A World War II-era Harley-Davidson motorcycle will be part of the community's Veterans Day parade at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Scott Byrd, an area dentist in Arkadelphia, will ride his 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA in the parade, a motorcycle with a unique history in the war.
According to a timeline on Harley-Davidson's website, production of civilian motorcycles came almost to a complete halt in 1941 with America's entrance into World War II. During the war, the company produced more than 60,000 WLA models for military use, but in 1945 production of civilian models resumed.
Nicknamed "The Liberator," the WLA was made to United States Army specifications, according to information on the National Motorcycle Museum's website.
Byrd said he purchased his WLA from a gentleman in Colorado a few years ago, though he said he is not sure where this particular bike saw service during the war.
"After the war, it was stripped down -- as many were -- and raced in the Jackpine Gypsies racing circuit," he said. "The gentleman I bought it from eventually ended up with it and restored it back to original.
"At one point the motor was replaced with a set of NOS cases that did not have a VIN number," which he said was not unusual for WLAs.
"It got an assigned VIN number, which is incorrect, even though the motor is correct," Byrd said. "It sat in a museum in Colorado Springs for about 10 years, until the gentleman decided to sell it due to medical bills for him and his wife."
Byrd said he rode the motorcycle for about a month before a vehicle ran a stop sign, pulling out in front of him, and left the scene.
"I spent several months rebuilding the front end," he said. "Mike Silvio in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn., has a freshly built, correct VIN number motor built for me that I will be swapping out in January."
Byrd, along with a group of five other riders, all with similar WLAs, will ship their bikes to England where they will ride a route that takes them through Normandy on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
"The trip started as an idea by a friend of mine in Alabama, Doug Wothke," he said. "He wanted to ride a WLA from Normandy to Berlin on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. He decided it would be a fun trip for a group of friends to do together. The original idea was to ship the bikes to England, ferry them across the English Chanel to Normandy, and roughly retrace the path of the Allied Forces across to Berlin."
Over the last few months, the trip has evolved, he said. The group will ship the bikes to England in time for the Isle of Man TT Races beginning May 25, 2019. The group will then head to Ireland for a few days before Normandy, Byrd added.
"We will be at Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day on June 6," he said. "We don't have an exact route that we are following, but are headed to Berlin, then into Poland. The route very well may change along the way, depending on what we find and how distracted we get along the way. We're all just big kids."
Byrd said the group is "fairly adventurous," noting that Wothke has ridden motorcycles around the world four times.
"Kelly Modlin from Kansas is riding with us. He and Doug are currently in Nepal riding bikes with another group of friends," Byrd said. "Jason Sims from Sturgis, S.D., will be with us as well -- he is the owner (and) director of the Motorcycle Cannonball. There is another friend of Doug's that will be with us also, but I haven't met him yet."
While it's tough to say for sure what draws people to collecting and restoring antique motorcycles, Byrd -- who has been collecting antique bikes for about 15 years -- said each bike's unique history is what keeps him coming back.
"It's kind of cliché, but it's very true, we're just the caretakers of these bikes for a brief part of their history," he said. "A lot of people don't necessarily know the history, and it's important for us to share that."
Local on 11/11/2018