06.05.09
Where Should the Million-Mile Harley Be Parked?
A million miles! Dave Zien racked up a cool million miles on his Harley 1991 FXRT. He hit the million-mile mark April 4, 2009 right in front of Hal’s Harley-Davidson in New Berlin, Wisconsin. The miles are documented with gas and repair receipts.
Zien is a former Wisconsin State Senator and a veteran long-distance rider. When Harley Davidson was celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary with a big party, Zien rode a thousand miles a day (on the average) for the preceding thirty-one days. The Iron Butt Association gave him an award for, among other feats, riding fifteen-hundred miles in a single twenty-four hour period.
That miraculous FXRT has had two new engines and nine engine overhauls. Iron Butt Zien wore out nine seats.
Zien gave the million-mile bike to Harley-Davidson. In appreciation, the company gave Zien a brand new motorcycle. The million-mile bike will be displayed at Sturgis, South Dakota, where the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame has prepared a special display that will let visitors see the cycle from all sides. (And you don’t want to miss the graffiti on this bike!)
Sturgis seems like a great home for this special bike, especially since Zien already has a display in the Hall of Fame.
But Wisconsin, Harley-Davidson’s home as well as Zien’s, has a valid claim, too. After all, most of those million miles were logged in the state. After this year’s rally at Sturgis, Harley-Davidson will display the motorcycle in its new Harley-Davidson Museum near Milwaukee.
And then the million-mile bike will return to Sturgis, permanently.
What do you think? Wisconsin or South Dakota? Which is the most appropriate home for Dave Zien’s million-mile motorcycle?
Come in to Eagle Leather, where we’ve set up two jars, one for Wisconsin, one for South Dakota. Vote with a penny (or more if you like). At the end of the summer, we’ll count the donations and let you know who wins. Then we’ll give all the voting proceeds to the National Military Family Association.
Sure, it’s just for fun—we don’t expect to sway the folks at Harley-Davidson either way. But it’s a good excuse to see what’s new at Eagle Leather, and we’d like to see you. And, it’s a way to raise a little money to support our military families who sacrifice so much on our behalf.
I used facts from Patrick Marley’s article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (reprinted from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Read more at www.TwinCities.com.
