You are looking at a complete Harley-Davidson crushed by a Honda dealer who didn’t like the Milwaukee brand.
This “sculpture” is exhibited front of the J&P Cycles store at Destination Daytona. It belongs to the company and is permanently exhibited at its National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa.
Don’t know what happened to this Honda dealer…Will I have soon to report “You are looking at a full Honda dealer crushed by…”
Who would have thought the days of us crushing Jap bikes would back fire on us someday!!!
they copy American style bike designs they they copy American made stunts. This is a display of frustration. Nothing else. LOL
Now now Boys…what’s the old saying from back in the day…Honda Acronym…”Hop On Nothing Dumb Ass”.
Boss Hawg
How ironic- as a sculpture, it’s still worth more that anything on their showroom floor……
Dont understand the frustration…same country made lots of parts on that bike
looks like an old panhead….
When was the last time ANYONE has seen a CRUSHER at any dealership ? What is this nonsense ? Sounds like a good BS camp fire story……..
“camp fire story”….
That reminds me of stories heard from Mid-Ohio road race attendees where they witnessed the HD crowd trying to implode a honda in the camping area. They drained it of all its oil & then pinned the throttle wide-open. It was glowing red and still took awhile to let go, pissing them off until it finally succumbed. funny
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provocative move on J&P’s part.
This was for sale on Ebay by David Wasserman who sells motorcycle memorabilia and who maintains a web site selling antiques. It is a panhead and it was crushed in the 1970’s or thereabouts when an old Harley wasn’t worth that much. Some of the major parts are missing from the “sculpture” if you look closely. The dealer that had it crushed was in WI I believe.
Nothing wrong with a Honda or a Harley. There is no need to bag out any brand. I think this is a stunt to get attention and nothing more. Seems it’s working!
Looks like J&P is banking on their business becoming mostly metric.
No….Really this is the newest model from H-D. Along with it you get a free repair manual and 10% off any parts and chrome to fix it up and put it back on the street…..Oh by the way ….All flat black paint is also free…..
SSDD; David
actually it was from a Honda dealer to use during a promotion that was called “we crush the competition”. The dealer had taken it in on trade, but the bike was in rough shape, as you can see if you look close. It is a 1953 EL panhead. J&P is not banking on their business becoming metric, it is something we just picked up for the museum, and we thought people would like to see it, and it seems to be the most photographed and talked about thing out at Destination Daytona. It is a complete bike, if you look at it long enough you will find every part you would find on a harley, except engine cases (don’t know why).
Kickstand has his info pretty spot on. It’s not a ploy, just something cool that we bought recently, and are displaying at our store, so if you’re in the area, stop by and take a look for yourself, or if you are in Iowa anytime after bikeweek, stop by the National Motorcycle Musuem in Anamosa and check it out, along with our 225 other motorcycles on display.
Screw jp and there phony discount and high price. Most there crap is copys of American parts . You will never see a dollar of my money. Axleplate
AS A DEALER I THINK W C FIELDS SAID IT BEST IN ONE OF HIS CLASSIC MOVIES;WHILE GANGESTERS MADE HIM DRIVE HIS CAR AFTER ROBBING THE BANK IN A WILD WRECK FILLED GET AWAY RIDE ..” GENTLEMEN THE RESALE VALVE OF THIS VEHICLE IS GOING TO BE NILL” AUTOSPHEREFRED.
Hard to believe somebody would return a Harley Rental Bike back in this condition !!
Just to give you an idea, in about 1970, which I think is about when this was done, I turned down a complete stock running panhead HD with leather saddlebags for $650. At about the same time I bought a complete running undamaged 1959 Corvette with a 4 speed and non original engine for $750. I also bought a 1968 Z-28 Camaro with 13K miles for $2700. Of course none of us were making much then either so I don’t know if things are really any higher today or not.
I think the dealer that had this done was in Racine WI. The real question here is how this wreck survived so many years without being scrapped. I believe it was unearthed about 5 or 6 years ago.
The inflation rate from 1970 to 2010 is a factor of 4.7 so I guess things really were cheaper then.
If you don’t find the casings, could be they got sold. Even back then a set of casings especially with a clean title for a bigtwin were bringing a decent buck for the standards of the time.
But, back about 1970 you couldn’t even sell an all complete decent running flatty for $100.
Looks like they rocked it till the wheels fell out.
this is dumb at best and jp do yourself a justice and melt it down or put an “a” in between your name dont down the harley name by keeping this …
RE:
“…from 1970 to 2010 is a factor of 4.7 so I guess things really were cheaper then…”
Around Nor Cal it wasn’t about “cheaper” as it was about use.
Was reminded of that some time last year.
While sweeping out the shop, pulled out the 42FL and parked it next a triumph.
Looking at the two together like that reminds one of the “fast girl” and the “Cheer leader.”
When your young your all hot for that skinny, fast stuff.
But when ya get older your more interested in a plump, smooth ride………. 🙂
-nicker-
I’m sure Matt Olsen can restore it !
You meet the nicest people on a Honda, but the guys who sell them…
So first Buell starts crushing their bikes, now everybody thinks it’s cool and artsy. I mean, if it’s a old AMF-era ironhead, that’s one thing, or if it was a bike that was going to be destroyed fror one reason or another that’s OK too, but to screw up a perfectly good bike like this, that’s just plain dumb. Unless you’re doing it for a cable TV show, because that’s the American way!
Damm it may still run, has any one tryed to put some gas in it.