Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.. • SEARCH FOR THE iG A reat t.O " ~ Still day two "'S C >@ ;:j l:: (OJ ~ .. The H-D assembly line &the factory'as an eco-system Last time we followed all 2500 pieces of the Hog through the piece-part processing end of the Harley-Davidson plant at York, Pa., breaking off the narrative as the y arrived at th e piece de resistance, the U-shaped Heavyweight assembly line. Almost a • ... 36 quarter-mile of power ed over head conveyor loops past 66 work st ations in sequence to carry the big V-tw ins through final assembly , handling a ny t h i n g • from Sportster to Electra-Glid e with only slight changes in procedure. The vari ou s models are run in bat ches to kee p change-of-pace to a minimum. On t h is day the line would run 42 Sportsters, 126 FXE{Ks an d 20 FLs in an ei ght hour shift. The n umbers come from fact ory orders sen t in b atches every two we eks from Milwaukee, telling how many of whi ch to build to meet dealer orders. Each bike is "married" to its individual F .0. as its frame is loaded on th e line. There's a "to build" card te lling model, co lo r and muffler configuration hung in a p lastic folder on each b i k e 's st eel han ger . A 66-poin t inspe ct ion card rides in the folder w

• Cover