Did Harley-Davidson Ever Make A Scooter? The Story Of The Short-Lived Topper

When people talk about Harley-Davidson motorcycles, they tend to talk about choppers, cruisers, bobbers, and good old-fashioned, American-made Milwaukee power. They may even talk about the company's place in pop culture history. But, suffice it to say, when the conversation turns to gushing over the company's products, motor scooters are not included in the conversation. That may be because even some diehard H-D fans don't realize that scooters are, in fact, a part of its storied history.

Scooters are, of course, not a major part of Harley-Davidson's history, as the iconic bike maker has dedicated the bulk of its 120-plus years of existence to designing and manufacturing some of the best-loved motorycycles to have ever graced the blacktop. True to that fact, the Harley design team has delivered just a single scooter build, and nearly 60 years have passed since one rolled off of the production line. Harley-Davidson's lone venture into the scooter market, named the Topper, was sent to showroom floors in 1960.

The pint-sized scooter no doubt looked odd sitting next to its bigger, bolder brethren in those showrooms. Likewise, the bike's single-cylinder, 165cc 2-stroke engine (complete with a lawn mower-styled hand-pull recoil starter!) was likely not what most riders were looking for from a brand renowned for delivering motorcycle muscle. But despite that, the Topper was well-reviewed when it hit the streets, and for a while, it seemed primed to make waves in the growing American scooter scene.

If you're familiar with Harley-Davidson's history, you might know that 1960 was the year that the legendary bike maker made a major move to acquire a 50% interest in the Italian motorcycle company Aermacchi. One might be inclined to assume the Italian company had a direct hand in helping develop the Topper, but it seems Harley-Davidson was already deep in development of the scooter prior to the purchase and had been showing off working prototypes as early as the summer of 1959.

Indeed, the Topper made one of its first public appearances during a 1959 Major League Baseball game, with the scooter functioning as a bullpen car for the Milwaukee Brewers, thus becoming one of the first times such a vehicle was utilized in a National League contest. Despite that notable appearance and positive reviews, the '60 Topper hit the streets with a troublesome design flaw that led the insufficiently air-cooled engines to overheat, an issue that no doubt put some H-D fans off it. The engine was wisely re-designed for the 1961 Topper H, with the Harley-Davidson team correcting the cooling issues.

Unfortunately, the sporty little topper never really found favor with Harley-Davidson's existing fans, nor did it find many new fans among riders on a scooter scene that was and continues to be dominated by more celebrated European brands like Vespa. In the end, it's estimated that Harley-Davidson manufactured only around 3,000 Toppers during its production run, which stretched between 1960 and 1965. However, given their relative scarcity, Toppers are now sought-after items for diehard Harley collectors.

[Featured image by Michael Barera via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]