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  <p>Busy weekdays lead to tired weekends. I've missed a few events not realizing they were even happening. Not this time. While deciding what to do, I stumbled across the fact that it was the Harley-Davidson Homecoming and that there was a vintage motorcycle meet scheduled at their headquarters. After some prodding and persuading, I was on the road with my Sportster to meet my Chicago friend at the event.</p>
  <p>On arrival, we were met with some extremely cool, rare bikes. I need to do my homework, but I watch enough Wheels Through Time on YouTube to know that they were special.</p>
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    <img src="/static/media/Harley_Homecoming_2025/Grey_Racer_1000.jpg" alt="Pre-war Harley-Davidson single cylinder race bike. Grey tank, brown seat, black frame." width="1000" height="750" />
    <figcaption>H-D pre-war race bike.</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <p>Race bikes are always interesting, as they push the limits of engineering for a win. This yellow bike is no exception. I've never seen dual headers on a single exhaust port before, yet here it is.</p>
  <figure>
    <img src="/static/media/Harley_Homecoming_2025/Yellow_Racer_1000.jpg" alt="Pre-war Harley-Davidson single cylinder race bike. Yellow tank, brown seat, black frame. Dual exhaust on a singe valve head." width="1000" height="750" />
    <figcaption>Another pre-war racer but with dual exhaust on a single cylinder!</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <p>These kinds of meets always bring out interesting characters. While eyeing a WL, the owner greeted us and let us sit on it and take a picture. He told us all about the bike. It's a wartime civilian model, which makes it rare for reasons you can surmise, and it has an original plate. He has a WLA at home as well. Turns out he is an engineer of sorts that works in the food industry. It's a travel heavy job, and he rattled off a list of places in Europe that he'd be in the coming month. I love meeting people like this. It's a reminder that there's cool people everywhere. You don't need to be a &lt;insert_industry_with_prestigious_and_pretentious_connotation_here&gt; to be cool.</p>
  <figure>
    <img src="/static/media/Harley_Homecoming_2025/Rex_Civilian_45_CENSOR_1000.jpg" alt="My friend Rex, censored, sitting on a war-time, civilian Harley-Davidson 45 motorcycle." width="1000" height="750" />
    <figcaption>Rex on the WL.</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <p>I also discovered H-D's newer CVO wheels... amazing. There was another that I didn't get a picture of. These wheels allow for tubeless tires on a spoked rim, as the spokes nuts are external on the side of the rim. It also has the side benefit of giving the wheel a lot more depth and section, which looks great IMO. I guess you might suffer lean angle in some situations, but Harley-Davidsons drag the kickstand before you're ever hitting the edge of the tire anyways. I'm just glad to see a production example of great, modern looking spoked wheels.</p>
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    <img src="/static/media/Harley_Homecoming_2025/CVO_Wheel_1000.jpg" alt="Modern Harley-Davidson CVO spoked wheel with trapezoidal castings where the spokes lace to the rim." width="750" height="1000" />
    <figcaption>CVO spoked wheel.</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <p>We went on the HQ tour, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting. It was more history and trivia as opposed to touring active office space, which I guess makes sense. The powertrain tour is definitely on the bucket list this summer.</p>
  <p>I'm glad I was able to make it, but I'll want to plan better next year to hit some more events instead of being blindsided in the morning. It was a great day, though. Beautiful weather, beautiful bikes, and a hell of a lot better than sitting on the couch doing laundry.</p>
  <p><b>Created:</b> {{ .Date }}</p>
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