Harley-Davidson and the Sportsman
Back before everyone was tearing through the woods in sport utility vehicles and ATVs, a motorcycle and sidecar could do the job. Hunters, fishermen, and campers loaded them with gear, dogs, fish, and game and headed off-road. The motorcycle was not just recreation; it had to earn its keep.
The first page is the sales pitch. The photographs that follow show riders actually putting the idea to work.
“The Sportsman's Best Pal”
Harley knew exactly who it was talking to. “The Sportsman's Best Pal” addresses men who hunt, fish, or wander the by-paths, promotes the Harley-Davidson “Master 17,” and asks readers to mention Popular Mechanics.
That headline fits the rest of the photographs perfectly. These riders did not need anyone to explain how useful a motorcycle and sidecar could be once the pavement ended.
Fishing with the Founders
Those aren't anonymous customers. They are Harley-Davidson founders William S. Harley and William A. “Bill” Davidson, using a motorcycle and sidecar exactly the way the company later encouraged sportsmen to use them. The sidecar gave them somewhere to put the fishing gear and enough fish to make the ride home worth photographing.
The Harley-Davidson Museum dates the documented trip to 1923 and identifies Harley on the right, back from fishing with Bill Davidson. Harley was the company's head of product development and still test-rode new motorcycles himself; Davidson was the works manager who kept the factory equipment and manufacturing processes moving. Here they were simply putting a motorcycle and sidecar to work. Harley’s 1920s advertising was already using sidecars and outdoor scenes to sell that same idea.
The fishing angle came naturally. A Harley-Davidson Museum exhibition describes William S. Harley as an avid outdoorsman and notes that the company archives hold many staged photographs of him with fish and fowl. Walter Davidson counted fishing among his favorite pastimes, while Arthur Davidson's interest in outdoor sports included the Izaak Walton League. Harley's advertising department had plenty of family material to draw from.
These outfits are loaded exactly the way working motorcycles get loaded: wherever the weight will fit and wherever it can be tied down. Neatness was not the point. Getting home was.
Snow did not end the trip. The enclosed sidecar carried the gear while the fish hung from a pole beside the outfit.
Hunting and hauling game
Fishing was only half the story. One hunter stands beside a motorcycle and sidecar with a dog sitting in the chair, looking as if that was the most natural seat in the world.
Another rider is already buried under bags and equipment, then adds several game birds to the load. The motorcycle still had to carry him home.
A sidecar made hauling a deer through the snow look almost reasonable. Three wheels gave the rider cargo room and kept the load off the motorcycle itself.
A photograph marked 1954 takes the idea to the extreme: a deer is strapped directly across the motorcycle. Loading a sidecar or commercial outfit is one thing. Balancing that kind of load on a two-wheeler is another.
The last photograph goes even farther, with an antlered deer carried across the machine. Harley sold the motorcycle as the sportsman's best pal, and these riders took that pitch literally.
The polished mid-century advertising sold recreation and travel. These photographs show the working end of the same idea. A sidecar full of fish is one thing. A deer across the motorcycle is still something to see.