Outlaw Machine: Harley Davidson and the Search for the American Soul

by Brock Yates

The legendary story of Harley-Davidson's rise to power--not only as an international industry leader but as an American cultural icon.

How did the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, originally a machine for casual riders, evolve into a symbol of defiance and liberation? An embellished 1947 Life magazine article about a California town terrorized by gangs of motorcycle punks changed the world's perception of motorcycles from sporty machines to menaces-to-society, and as the loudest and heaviest bikes on the market, Harley-Davidsons were considered the baddest of them all.

Outlaw Machine chronicles the fascinating social history that built Harley-Davidson's reputation--including the rise of Hell's Angels and the counterculture classic Easy Rider --and, more entrancing still, the bike's and its company's storybook rise to international fame and popularity. Written by renowned automotive journalist Brock Yates, Outlaw Machine is the definitive book on the Harley-Davidson and its place in American culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 3, 1999

About the author

Brock Yates was an American journalist and a best-selling author, most frequently about automotive topics and motor sport.

Reviews

[Ed Rhoads]

Brock Yates died on October 16Th 2016 at the age of 82 from Alzheimer's.
Better to be taken out at an intersection by a Cager.
Just started reading this book. Looks great so far.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.......

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brock Yates is well known for his writing about cars. In this book, he explores the history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles as well as it's cultural and social influence and how the motorcycle became known as an outlaw machine.

William Harley, Arther Davidson, Walter Davidson and William Davidson began manufacturing motorcycles in 1903. The first Harley-Davidson motorcycle was a single cylinder engine strapped to a modified bicycle frame. They were hoping that the motorcycle would become the major mode of transportation for society at large. They were not alone in this quest. In the first few years, there were as many as 10,000 different people/companies trying to develop a viable motorcycle.

Harley-Davidson wanted their motorcycles to be viewed as fun machines, with a clean image. But all that changed in 1947, when Life magazine published a story about the "Hollister Riot" with a photo of a drunken biker on a Harley surrounded by broken beer bottles. Brock Yates traces the image of the outlaw biker to this event and this story. He also asserts that most of the story and the image itself were mostly manufactured by the media and blown out of proportion.

It's true that there are outlaw motorcycle clubs and they have had a large impact on the psyche mainstream society, but according to many, this is only 1% of the riding population. It's one of the reason that such clubs refer to themselves as "one-percent clubs".

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle is steeped in tradition and history that is undeniable. The basic engine design has not changed from the original V-twin design of 1909. It's this adherence to tradition and refusal to change that almost lead to the demise of Harley-Davidson, but in the end would be its salvation.

Harley-Davidson initially fought the outlaw image associated with their bikes, but in the end they decided to embrace it and eventually co-opt it. This contributed largely to their recovery and eventual world-wide reputation.

Harley riders are very clanish and very devoted to their machines. There is something about the deep rumble of the engine, the feel of the machine, the thump, thump of the large V-twin. It's very primal and strikes deep.

I can tell you from experience that there is nothing like a Harley. I rode a Honda Goldwing for years, but when it died, I bought a Harley Road King. I spent a lot of time at Honda dealers, when my bike was being serviced. It does not compare with a Harley dealership. When you walk into a Harley dealership, you're family and they treat you like it.

I don't own a car. I ride my bike every day. I can tell you that I love my Harley.

When you ride a Harley not only are you riding a machine steeped in tradition, you're riding living history.

[A. Bowdoin Van Riper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outlaw Machine is an amiable, readable book, but not a particularly disciplined one. Brock Yates, a veteran automotive journalist, clearly loves Harleys and wants to tell the reader everything about them. By and large, he does. A skeptical look back at the Hollister “Riot” (a 1947 incident that triggered a moral panic over motorcycles and their riders) bumps up against a long, detailed, and surprisingly engrossing chronicle of Harley-Davidson’s evolution as a company. An overview history of outlaw-biker culture jostles against vignettes of Harley enthusiasts (uniformly law-abiding, mostly wealthy) across the world. Surveys of changing models full of detail about engine components, horsepower, and torque share space with windy pop-sociology theorizing about the cultural appeal of the Harley.

Weaving through the semi-random structure of the book is a fascinating paradox: Harley-Davidson bikes are technological relics, yet they remain wildly popular. They are enormously heavy, hard to maneuver, underpowered for their size and weight, prone to breakdowns, and generally inferior – by any objective measure – to more modern, foreign-built bikes. Yet they have vast legions of dedicated followers who love them fiercely and would never consider switching to another make or model. Why?

There’s a lot going on in that paradox: Economic nationalism, the appeal of tradition, motor vehicles as personal statements, the enduring image of the biker-as-rebel, rejection of progress as an end in itself, and the burning desire of (some) people for machines that require the user to meet them on their terms. A careful disciplined writer could build a book around it, teasing out the strands and the way they interweave, but Yates is not that writer, and Outlaw Machine — loose and baggy where it should be tight and focused — is not that book. It’s reading, though, especially for those who dream of a Harley beneath them and an open road ahead of them.

[Georgia Bachman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the history and down in the trenches info!