Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126891
Malcolm Forbes: Around the World on Hot Air and Two Wheels Published by Simon and Schuster Hardbound, $24.95 "Adventurer, business guru, collector, patron of the arts, perpatetic publisher of Forbes Magazine-not only can Mal(Above) A line-up of Harley trucks. (Below) A 30-second.trip through the Harley-Davidson museum gives abrief history of the Amencan motorcycle. • Harley Factory (Continued from page 42) All this takes place eight hours a day, five days a week, 49 weeks a year. And you get to see it, as HarleyDavidson runs two tours of the plant every weekday. HarleyDavidson's Museum "Since 1948" CALFORNIAMOTORCYa.E INSURANCE AGENCY "DON'T PA Y THROUGH THE NOSE TO GET WIND IN YOUR FACE" (714) 956-5222 (213) 637-0751 50 P.O. Box 3878 • Anaheim. CA 92803 A trip to Harley-Davidson's York Factory can.also be a trip back in rime. For in a room (which would lake you no more than 30 seconds to trot through) is arrayed the history of America's most famous motorcycle manufacturer. However. three hours i more like the time the avera~e motorcycle enthusiast would take to wander through the Rodney C. GOLl Harley-Davidson Museum. Named alter the then-Chairman of AFM. who opened it in L977 ..the museum records some of H-D's Illgh (and low) points. . " TIll' original "Silent Gray Fellow is there. The height of 1903 motorcydin~ t('chnolo~ features a sJll~le cylinder. three-horsepower motor housed in a spindly blcycie-JIlsp'rt'd frame. Nearby sits a Canit'r mini-replica. featuring dianlond encrusted pedals; value. just S30.000 - and cllmblllg. Some of the other interestin~ machilwry include the first V-twin; the 1909 B model; the 191910ngiLUdinallyopposed-twin Spons model; the 1942 XA the only bike ever built by H-D usi~g a shaft drive, it also had a nat twin motor; and the 1957 XL - the first of the Sponsters.· H-D has had the makings of a museum for many years, as it has long had ~ policy of keeping ~t least one mach lilt' from e-dch year s production run. Many of the machines are not on display, simply because th(T(' IS no room in the museum, or they reqUIre re toration. So many valuable and unique motorcycles sit locked away in a climate-controlled warehouse at the back of the plant. Unfonunately, it's not pan of the regular tour a~d gel~ng these bikes onto public dl play IS. sad to say, a I w priority at Harley right now. ome of the machines which did make it to the museum are curious choices, such as the not-particularlypopular 1970 XLH, of which a small blurb says (it fe-dtured) "the revolutionary boa lla iI seat/fender. The electric-stan Sponster was the most sought after bike of the early '70s.''' Desirable or not. the bikes on display are in great condition. and h'!ve low miles too_A 1958 FL Duo-Glide had just 38 miles on the odometer! A '77 XLCR? Just one measly mile. About the distance from the end 01 production line to the muse~m. The engineeri ng and. sporting heritage of Harley-Davidson IS not. ignored either, with the Flathead, Knucklehead. Shovel head, Pan head and V2 Evoluiion (or Blockhead, as it has been christened) all on display, while the likesof Springsteen, Andres, Markel, Villa and Petrali have their feats in din track, road raclllg and record-selling recorded for posterity. • colm Forbes a£ford to do many of the things most of us only dream of-he does them. "Around the World on Hot Air and Two Wheels is Malcolm Forbes at his contagious bestas,likea modern Marco Polo, he travels around the world-including some of its more 'exotic and hard-to-get-to pans-by the unusual combination of hot air ballooning and motorcycles. "This book, as lavish and colorful as the voyages it describes, is an armchair adventure of unique appeal to every vicarious Phileas Fogg. The pictures alone (250 of them, most 111 full color), are worth the price of the ticket. The text, fascinating, witty and insightful, draws you along on Malcolm Forbes' journeys unnl you feellikea member of his expeditions. "And what extraordinary adventures they are! Whether it's cross· ing America or attempting to span the Atlantic Ocean by balloon, or journeying by balloon and motorcycle through the Soviet U1110n, Chlf~a, Egypt, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysla, Europe, North AIrica or the An.lc Circle Malcolm Forbes succeeds 111 doing'something that is altogether rare in this world: he has fun-and here we share it to the hilt." I threw away my original review of Around the World". when I came across an ad for the book which appeared in The New Yorker magazine. The paragraphs above comprised the bulk of the text for the ad. BeHeve me, the words are an ou.tstanding example of "truth lIT advertising. " My wife and I have ridden with Mr. Forbes (he insists you call hIm Malcolm' I insist on calling him Mr. Forbes), ~nd we've cruised with him on his yacht, The Highlander. The ad copy above talks of "things most of us only dream of" and one of t~e things my wife dreams of IS ndll1g 111 one of Mr. Forbes' hot air balloons. Two out of three ain't bad, and they showed us that the man is a non-stop dynamo when he is in purs~it of pleasure; I'm sure h~'s the same 111 the day-in. day-out busllless world. For years he's invited members of the motorcycle press to accompany him on rides, be they shon one-day jaunts around his home/business area of New Jersey and New York City, or on adventures such as those described in this new co£fee-table book. If you do the sman thing and purchase the book, you'll find out as I did that enjoying it is akin to drawing a breath oHresh air. In fact, you'll feel the wil1d in your face when you ride along on two wheels, ~nd the wind in your back as you saIl along in a hot air balloon. In comparison, Travels With Charlie are mundane next to Travels With Malcolm. Oops, make that Travels With Mr. Forbes. Jack Mangus