Hog Heaven

Be sure not to miss highlights such as Felix Predko's 13-foot-long, two-engine "King Kong" motorcycle; Russ and Peg Townsend's 1973 rhinestone-encrusted bike, and Elvis Presley's 1956 Harley. The museum even displays paperwork proving that the King got a loan to buy a Harley just days before he became famous with the hit single "Heartbreak Hotel." (In the space on the loan form that asks for an applicant's occupation, Presley wrote "vocalist, self employed.") The exhibit also features exact replicas of the two bikes ridden by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the 1969 movie "Easy Rider."

Harley-Davidson's longtime marketing savvy is also in full display—especially in the Depression exhibit. To try to sell bikes during the Depression, Harley began selling them in bright colors instead of the traditional olive green. It was a hit: people started looking at their motorcycles as a way to express themselves, not just as a way to get around. Also in the 1930s, Harley introduced functional Servi-Cars (three-wheeled cycles with bins in back) that delivered milk, soft drinks and ice cream.

Curators even include exhibits on the company's low points—the "outlaw" image and the bleak 1969-1981 period when American Machinery and Foundry owned the company. During the 1970s, Harley was even briefly in the snowmobile, golf cart and boating business. In 1981, a group of investors bought back the company—they invested $1 million and borrowed $90 million—and Harley regained its cachet.

Of course, for true Harley lovers, the two-story museum's pièce de résistance will almost certainly be serial No. 1, the oldest Harley in the world. It's dramatically presented, "Mona Lisa"-like, in a glass display case with a thin, 10-by-15-foot strip of light on the wooden floor around the cycle showing the size of the wooden shed where the original founders built their first machine. "It's to give it the reverence it deserves," says museum director Stacey Schiesl.

And Harley fans are ready to pay homage. "To me, you buy Kawasaki or a Yamaha, it's just a bike," says aficionado George Hernandez, 43. "With a Harley, you buy history."

For more information or to buy tickets visit www.h-dmuseum.com. (Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 for kids ages 5 to 17.)

© 2008