Rolling Sculpture

An Exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Center 

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Rolling Sculpture
An exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Center in conjunction with the Harley Davidson 100th birthday bash.


Sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art museum seems Ready to take off, or perhaps to sail away. For about a month, it hosted an exhibit of vintage motorcycles, prototypes, and assorted tanks, accessories, and original drawings. The exhibit was called Rolling Sculpture, and admission to the museum was free to those attending the birthday celebration.

A view of the lake makes a nice backdrop for decades of motorcycles. In the center of the photo is the original clay model of the V-Rod, from it's days as a development concept. The black umbrella is from a photo shoot of the bikes. This is Tuesday, before most of the activities are to begining, and celebrants are just beginning to arrive in town. In a few more days, this place will be packed, and photography will be impossible.

Harley Davidson's newest. This is the V-Rod. This twin cylinder, water cooled machine makes well over 100 horsepower (135 is the number I heard), and is the fastest bike Harley has ever made.

The designer's clay model, used in figuring the layout of the V-Rod.

The clay model with the actual finished product behind it. Harley is continuing to offer it's traditional air cooled motorcycles and is constantly improving upon it's air cooled evolution engine, but is staking much of it's future on the new series of water cooled V-Rod motorcycles.

Two of the prototype V-Rod motorcycles share a platform with the more refined production model. These are rough hewn machines, which were constantly being torn down, measured, redesigned, and tested.

The side of one of the prototypes, showing the rough one off construction, and clipped on electrical system.

The two prototypes, side by side. Note the different instrument panels. The one on the right was a bit closer to what the production units have, while the one on the left is a basic standard cluster.

The other prototype,. Note the duct taped radiator.

Slab sided sheet metal, and hand made mounting brackets are in stark contrast to the finished, well fared look of the final production design.

The new Harley V-Rod. This is a sport touring model, though a range of models, including full dressed units are offered.

The classic Harley, in this case decked out in 100th anniversary trim. The particular model is the Heritage Springer.























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