Post Listing Update: These TA projects did not meet reserve with bidding stalling at $51,350.
This won’t be cheap or easy to finish, but it’s a hell of a find that someone needs to take care of. The Wheels Through Time museum has 2 of the 17 Harley TA bikes ever built, but they’re incomplete. What’s a TA, you ask? It was a shaft-driven trike powered by a Knucklehead motor, designed to act like a Servicar for the US military. Harley already had plenty of success with the WLA but the Army was looking for something that did not require special instruction to operate. Haley built a prototype trike and the Army ordered 16 bikes. But at that time, Willys-Overland had developed a light 4-wheel drive vehicle which became known as the Jeep. You can probably guess which vehicle the military decided to go with…
So in total, 17 TA trikes were built, making it a very rare party of Harley-Davidson’s history. For more information, check out this post from the Harley-Davidson Forums.
Here’s what the projects could look like:
What they DO look like:
The seller says the only other known remaining examples include one in Willie G. Davidson’s home, the sellers personal complete example (pictured below, not included in the auction), one “somewhere on the West Coast”, and a rumored one in Florida with a Panhead motor.
The seller also includes a video that goes into more details and he does a good job explaining the flaws. It’s daunting but there’s a lot of exciting potential here:
I hope someone saves these. If you’re up for the challenge, find these rare projects for sale in Maggie Valley, North Carolina with bidding up to $51,100 and the reserve not yet met or a BIN of $165,000