THE FAMILY '45'

My pal Dan Pereyra, whose 'almost mine' 1915 Indian was featured here last May, has an almost-one-family from new Harley '45', which has traveled a long way to be with him here in CA.
His uncle Hector (above), a Seventh Day Adventist minister in Paysandu, Uruguay, bought the 1947 Harley-Davidson with sidecar as a new machine. His vision, perhaps clouded by his desire to own a motorcycle, was to use the outfit as his church bus, ferrying parishoners from their homes to his church on Sundays. His congregation must have been small indeed! As rugged as the Harley was, it led a rough existence on the difficult terrain and and rutted dirt roads of rural Uruguay. Eight months later, after several breakdowns which stranded his flock, he thought better of his 'church bus', and sold the outfit.
The new owner was a photographer, a Sr. Marshalles in the town of Colonia Suiza, and the bike passed out of the Pereyra family. Marshalles likely needed a truck for his equipment - such was the life of the Harley - not a pleasure machine but a workhorse. Three-wheelers, while more stable than a motorcycle on lousy roads, have their handling quirks, and within a week the Harley had thrown its new owner into a ditch and overturned. While neither was badly hurt, the man decided he would never ride it again, and brought it back to the bank which financed his purchase.

It so happened that Dan's father Claudio (left), then 21 and a bachelor, had an account at the same bank, and noted the year-old Harley for sale. He decided to purchase the machine, ignorant of the fact that his own brother Hector, who lived over 100 miles away, had owned the machine originally. Apparently the outfit suited him better than the previous two owners, as he kept it for the next 15 years, becoming the 'family car' when he married and had children. It was ridden through dusty roads in the warm months and muddy tracks when it rained, through flooded streams and over the ever-present rocks and rugged terrain. Claudio had a construction business, and when not hauling children, used the Harley as his 'work truck', carrying lumber, stones, sand, tools, and cement to his job sites. While the bike was often seriously overloaded, under-maintained, and a long way from the nearest dealer, the Harley was a tough beast and kept on going. The sidecar chassis broke away from the motorcycle once, sending Dan's pregnant mother, like an errant torpedo, into a ditch! When the roads became really muddy, travel slowed to a crawl as mud had to be continually cleared from beneath the fenders, otherwise the wheels would jam up. Fording deep and fast-flowing winter streams was often necessary, sometimes with the help of a truck and a rope; Claudio 'rode' the outfit through the water while in tow, and occasionally the bike (and rider) would be completely swamped. It was a simple matter to remove the points and spark plugs to dry, kick the engine through to remove any ingested water, and be on his way. A helpful pusher was once rewarded with a muffler full of steamy water when the bike fired up after such a crossing.

The Harley was the only transport Dan knew until age 7, but the machine was sold to a laborer employed by his father, Sr. Cabeza, when the family decided to make a fresh start in the US. The fellow was loyal to the family; he locked the Harley away and promised that the father could buy it back should he return to Uruguay.
18 years later, Dan and his brother Alfredo made a trip to see their birthplace, and managed to track down the laborer in hope of returning the bike to the Pereyra family for the third time; amazingly the bike was still locked up at his home, but had suffered from 18 years on a dirt floor and partial exposure to the elements. And perhaps, Dan's rosy image of his childhood transport was given a rude dose of reality when confronted with a dirty and rusty old motorcycle! Nonetheless, Dan felt the machine was family itself, and offered the laborer $300; there had been many previous offers, but he would only sell to Dan's father!

Luckily Dan's parents made a trip to Uruguay not long afterwards, and Dan sent enough money to buy and ship the bike to California. All went according to plan, until Uruguayan Customs found that the title for the Harley was still in the photographer's name, from 1948! It took 4 1/2 years to find the widow of the man, and she willingly signed over the document; thus the bike was finally brought to the US.

Dan spent eighteen months restoring the outfit, finding that spares for the '45' were plentiful, but the sidecar was a very rare thing indeed, and worn and missing fittings were almost impossible to replace. By luck, he found everything he needed, usually from old dealer's stock, and vendors who had no idea what the parts were.

Dan's biggest problem now; he has two sons, and can't decide which one will carry on the family attachment to the old Harley.