Re: Japanese Harley Davidsons.....a proper fit for the board????
I always wondered about these bikes. Oddly,
Wikipedia uses a photo of that exact bike. (Am I right?) Hatch, how did it seem in person? A shady knock-off or convincing repro? After looking at some of the bigger photos it seems quite different than a regular solo.
Poached from the wiki:
History
Harley-Davidson, through the efforts of
Alfred Rich Child, shipped tooling and personnel to
Japan in the mid-1930s to build HD VL
flathead (sidevalve) motorcycles.
When Harley-Davidson was prepared to produce the new EL OHV
Knucklehead design, they insisted that the Japanese factory buy the license to produce the EL as well. However
Sankyo, Rikuo's
parent company, was reluctant to produce the new vehicles and refused to make this commitment.
Almost simultaneously, Japan's government was becoming increasingly militaristic leading up to World War II and eventually suggested that Harley-Davidson employees, including Mr. Child, leave the country. The motorcycle continued production under the name of
Rikuo, meaning "Land King" or "Continent King."
Sidecar combinations called
Type 97 were produced for military work in the
Philippines and
Manchuria during the
Second World War. Solo machines were supplied to civilian police forces, for example for Osaka in the
1950's.
[1]
After the war the remaining factory continued producing the 750cc (45
cubic inch)
RQ and 1200cc (74 cubic inch)
VLE models still using the old flathead, total-loss lubrication design. The 750 gained a telescopic
front suspension and the 1200 model retained springer forks. All of the new motorcycles were made with hardtail rear ends. In 1950 and 1951, the plant produced about fifty 45 cubic inch motors per month and thirty 74's with sidecars. By August 1952 production was estimated at approximately seventy 45's a month while the 74's stayed about the same. The 45 and 74 models are near exact copies of the 1934 Harley Davidson. An
OHV version was prototyped, but never produced.
[2]
The factory began to use the "Tele-Glide" type front suspension in or around 1950 on the 750cc units, but while updating the sheet metal on the VL type, retained the "Springer" type front suspension on those units. Therefore, the 1950s 750s are basically the Harley-Davidson 45 cu.in. RL of the early 1930s, and the 1950s 1200s are the Harley-Davidson VL of the same era, but both with updated sheet metal (the updated front fork of the RQ/RT notwithstanding).