Here's What You Need to Know: It is unlikely that the U.S. military will ever employ tens of thousands of bikes for combat, but the motorcycle still has a job to do.

A big part of the global war on terror meant going to places where teams need to get in and out fast, and that included remote locations where you can’t always count on helicopters or other aircraft to provide the transportation. In some cases two wheels can do the job much better than four, which is why after first being adopted by the U.S. Army 100 years ago the motorcycle is still being used to ride into action.

It is also easy to see why in 2013 the U.S. military adopted the Zero MMX motorcycle for Special Operations Forces use around the globe. The bike was specifically developed for missions where stealth is critical—and it features a nearly silent all-electric motor that can still put of fifty-four horsepower with sixty-eight foot-pounds of torque, and can run for more than 3,500 hours on a single charge. It is reported to be virtually maintenance-free and was designed to go all most anywhere, which it make it ideal for recon missions, search and rescue and other covert operations.

Replacement for the Horse

Motorcycle technology has certainly evolved since the Harley-Davidson Model 17F/J was used by the U.S. Army to hunt down Mexican bandit Pancho Villa.

That wasn’t the first motorcycle to be used by a military—that honor belongs to the Triumph Model H, which the British Army adopted for dispatch riders in France in 1915 during First World War I. The single cylinder-powered, air cooled, 499cc motor could only crank out four horsepower but the Model H was so reliable that it earned the nickname “The Trusty.” In total some 30,000 Model H motorcycles were used by the British military.

It was the Harley-Davidson Model 17F/J that was used in the greatest numbers during what was known then as “The Great War.” The bike, which was powered by a sixty-one-cubic-inch F-head engine, proved so successful that the U.S. military ordered 20,000 for use in Europe. The Model seventeen featured fifteen horsepower—rather hefty at the time especially compared to The Trusty—along with a simple three-speed transmission. What really made this Model 17F/J so versatile was the fact that it could fitted with passenger sidecars as well as hospital stretchers. Machine guns could be mounted to the bike, which was able to navigate terrain that would have swallowed the trucks of the day.

Harley Davidson’s main rival company at the time, Indian, also stepped up for the war effort with the Indian Powerplus Big Twin, which had been introduced in 1916. The company dedicated nearly all of its production from 1917 and 1918 to the war effort and sent nearly 50,000 Big Twins “over there.” It proved itself ready for action, with a 1,000cc Flathead V-twin engine that produced eighteen horsepower. While the company went all in with the war effort, the irony was that the company was unable to recapture its civilian production market when the boys returned home from Europe.

Interwar Era to World War II

The U.S. military didn’t concentrate on motorcycles in the inter-war period from 1919 to 1940, but that is when Harley-Davidson became the dominant player in the civilian market. Part of this dominance came as a result of the company’s efforts to design ever faster and more power motorcycles. Thus Harley was there when the U.S. Army once again sought to employ the two wheelers for action.

Harley-Davidson introduced the WLA, which went on to earn the nickname “The Liberator.” Based on the civilian WL, the upgraded version for the military featured a 45-inch flathead motor that were easy to work on in the field. The 740cc V-Twin engine offered twenty-three horsepower, which made the WLA ideal for military police and dispatch riders. Nearly 70,000 of these bikes were produced for the war effort, with several thousand sent as part of lend-lease efforts to the Soviet Union. The WLAs were often outfitted with holsters for the Thompson submachine gun!

After the end of the Second World War some of the WLAs were refurbished and used in the Korean War, but by the early 1950s most of the Army’s bikes were sold as surplus. This was the birth of “biker” culture as returning soldiers bought the bikes. These veterans chopped off the excess features needed for a military bike and thus the “chopper” was born.

As a sidenote, the use of motorcycles by the U.S. Army paled when compared to the British and Germans during World War II. The Brits utilized the civilian modified Norton 16H as the WD16H, which featured a four-speed transmission, as well as the BSA M20, a light but fast motorcycle mainly used by dispatch riders. More than 100,000 WD16Hs and around 126,000 M20s were used by the British Army. None of the British—or even the American bikes for that matter—could compete with the German made BMW R71/R75, which were designed from the ground up for military use. Introduced in 1938 the R-71 featured a 750cc side-valve motor and shaft drive combination that could power through dirt, sand and snow. It saw action from North Africa to the Russian Front to Western Europe. This motorcycle was so reliable and versatile that it was later copied by the Soviets and Chinese militaries, as well as by Harley-Davidson as the wartime XA, the first flat-twin shaft drive motorcycle made by the company.

During the Cold War the helicopter and other advanced vehicles made moving soldiers around the world much easier, yet in the 1980s Harley-Davidson went on to develop one more bike for the U.S. military. It bought the rights to the Armstrong MT 500, a British military dual sport motorcycle that offered a single-cylinder 482cc Rotax four-stroke engine with thirty-two horsepower. It saw limited use during Operation Desert Storm when it was used for recon missions. Its biggest drawback became apparent during the conflict—it runs on gas not diesel, which meant gasoline had to be shipped in for it!

The Harley-Davidson version of the MT 500 wasn’t the only motorcycle to see use during Operation Desert Storm, as the U.S. military and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies had adopted the Kawasaki KLR650—known to its primary users, the United States Marine Corp as the M103M1. It could run on both diesel and jet fuel and get up to ninety-six miles per gallon. This go anywhere bike has a 651cc single-cylinder engine with forty-five horsepower.

It is unlikely—even with the near silent MMX—that the U.S. military will ever employ tens of thousands of bikes for combat, but even 100 years later the motorcycle still has a job to do and a well respected, well earned place alongside other military vehicles.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

This article first appeared in November 2020.

Image: Zero Motorcycles