hugoct wrote:Many times one sees Harley competition models listed that were never produced. Two good examples would be the KHR and XLR which were only produced as KHRTTs and XLRTTs. The home page of this website lists both the KHR and XLR as flattrackers.
The "model list" on the home page was compiled from the Production Figures section of Harley's publication
The Legend Begins The production figures are repeated on our
production figures page. TLB shows for 1955: 1 KHR, 77 KHRM, and 6 KHRTT, along with the KR and KRTT. For 1959, they show: 5 XLR, and 13 XLRTT.
Harley's production figures are, in their own words, "not to be regarded as totally accurate", and certainly live up to expectations. There are a number of anomalies. 1 XL produced in 1956? That was probably the prototype. 90 KH produced in 1957? No one has ever seen one, so these may have been assembled in August 1956, and mistakenly counted as 1957 production.
XLA and XLB? The 1957 XLAs are pretty well documented. Later production is pretty iffy. Several people have reported the factory saying "There are no records of XLB production". Reminds one of the CIA's slogan "we can neither confirm nor deny". It appears that a number of XLBs (and perhaps XLAs) were furnished to southeast asian governments in the 1960s, and this might have been politically sensitive during the unrest of the times. Perhaps these were "special government contracts", and the records were purposely destroyed. We may never know.
Circling back to 1955, and the 77 KHRMs. TLB makes no other mention of KRM or KHRM. We know that KRMs were produced. Do you think these 77 were KHRM - or perhaps they were KRM?
And back to the home page model list. I've kept the KHR and XLR since Harley shows them in the production figures. But I've changed the description to just "Competition" rather than "flat-track".
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TLB - look at the 1962 production figures. They report 1,276 45's, and 703 G & GE. Huh? The 703 G & GE fits right in with Servi Car figures for 1960 and 1961. 1,276 fits right in with Topper (A & AH) production for 1960 and 1961. Whoops! (Although a 45ci Topper would be a real beast!) Strangely, there are no figures for 1963 Servi.