Vrooom vroooooooooom

After the public museum I went down to the Harley Davidson museum. Milwaukee is the hometown of this iconic brand, and they have a huge exhibit with lots of bikes, but also tons of advertising posters and all sorts of pop-cultural stuff surrounding the bikes themselves. There's mucho history here, folks; if it had been just some motorcycles on display I would never have bothered.

All pics here.

Can you say iconic?


The first bike, made in 1903.


Harley Davidson soon made bikes for the police...


...and later they supplied the US Army during WW2.


The ads went from stressing a safe, economic product to selling a dream.


And a lifestyle. Girls in bikinis can sell anything.


This monster, dubbed the King Kong, was made up of two bike frames and was loaded with assorted bling.


Speaking of bling... this one is covered in rhinestones.


Film gear from "Captain America".


Peter Fonda's bike from that paranoid, whiny, piece of shit movie "Easy rider".


The company even dabbled in the scooter business for some years.


They almost went belly-up in the early 80s, but today they're as strong as ever.


In a separate building, they had a temporary exhibit on the history of leather jackets. Originally work gear and soldier gear, after the war it became associated with biker gangs and other hoodlums. The jacket is now a fashion statement of course. I bought my first one in November and I love it to death.


Ahnuld's outfit from Terminator.


Hugh Laurie's outfit from House, MD.


This bike & jacket belonged to Elvis. He bought the bike on an instalment plan a few months before he had his breakthrough.