The Mitzel Builders Motorcycle Collection - Presented by Lee Mitzel Based on its popular workhorse middleweight W-series, the WLA, like this immaculately restored example from 1942, was a tool engineered to function across continents, climates and levels of mechanical abuse few motorcycles would ever endure. Beginning in 1939, Harley-Davidson began work on the WLA project tailored for the US War Department and the mounting concerns unfolding abroad during World War II. The Motor Company’s peacetime proliferation was put on hold, and with the WLA, Harley-Davidson’s design language was stripped to a core purpose, ornament abandoned in favor of function, and in the process, the Milwaukee Motor Company birthed an icon, a symbol and a hero built of steel and adorned in olive drab. Chosen for its predictable power, ruggedness and effortless repairability, Harley-Davidson built the WLA around its familiar 45 CI flathead V-twin. It was an engine that could be understood and serviced by soldiers with limited training and basic tools, yet robust enough to power through most any condition in the field. Equally reliable was the 3-speed, hand- shifted gearbox, which was protected by a steel skid plate mounted to the bottom of the WLA. Though its specification could be tailored to any number of roles required by the various branches of the allied military, its springer fork, sprung seat post, front and rear crash bars, blackout lighting and minimal instrumentation offered a considered balance of durability and adaptability. Built in droves, the WLA operated around the world during the war, performing convoy duty, reconnaissance, courier service and operating in improvised field conditions, becoming a symbol of freedom and a little taste of home for soldiers abroad. After the war, the WLA quietly reshaped motorcycling culture. Thousands of returning service members were already fluent in Harley-Davidson mechanics, and surplus machines seeded a generation of riders. The WLA didn’t invent the postwar motorcycle world, but it did help populate it. This exceptionally appointed 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA features nearly every desirable military accessory, including a brown leather solo saddle with matching saddlebags and Thompson sub-machine gun scabbard, fork-mounted ammunition box, oil-bath air cleaner and rare canvas windshield. The WLA stands not only as a romanticized war relic but as a testament to what it promised and delivered, day after day, far from home, in one of humanity’s darkest hours, with no audience and no margin for failure. 1942 HARLEY-DAVIDSON WLA
