This 1945 Harley-Davidson WLA is Pure Nostalgia
This beautiful story about this beautiful bike was originally written by, A.J. Jaime for the WSJ, and this is my summarized take on it.
Rick Pohl, 66, a residential building contractor from Isle of Palms is the lucky owner of this beautiful 1945 Harley-Davidson WLA. But the journey to get to this point was a long one. Pohl’s father, a soldier during World War II, purchased the military bike originally in 1952 due to the overabundance of the Harley-Davidsons after the war. (Other samples photographed)
In the mid 1950s, Pohl’s father got stationed in Germany so he took apart the bike and put it in the attic. Unfortunately his father sadly passed away in Vietnam in 1968, and the bike ended up getting moved from closet to closet, and attic to attic. At one point in the 1970s, his brother tried to put it together; but didn’t go as expected.
In 2001 Pohl’s mother called and asked if he wanted the bike, which indeed he did. The Harley-Davidson WLA was scattered throughout in boxes and Tupperware containers. Rick started putting it back together three years ago when his brother-in-law was able to find the original manual on microfilm at a local library. With his father’s old tools and some help from a man named Charles Hudson at Charleston Harley Rebuilders, they were finally able to get the bike to fire back up.
Once Rick finally got to take his beloved bike on the first break-in run around the island where he lives, it was the first time he’d been on it since he was 4 years old.
What’s your favorite memory of a Harley-Davidson?
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