Harley-Davidson Made Scooters In The ’60s… Who Knew?

Harley-Davidson is known for one thing: cruisers. It’s made some cafe racers, too. And even the odd trike. But a motor scooter?

That’s just what we’re looking at here. It was called the Topper, and it’s the only scooter that HDMC ever made, way back in the Sixties. Instead of a big v-twin engine, it had a 165-cc single-cylinder engine in a form similar to a Vespa. Only instead of under the seat, the engine was mounted under the floorboards. That’s how small it was.

It had no cooling fan, so it was known to overheat. It had drum brakes, and the starter motor from a lawn mower. And while some of the bodywork was made from stamped steel, the rest was made from fiberglass. Like a Corvette, only smaller. Much smaller. And nowhere near as fast.

It had a safety mechanism that kept it from taking off too quickly off the line. As if that was much of a risk, with all of 9 horsepower (6.7 kW) on tap. The top speed was quoted at 46 miles per hour (74 km/h). Maybe a little more running downhill. With a tailwind. But unlike most Harleys, the Topper was not made for highway cruising. The Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, for example, used one as a bullpen car (or vehicle, we should say) well into the 1990s. It was, after all, made in the Wisconsin metropolis.

This example from 1963 is coming up for auction as part of Mecum‘s motorcycle sale in Las Vegas next month. So if the idea of a Harley scooter entices you, that’ll be the place to be.