The New York Times has a review on "our" Archive Collection Book:
"THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTOR COMPANY ARCHIVE COLLECTION
By Randy Leffingwell and Darwin Holmstrom.
600 color illustrations, 50 in black and white. 408 pages. Motorbooks. $60.
The archive collection in this copiously illustrated, shop-manual-size book has more than 460 motorcycles, advertisements, company records and ephemera from Harley-Davidson’s 105-year history. Readers get a glimpse of the highlights, including the first Knucklehead engine in 1936 and some of the company’s more curious departures, like its entry into the snowmobile market in 1972.
Perhaps no other manufacturer has been as fixated on its legacy as Harley-Davidson, which began assembling its archive collection in 1915, a mere dozen years after the company’s founding. The book drives home the fact that the company’s current products reflect its design history.
The “factory custom” style of many current models dates to 1971, when Willie G. Davidson married the engine and frame from the company’s heavyweight touring bikes to the lightweight front end of its Sportster line, producing the FX Super Glide. That model owed much to the customizers who frequently tricked out Harleys in the late ’40s to the end of the ’50s.
One of the book’s shortcomings is an occasional mismatch between its sparse text and the abundant images: one paragraph, for example, points out that 1954 models had a commemorative medallion on the front fender, but there is no photograph of it.
Ultimately, the book provides a detailed — if reverent — overview of Harley-Davidson’s evolution. Devotees will probably be pleased, but not satisfied, which might explain why the book takes care to point out the address of the recently opened Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. DANIEL McDERMON"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/automobiles/07reviews.html
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Topic: ARCHIVE COLLECTION BOOK (Read 31027 times)