Harley-Davidson Evolution Motorcycles

Harley-Davidson Evolution Motorcycles

THE CW LIBRARY

SURELY THE BEST WAY TO PRAISE A BOOK IS NOT TO tell everything, to hold back the inside data, which, thanks to the book, the reviewer now knows and the potential reader would like to learn.

Consider it praise, then, that any Harley fan who wants to know the real story behind the Softail-and the facts aren’t what you’ve been told-will have to read this book.

But with the praise comes some cautions.

In outline, the book under review is a detailed inside look at Harley-Davidson’s engineering, sales and marketing miracle, the Evolution engines large and small. The time frame is 1976 through 2001, from when the V2 engine was conceived through the arrival of the Twin Cam replacements.

Author Greg Field has done an immense job of research. He interviewed all the people involved and looked at all the records and test sheets. He clearly had access to facts and photos no other outsider has seen.

Thus, the first caution: This work has to be done with The Motor Company’s help. H-D is proud and protective of its heritage and the company isn’t famous for giving away the family farm. Strings must have been attached. There’s not going to be much in the book, then, that Milwaukee doesn’t want us to know.

This isn’t all bad. In the broad view, H-D history during the times described is a world-class success story. There’s not much failure chronicled here because there wasn’t much failure to write about.

And in more detail, the book does mention problems: how the alternator plug used to fall out, how tough it was to cure (assuming it’s been done, we’ve heard that song before) the weeping base gaskets on the Big Twins, the collapse of lifters in early Evo XL engines, the fatal sound of an XL engine when the alternator magnets fall into the primary sprocket.

Further, there are errors in fact. The Sportster of 2001 doesn’t have the same taillight it’s had since 1957, it just looks like it, allowing us to assume, as they say in the movies, that The Motor Company didn’t have final cut.

For a less-serious caution, the record must show that the author and this reviewer are friends, and the reviewer is mentioned in the text. This should make the review more friendly than the work warrants. I don’t think it does, but it could have happened.

Meanwhile, those who want to know all the gearhead facts behind the Evos, and which parts of the ill-fated Nova project are alive today and what unlikely source kept the Eagle Flying Alone, will have to read this book.

Allan Girdler

Harley-Davidson Evolution Motorcycles, Greg Field, 192 pages, $35; MBI Publishing Co., 729 Prospect Ave., Osceola, Wl 54020; 800/826-6600; www.motorbooks.com