On one of the blogs I'm a member of, someone posted the first picture below. Looking at this picture, I was curious about the number of ‘campaign’ hats hanging from the wall and the military style leggings that almost everyone visible is wearing after a search, I was positive that this had to be a training class especially for members of the military due to the amount of motorcycles being produced for the military. A search found a few articles about that picture. (Although from the information contained in the websites I found, this picture could have been taken in 1918.*)

The clever marketers at Harley-Davidson had in mind to leapfrog their way to the top, and indeed they did, by offering free rider training and repair schools to the military, plus guarantees of a robust spares supply. Thus H-D’s representatives were literally on base with soldiers all over the USA, developing relationships that would last for years after the war, regardless, repair instructions covered all motorcycles in the military arsenal. The generosity of the Harley-Davidson offer was not lost on the military, and the success of Harley-Davidson’s strategy was the beginning of the company’s long focus on military, police, and institutional clients as a stable source of revenue. And in case anyone missed the message that H-D were 100% behind the US military, they changed their monochromatic color scheme from Renault Grey to a military Olive Green in 1917, for all models, and for the next decade.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I and the military demanded motorcycles for the war effort.
Harley-Davidson was quick to see a need, because you couldn’t logistically take all the mechanics out of the civilian world and then there was the financial advantages in promoting your own brand of machine.
Harleys had already been used by the military in the Pancho Villa Expedition but World War I was the first time that it was adopted for military issue, first with the British Model H produced by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd in 1915. The U.S. military purchased over 20,000 motorcycles from Harley-Davidson.
The greatest innovation in World War 1 among the ‘Big 3’ motorcycle companies trying to secure government contracts, was the offer by Harley-Davidson to provide training schools to military mechanics. The schools would instruct recruits on how to repair motorcycles in the field and in military workshops … and of course the demonstrators they provided to work with were Harley-Davidsons. It was not only brilliant marketing to the military, training was also truly necessary for maintenance and repair, as military recruits were generally ignorant of mechanical matters, or had never worked on a motorcycle before.

*https://thevintagent.com/2018/03/25/100-years-ago-harley-davidson-training-schools-in-1918/

When the USA declared war on Germany (although not on the Central Powers) in April 1917, there was an unprecedented scramble to fill the requirements for modern warfare.  Among the novelties: motorcycles that were used for messenger duties, or as mobile gun platforms, or even highly mobile (and highly uncomfortable) ambulances.
With the US suddenly on a war footing, all the major manufacturers (and some minor ones too) were invited to submit motorcycles for testing, as tens of thousands of motorcycles would be required for war. European armies were using hundreds of thousands of motorcycles by 1917, but the initial American order was low; only about 20,000 motorcycles. That number would increase over time, and to secure more orders, Harley-Davidson offered clever enticements like free training at mechanic’s schools for servicemen. Indian Motorcycles won the largest contracts at first, as they were a much larger company than Harley-Davidson, but Milwaukee was well represented in the war.

These photographs are part of our series of images discovered in the National Archive  on their 100-year anniversary. They’ve never been published as far as we know, and represent the US Gov’t keeping tabs on the manufacturing processes and products of its military suppliers. This series shows Harley-Davidson motorcycles and sidecars on display and in use by the US Army, in many different configurations, almost as a rolling catalog on a military base. 

 

 

 

 

 

https://thevintagent.com/2018/04/18/100-years-ago-harley-davidson-military-testing-in-1918/