Monsterman
You maybe forget that Harleys were made in Japan up to 1958 and still sold in the 60:s They were made by the Sankyo Factory on behalf of the Rikuo family who used to be the Harley importers for Harley in Japan. RIKUO was made as Harley Davidson of Japan in 1935.
For the first time , their parts were imported from USA.
Later,Sankyo co.ltd. made them in Japan. including all the parts.
Rikuo Motorcycle Co. was one of the first Motorcycle Manufacturer in Japan. In the early 1930s the made them under license and name of Harley Davidson using their tooling, and then under the name Rikuo until 1958 They got the tools to manufacture the Harley just before the second WW. Harley-Davidson, with the help by an American Japan based man Alfred Rich Child, shipped tools and personnel to Japan in the mid-1930s to build HD VL flathead (sidevalve) motorcycles.
When Harley-Davidson was about to produce the new EL OHV Knucklehead design, they wanted that the Japanese factory buy a license to produce the EL as well. However Sankyo, Rikuo's parent company, was reluctant to produce the new vehicles and refused to make this commitment. Anyhow they later did make a copy of it which only came to the prototype status.
At the same time, Japan’s government was becoming increasingly militaristic leading up to World War II and eventually suggested that Harley-Davidson employees, including Mr. Child, leave the country. The motorcycle continued production under the name of Rikuo, meaning “Land King” or “Continent King.” or "Road King"
Harley Davidson 1200cc model was named VFE or VLE. V was for the Far East model. The 750 Type was called R or RQ.
Sidecar combinations called Type 97 were produced for military work in the Philippines and Manchuria during the Second World War. Solo machines were supplied to civilian police forces, for example for Osaka in the 1950s.[1]
After the war the remaining factory continued producing the 750cc (45 cubic inch) RQ and 1200cc (74 cubic inch) VLE models still using the old flat head, total-loss lubrication design. The 750 gained a telescopic front suspension and the 1200 model retained springer forks. All of the new motorcycles were made with hard tail rear ends. In 1950 and 1951, the plant produced about fifty 45 cubic inch motors per month and thirty 74's with sidecars. By August 1952 production was estimated at approximately seventy 45's a month while the 74's stayed about the same. The 45 and 74 models are near exact copies of the 1934 Harley Davidson. An OHV version was prototyped, but never produced.
The factory began to use the "Tele-Glide" type front suspension in or around 1950 on the 750cc units, but while updating the sheet metal on the VL type, retained the "Springer" type front suspension on those units.
Therefore, the 1950s 750s are basically the Harley-Davidson 45 cu.in. RL of the early 1930s, and the 1950s 1200s are the Harley-Davidson VL of the same era, but both with updated sheet metal (the updated front fork of the RQ/RT notwithstanding).
During the second WW the Rikuo Factory was turned into manufacturing military equipments and the factory was bombed in the Hiroshima bombings. The factory went bankrupt in 1960 because of no demand for big motorbikes in Japan after the war and even the new factory being to old.
Harley-Davidson themselves did not publicize this Japanese connection. This, because effectively, it could be that the Japanese were helped in mass-production techniques by the introduction of this factory into Japan just prior to the Second World War.
If you want to know more you can visit my Finnish friend and former employee Riku:s (yes that is his real nick name) home page. He is about one of the only one who has one Rikuo , which he bought from East Russia in the 1990:s.
http://www.rikumotor.fi/veteraanit.php
And then some pictures:
HIKO
