Copyright WWW.DBBP.COM | updated 8-December-2003

Auguste Dionne sent me an article from Street Choppers (September 1981)
about the legendary Harman 120, I have tried to turn the photo's of
the article into a readable piece of text but it was much to much for
me to type all at once (I still type with one finger!):

Harman's back and his 120 cu in street
engines are a reality and available to you!

When it comes to rumors about bigger this and better that, no industry can claim to more BS than the bike industry. And when it comes to Harleys in particular it seems everyone has a story to tell about some new fangled power option that is going to set the industry on it's ear. More often than not the self proclaimed "know it alls" that come up with such rumors seem to have brown eyes and they weren't born with them. The color is a stain caused by an overabundance of cow dung.

Of the thousands of rumors pertaining to Harley power pieces none stirred more interest or was so wide spread than the possibility that John Harman was about to market his own hand made 100+ cu in HD replacement engines. John as you may remember was featured several years back and his internally sprung girders, frames and trick HD head conversions took the market by storm. Soon after rumors of the Monster Motors began to leak out we were flooded with literally hundreds of letters for more information. Upon trying to contact John we found he had virtually disappeared.

In dealing with John we had become close friends and all business aside I wanted to find out just what had happened. Then one day while I was pretending to pound out some pages, the boss was in, the phone rang and the familiar friendly voice of John Harman blurted out a vigorous,"Howdy Bob, what you been up to?" I returned with, Howdy what do you mean Howdy, have you turned into a mountain man or something? And where the hell have you been anyway. His answer was a straight "YES" and a quick rundown on what had happened might be of interest to many of you looking to get away.

As many of you know the Harman frames and front end assemblies introduced to the custom market in the early 70's were some of the finest quality and most functional pieces being offered. Frames including swingarm custom Harley frames were available for virtually any machine and the unique internally sprung girders were probably the best handling and shock absorbing girders you could buy. The popularity of Harman's products soon brought on the type demand that so often turns a hobby into a chore for many builders. John was interested in building quality pieces one at a time and all of a sudden he was hassling with hundreds of orders a month not to mention answering the phone every 5 minutes and having to explain that the engine has to go in from the left or vice versa. As many of you know this sort of thing can really get to you after a while and John finally drew the line shortly after the birth of his son. The business hassles were getting to his head and there was no way Jr. was going to be brought up in the city. So what did he do?

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