The phrase “iconic” is a phrase I are inclined to attempt to keep away from as a result of it’s so overused in present journalism that it has misplaced a lot of its that means. This, nevertheless, is an exception. Now in his ninetieth 12 months, Willie G. Davidson is a very iconic determine within the motorbike world. He has completed a variety of dwelling and, because the grandson of one of many firm’s founders, his life has been inextricably entwined with America’s best-selling motorbike model. Willie G.’s new e-book, Trip Free – A Memoir, is greater than an autobiography—it’s an intimate, private historical past of Harley-Davidson and a person who poured his life drive into it. Additional, the time period “iconic” additionally applies to most of the Harley-Davidson merchandise of his artistic designs, such because the Tremendous Glide, XLCR, Fats Boy, V-Rod, and plenty of extra.
Willie G. isn’t merely a gifted designer who grew to become H-D’s head of product design sixty years in the past; he’s additionally an completed artist and nice author with maybe extra in-depth data of the Motor Firm’s 120-year historical past than any dwelling soul. Certainly, 20 years in the past, he wrote the definitive Centennial firm historical past, 100 Years of Harley-Davidson.
As you may count on, 100 Years of Harley-Davidson is loaded with historic narrative element and lavishly illustrated with bikes, occasions, and personalities that had been key elements of Harley-Davidson’s first century. Trip Free — A Memoir is one thing fairly totally different. Actually, there may be a substantial amount of perception into the corporate’s historical past, instructed from Davidson’s distinctive perspective. However, way more than that, he reveals extra about his private life earlier than and through his skilled life inside the corporate.
The e-book is wealthy in seldom-seen element. For instance, Davidson provides the background on his creation of the ever-popular pink, white, and blue Harley-Davidson “1” emblem. Willie G. additionally sheds mild on the long-standing legend amongst some Harley-Davidson followers that American Machine & Foundry (AMF) practically sank the corporate throughout its interval of possession of H-D from January 1969 to June 1981. Seems that even the very origin of the takeover story had an added, little-known aspect revealed in Trip Free – A Memoir.
Willie G. additionally addresses robust product improvement choices that needed to be made. Among the many largest was the cancellation of the Nova mission, which might have introduced bikes with Porsche-designed, liquid-cooled V-twin, V4, and V6 engines into the product line. Launched within the mid-Seventies, fueled by AMF capital, Nova was being superior concurrently with the event of the Evolution V-twin engine. Davidson explains in Trip Free — A Memoir that, after the $80 million buyback from AMF by Willie G. and a dozen buyers, there simply wasn’t sufficient within the R&D price range to carry Challenge Nova to market.
These insights and plenty of extra, each private {and professional}, make Willie G.’s Trip Free — A Memoir a major and distinctive contribution to motorbike literature and historical past. Even when the reader isn’t essentially considered one of Harley-Davidson’s devoted followers, or not even a motorcyclist, the e-book is a revealing examine of life in a serious producer, of onerous selections, toughness within the face of setbacks, tenacity, and gorgeous success regardless of lengthy odds. College students of enterprise, industrial design, manufacturing, and artwork will all discover Trip Free — A Memoir to be an instructive textbook on life within the quick lane written by any person who spent his complete profession there.
Trip Free — A Memoir Quick Information
- Title: Trip Free — A Memoir
- Creator: Willie G. Davidson
- Printed: 2023; paperback; Forefront Books, Dist. By Simon & Schuster
- Format: 288 six-by-nine-inch pages; 59 pictures in two picture sections; 15 reproductions of Willie G.’s watercolor work in a separate part.
- ISBN: 978-1-63763-086-0 (print version), 978-1-63763-087-7 (digital version)
Trip Free — A Memoir Value: $28 MSRP
