word "clone" in reference to anything coming out of York or Kansas City. Did Harley invent the motorcycle? Not even close. Are they the best motorcycles you can buy? Maybe. Their quality has certainly improved over the years to the point now that jokes about oil leaks, and roadside breakdowns are just amusing cliche's, or possibly the real-life fading memories of some old school riders.......but by and large Harley's are as reliable as any motorcycle on the road.
But what they are the best at is being a Harley Davidson. Think about it, is there a cruiser style bike manufactured today that doesn't "borrow" most of it's design cues straight from the HD playbook (BWW and Moto Guzzi don't count, I don't know what those guys were smokin'......ugly!)? From the fenders, tanks, motors, wheels, and even their badging.........all illegitimate pretenders. Not original, not genuine, not of their own history. Sad.
Remember when I said that Harley's brand magic really wasn't just about the bikes, that it was much more than that? Here's where the rubber meets the road. The H-D brand is all about shared experience, that's right, shared experience. For over a hundred years now Harley-Davidson has been riveted into the collective framework of the American story. Day in, day out, year after year, the bikes from Milwaukee moved us. Mundane or magical, there they were, part of our lives; whether delivering the mail, or putting our hearts in our throats at the track, H-D played its role. We know this from the old sepia toned photos in history books, or scenes in long forgotten B&W movies........from motor cops to movie stars, soldiers to outlaws.......as our own history unfolded, so did Harley-Davidson's.
Time and again, there was Harley; the Kennedy motorcade in Dallas, a hillclimb in Richmond CA, selling ice cream in a neighborhood in Ohio, it wasn't planned, it wasn't contrived by some second rate Madison Avenue marketing hack.........it might have been at times frustrating, ugly or even comical, but it was real. Each one of these moments, the relationship between man and machine, of machine and culture, was stamped into our subconscious. Harley was evolving into a cultural icon, . Elvis didn't buy a Sportster because his publicist thought it would score him more press..........he bought it because, like him, it was an original.....it "got" him, he "got" it. Simple as that.
The beauty of the H-D brand and the collective history ingrained into every motorcycle it manufactures is that regardless whether a man is an entertainment icon known worldwide or the local plumber, they can both share the same collective experience, enjoy the same sense of belonging to something bigger and maybe just a little more profound then themselves, through the ownership of their Harley-Davidsons. The very act of buying a Harley is in part saying, yes, I want to play my part in the on-going story that is America (when's the last time you were in Wal Mart and had that same thought?). I'm gonna add my story, my adventures, my take on this whole "Harley thing" and pass it down to the next guy. Because in the end you can't really own "it", any more than you could own the old west, or jazz. But you can put your stamp on it.......live it, let those guys coming after you know that you were there.
I guess the bottom line for me is Harley-Davidson is real, the genuine article, it might be imitated (poorly) but it can never be duplicated.........its hundred plus year history and place on our collective consciousness ensures that. You can't "manufacture" iconic status as part of some lame MBA inspired five year business plan, you have to earn it, day by day, year after year. And earn it H-D has.........so much so that I really didn't have to explain it, did I? You already knew.............
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