During times of upheaval, businesses that get creative succeed and those that don’t tend to fail. The Great Depression of the 1930s was one of the great provers of this statement and for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company, things were not looking great. Desperate to find new customers to sell their products to, the operation developed the three-wheeled Servi-Car. 1932 was the year that these trike models debuted and they were called the Servi-car because the intent was that automobile service centers and repair shops would buy them. They would be used to pull cars to the shop or they would be towed behind cars that were being dropped back off with customers and ridden back.
They were adopted and used by an incredible amount of businesses. Police departments loved them and these Servi-Cars were made from 1932 until 1973 which is astonishing. They were the right size, really handy, and efficient at the same time.
This 1942 model comes with some unknown history other than the fact that it was ridden largely in Connecticut. It is powered by the famous WLA flathead engine that would serve the company and the country well in war-time. Rather than the typical box mounted on the rear, this one has a flatbed area for hauling stuff. You can see the rear axle in the photos and you can see the suspension which has some modern shock absorbers hanging out there as well.
This trike has been repainted sometime in its life. We love the look here. The tall tires with the wire wheels, the WLA engine, the single seat, it is all really good. The link has al the details but this is a great piece of motorcycling history!
eBay: 1942 Harley-Davidson Servi-Car is awesome and a window to the past
I knew a fellow back in the sixties that I rode with that had a stockpile of old
HD flatheads. He put together an old rigid framed,springer forked chopper creation and I would ride down road behind him watching his torso take a beating at every bump in the be road.
The real ironic thing about this bike was that the transmission in that bike
was a tankshift and because it was out of servi-car it had reverse gear could actually back up. He was way ahead of his time and the Honda Goldwing!
road.The real ironic thing about this bike was that the transmission in that bike
was a tankshift and because it was out of servi-car it had reverse gear and he
could actually back up. He was way ahead of his time and the Honda
Goldwing!
Why don’t Harley Davidson put it back into production as most Harley riders are by now too decrepit to get their legs over a two wheeler….
Really unbelievable it\’s still available for use If Harley Davidson makes the model in 1942 now it\’s more then 75+ years old, Harley really a great company.
Thanks, Brian, for the nice article.
Our \”crossing guard policeman\” used to ride one back in the early/mid 60\’s I rode my Honda Dream 305 to school every day and he\’d usually pull along side and challenge me to a little one block drag race as he was going to work and I was going to school.. We had fun! If my brother was with me on the Dream, Mr. Mclelland could beat me with the police Servi-Car..