For the last three years, executives from Milwaukee and York have visited us during our Rolling Thunder Open House, and in return for that hospitality, we were offered a VIP tour of the York plant for all of our employees. You aren’t given a chance like that very often, so we all leapt at the very generous offer. Besides, it was a cheap excuse to go riding together.
There was only one hitch: remember that really bad heat wave we had a few weeks ago? You remember the one, 100 degrees with skyrocketing humidity? Yeah – that was the Monday for the tour.
Surprisingly nobody backed out because of the weather. We loaded up with ice and water bottles, slapped on the sunscreen, and headed out. Alison, who is a new mom and doesn’t ride herself anymore, was happy to be in the wind again even if on the back and loved the scenic ride up. We took the back way to Point of Rocks, MD then headed up 15 to 30 East, pulling into the York factory when the mercury was just hitting triple digits.
After parking, there was a mad rush and much jostling for position due to the cold rush of air coming out of the door! The brief introductory video was appreciated as much for the dark cool room as for the information and images of our legendary Harley-Davidson story. A few of us had ridden up to York before and taken the scheduled public tour, but this tour was different. There were no scripts, no tour path – it was nearly an all-access pass and we got to go many places that the public never sees, like the Softail factory floor.
We walked down on the CVO line and were able to get up close and personal with the bikes being assembled. We were so close to the line that Lyndon even picked up a part or two out of the assembly bins (yes, he put them back!). Bobby and Jeff compared notes on the differences in the way the two different CVO lines and the Softails moved around the floor. The CVO Road Kings had computer controlled platforms that moved each bike from station to station automatically guided by magnetic tape, while the Softail line had computer controlled platforms that were moved by chain and the CVO Springers were moved by hand dollies.
After the tour through the un-air conditioned CVO factory and another walk around the outside of the plant in the scorching sun, our entry to the Softail assembly building was literally a breath of fresh air. Aahh, glorious A/C! If you know Lyndon, you won’t find the following story surprising: he’s detail oriented and loves the minutiae of all things motorcycles, so he and Rudy, one of our service technicians, got so engrossed talking to one of the managers of the Softail plant about the welding machinery for swing arms that they didn’t realize the rest of the group had moved on! "When the conversation finally ended, Rudy and I were standing alone somewhere in the middle of the plant with no idea where everyone went," recalls Lyndon. "We wandered off in the direction they were last headed but the corridor ended in a T and we were left wondering where the breadcrumb trail was. Eventually we found a security guard, and asked him if he’d seen the tour group but he told us that tour groups weren’t allowed in that plant. After a hurried ‘yeah we know, but we’re – oh never mind’ we had to head out into the hot sun to see if we could make our way back to the public tour building using a tall smokestack as our ‘North Star.’"
Everyone was surprised to find that they let us down on the actual Softail assembly floor. One of the workers seemed to be patiently waiting for us to move, though we were assured he was waiting on the assembly line. "I’m sure he was wondering when we were going to get the hell out of his way, though," laughs Jeff. And during a scheduled break, we were allowed to walk right in the middle of the Softail line where the platforms are normally running. It was extremely cool and impressive; each station had only 2 minutes to do their job, and those guys made it look so easy.
The huge robots that welded sheet metal and frames were remembered fondly. The MotorClothes gang Alison, Kristi, and Leah were fascinated with them. "They were gigantic and moved really fast, like something you’d see out of a Terminator movie when the robots come alive," Alison described. Also, we got to watch a Rocker being built, which everyone agreed was very cool.
MotorClothes associate Susan really enjoyed the magic of watching a flat sheet of metal become a fender in less than 8 seconds. "I’ve been to many factories, and the Harley plant was immaculate," she added. "It was very impressive how clean it was, considering the 24 hour activity there. There was a lot of pride in the work done at that plant."
We were all impressed with how our tour allowed us to interact with the factory workers, which made the manufacturing process much more human and personal. On another personal note, Tom rode his bike to the plant where it was "born" for a nice homecoming for them both.
After all that activity, it was definitely time for some food. Keith laughed about the restaurant that was like a funeral home: "It was silent, and full of blue hair, and here were 25 greasy sweaty bikers rolling in."
Eventually the day ended, and we had to go back into the heat to saddle up and head home, but at least the sun was going down which cooled things off a bit. It was a long and sweltering day, but it was well worth it. We were all impressed by the amount of manpower it takes to build even just one motorcycle, and we came away with an even higher respect for the folks working on the line.
