York, PA factory tour
#1
06-15-2009 | 11:23 AM
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From: Central Florida
York, PA factory tour
A mini-trip report from the factory tour at the York plant, where our touring mounts are built:
My buddy Sean and I took a trip up from Maryland to York, PA to tour the Harley plant there. This particular plant is near and dear to both of us - this is the facility that manufactures Harleys Touring and SoftTail models. Both Seans Softail Heritage Classic and my Road King Police would have been assembled in this very plant.
The ride up was straightforward superslab, up I-270 to US 15 to Gettysburg, and then east along US 30.
As we rode along US 15 across the Maryland / Pennsylvania border, 15 changes into a controlled access freeway gliding through the majestic hills and forests, alongside huge parcels of farmland. The traffic had melted away, and we road north towards Gettysburg on our steel horses beneath a vivid blue sky. There was just Sean and I and the road. It is hard to describe, but it was absolute riding nirvana, a perfect combination of road, ride, weather and environment. The bikes rumbled along contentedly, as if drawn back to their place of birth. In a few miles, we approached Gettysburg, and turned onto Route 30 for the final leg of the trip.
US 30 is a noteworthy piece of history in and of itself, being a part of the Lincoln Highway, which ran across Pennsylvania from Ohio to Philadelphia in the 1930s. As one travels along 30, you can see the old roadside diners and service stations that made up the sum total of services available to travelers back in those days. You can find some interesting reading on the history of US 30 here: http://www.pahighways.com/us/US30.html
Alas, right now 30 isnt entirely pastoral and idyllic. Major construction is occurring, and the road surface was a bit, well, challenging at times. As a part of the construction, they have added a half a lane to one side of the road, and shifted the traffic over. The old double yellow line is now a parallel track of roughened grooves right down the center of the lane. No problem for cars, but not exactly motorcycle friendly.
Eventually we escaped the construction zone, and we rode into York, and the Harley factory.
At the factory, we pulled in among a good sized group of other bikes, and headed into the tour center. Timing, as they say, is everything, and we arrived about 30 minutes before the next scheduled factory tour, giving us time to browse the exhibits and sit on a couple of the display bikes before heading over to the theatre to meet up with our tour guide and safety observer. We were given pins to identify us as tour participants on the factory floor, and shown into the theater for a brief film on the history of Harley Davidson and the York plant. We then queued up to receive safety glasses and wireless earphones, and to turn in cameras and camera phones for storage during the tour. Photography is not permitted on the tour, unfortunately.
The tour itself is about an hour long, and walks guests through the production process starting with large industrial robots and enormous press machines forming fenders for the Touring line. A robot arm places a sheet of steel on a form, and a huge die is pressed down, forming the fender in a single cycle of the press. The front fender blanks are then moved by conveyor to shearing machines where the excess material is clipped off, leaving a rough fender ready for polish and paint prep. Read fenders are made nearby, in a similar process. Because the rear fender requires a variety of holes and notches, the blanks for these are fed into a laser cutting robot, which skims around the fender blank, cutting away excess material and cutting the notches and holes. The laser produces cuts so smooth that no further de-burring operations are required.
The tour travels on to the assembly floor, where touring bike chassis travel along an overhead track on large orange arms that resemble an upside-down question mark. As the bikes move along, workers attach various parts and subassemblies to the chassis, and slowly a motorcycle takes shape. Each chassis is accompanied by a build sheet, detailing which features are going to be on that particular bike. Harley does not pre-make motorcycles, and only initiates the build of a bike when it receives an order from a dealer. No two Harleys on the line are the same.
From the assembly line, we moved along to the testing bays, where each new Harley is ridden on a set of rollers up to highway speeds by experienced H-D mechanics to test the bikes systems. Sounds like a rough job, getting to test-ride a dozen new Harleys a day. The scenery is a bit repetitive, though.
From there, we moved along to the paint and finish bays, where displays showed the progression of metal parts from fabrication to surface prep, paint and clear-coating. Harley claims to have some of the most exacting paint standards in the vehicle manufacturing industry, and it is easy to believe looking at the finished products.
Following the tour, Sean and I headed into the gift shop to peruse the merchandise. Taking a page from the masters of marketing at Disney, Harley Davidson has exclusive apparel and items for each of its tour centers and museum. They managed to separate me from some of my money quickly and painlessly. We rolled out of the lot and headed west along 30 towards Gettysburg. Along the route, Sean stopped to take a few pictures of various diners, and we pulled into Lees Diner for a spot of lunch. Lees is an authentic diner, built in 1951 and in continuous operation for the ensuing 48 years. We selected some basic diner fare, and talked with our server about the diner and the town and the lifecycle of Route 30.
Fed and content, we resumed our trip west, and pulled into the visitors center at Gettysburgs historical battlefield. Along the way, Sean collected some more pics of the period diners and service stations. One at the battlefield, we dodged touri and obtained a map of the driving tour, then rode around the battlefield for a while before rolling toward Route 15, and the trip back south.
My buddy Sean and I took a trip up from Maryland to York, PA to tour the Harley plant there. This particular plant is near and dear to both of us - this is the facility that manufactures Harleys Touring and SoftTail models. Both Seans Softail Heritage Classic and my Road King Police would have been assembled in this very plant.
The ride up was straightforward superslab, up I-270 to US 15 to Gettysburg, and then east along US 30.
As we rode along US 15 across the Maryland / Pennsylvania border, 15 changes into a controlled access freeway gliding through the majestic hills and forests, alongside huge parcels of farmland. The traffic had melted away, and we road north towards Gettysburg on our steel horses beneath a vivid blue sky. There was just Sean and I and the road. It is hard to describe, but it was absolute riding nirvana, a perfect combination of road, ride, weather and environment. The bikes rumbled along contentedly, as if drawn back to their place of birth. In a few miles, we approached Gettysburg, and turned onto Route 30 for the final leg of the trip.
US 30 is a noteworthy piece of history in and of itself, being a part of the Lincoln Highway, which ran across Pennsylvania from Ohio to Philadelphia in the 1930s. As one travels along 30, you can see the old roadside diners and service stations that made up the sum total of services available to travelers back in those days. You can find some interesting reading on the history of US 30 here: http://www.pahighways.com/us/US30.html
Alas, right now 30 isnt entirely pastoral and idyllic. Major construction is occurring, and the road surface was a bit, well, challenging at times. As a part of the construction, they have added a half a lane to one side of the road, and shifted the traffic over. The old double yellow line is now a parallel track of roughened grooves right down the center of the lane. No problem for cars, but not exactly motorcycle friendly.
Eventually we escaped the construction zone, and we rode into York, and the Harley factory.
At the factory, we pulled in among a good sized group of other bikes, and headed into the tour center. Timing, as they say, is everything, and we arrived about 30 minutes before the next scheduled factory tour, giving us time to browse the exhibits and sit on a couple of the display bikes before heading over to the theatre to meet up with our tour guide and safety observer. We were given pins to identify us as tour participants on the factory floor, and shown into the theater for a brief film on the history of Harley Davidson and the York plant. We then queued up to receive safety glasses and wireless earphones, and to turn in cameras and camera phones for storage during the tour. Photography is not permitted on the tour, unfortunately.
The tour itself is about an hour long, and walks guests through the production process starting with large industrial robots and enormous press machines forming fenders for the Touring line. A robot arm places a sheet of steel on a form, and a huge die is pressed down, forming the fender in a single cycle of the press. The front fender blanks are then moved by conveyor to shearing machines where the excess material is clipped off, leaving a rough fender ready for polish and paint prep. Read fenders are made nearby, in a similar process. Because the rear fender requires a variety of holes and notches, the blanks for these are fed into a laser cutting robot, which skims around the fender blank, cutting away excess material and cutting the notches and holes. The laser produces cuts so smooth that no further de-burring operations are required.
The tour travels on to the assembly floor, where touring bike chassis travel along an overhead track on large orange arms that resemble an upside-down question mark. As the bikes move along, workers attach various parts and subassemblies to the chassis, and slowly a motorcycle takes shape. Each chassis is accompanied by a build sheet, detailing which features are going to be on that particular bike. Harley does not pre-make motorcycles, and only initiates the build of a bike when it receives an order from a dealer. No two Harleys on the line are the same.
From the assembly line, we moved along to the testing bays, where each new Harley is ridden on a set of rollers up to highway speeds by experienced H-D mechanics to test the bikes systems. Sounds like a rough job, getting to test-ride a dozen new Harleys a day. The scenery is a bit repetitive, though.
From there, we moved along to the paint and finish bays, where displays showed the progression of metal parts from fabrication to surface prep, paint and clear-coating. Harley claims to have some of the most exacting paint standards in the vehicle manufacturing industry, and it is easy to believe looking at the finished products.
Following the tour, Sean and I headed into the gift shop to peruse the merchandise. Taking a page from the masters of marketing at Disney, Harley Davidson has exclusive apparel and items for each of its tour centers and museum. They managed to separate me from some of my money quickly and painlessly. We rolled out of the lot and headed west along 30 towards Gettysburg. Along the route, Sean stopped to take a few pictures of various diners, and we pulled into Lees Diner for a spot of lunch. Lees is an authentic diner, built in 1951 and in continuous operation for the ensuing 48 years. We selected some basic diner fare, and talked with our server about the diner and the town and the lifecycle of Route 30.
Fed and content, we resumed our trip west, and pulled into the visitors center at Gettysburgs historical battlefield. Along the way, Sean collected some more pics of the period diners and service stations. One at the battlefield, we dodged touri and obtained a map of the driving tour, then rode around the battlefield for a while before rolling toward Route 15, and the trip back south.
#6
06-15-2009 | 07:38 PM
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,523
Likes: 3
From: Illinois
A mini-trip report from the factory tour at the York plant, where our touring mounts are built:
My buddy Sean and I took a trip up from Maryland to York, PA to tour the Harley plant there. This particular plant is near and dear to both of us - this is the facility that manufactures Harleys Touring and SoftTail models. Both Seans Softail Heritage Classic and my Road King Police would have been assembled in this very plant.
The ride up was straightforward superslab, up I-270 to US 15 to Gettysburg, and then east along US 30.
As we rode along US 15 across the Maryland / Pennsylvania border, 15 changes into a controlled access freeway gliding through the majestic hills and forests, alongside huge parcels of farmland. The traffic had melted away, and we road north towards Gettysburg on our steel horses beneath a vivid blue sky. There was just Sean and I and the road. It is hard to describe, but it was absolute riding nirvana, a perfect combination of road, ride, weather and environment. The bikes rumbled along contentedly, as if drawn back to their place of birth. In a few miles, we approached Gettysburg, and turned onto Route 30 for the final leg of the trip.
US 30 is a noteworthy piece of history in and of itself, being a part of the Lincoln Highway, which ran across Pennsylvania from Ohio to Philadelphia in the 1930s. As one travels along 30, you can see the old roadside diners and service stations that made up the sum total of services available to travelers back in those days. You can find some interesting reading on the history of US 30 here: http://www.pahighways.com/us/US30.html
You my friend should write travel brochures! You speak too elegantly to ride a Harley! Are you sure you don't ride a wing???????? Just kidding bro, glad you liked it, I plan on going one day myself.
My buddy Sean and I took a trip up from Maryland to York, PA to tour the Harley plant there. This particular plant is near and dear to both of us - this is the facility that manufactures Harleys Touring and SoftTail models. Both Seans Softail Heritage Classic and my Road King Police would have been assembled in this very plant.
The ride up was straightforward superslab, up I-270 to US 15 to Gettysburg, and then east along US 30.
As we rode along US 15 across the Maryland / Pennsylvania border, 15 changes into a controlled access freeway gliding through the majestic hills and forests, alongside huge parcels of farmland. The traffic had melted away, and we road north towards Gettysburg on our steel horses beneath a vivid blue sky. There was just Sean and I and the road. It is hard to describe, but it was absolute riding nirvana, a perfect combination of road, ride, weather and environment. The bikes rumbled along contentedly, as if drawn back to their place of birth. In a few miles, we approached Gettysburg, and turned onto Route 30 for the final leg of the trip.
US 30 is a noteworthy piece of history in and of itself, being a part of the Lincoln Highway, which ran across Pennsylvania from Ohio to Philadelphia in the 1930s. As one travels along 30, you can see the old roadside diners and service stations that made up the sum total of services available to travelers back in those days. You can find some interesting reading on the history of US 30 here: http://www.pahighways.com/us/US30.html
You my friend should write travel brochures! You speak too elegantly to ride a Harley! Are you sure you don't ride a wing???????? Just kidding bro, glad you liked it, I plan on going one day myself.
#7
06-15-2009 | 07:55 PM
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 8,423
Likes: 2
From: Ellenwood, GA - The Ghetto Part
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