{"id":1197,"date":"2024-10-10T12:46:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T11:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2024-10-10T12:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T11:46:23","slug":"testing-the-topper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/testing-the-topper\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Topper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 1959 article in The Enthusiast<\/em> demonstrated the prowess of the only motor scooter that Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> has ever produced<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In folk band America\u2019s 1971 hit A Horse With No Name<\/em> \u2013 perhaps one of the most famous songs about being in the desert \u2013 the group sings about escaping the drudgery of everyday life with the lyric: \u201cIt felt good to be out of the rain.\u201d Perhaps not so for Jerry Standefer who, as this original article details, rode a Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> Topper on a 600-mile (967km), two-day endurance run from Bakersfield, California, through the famed Death Valley. He was joined by Bakersfield-based Harley-Davidson dealer Ross Wooten on a 74. \u201cThe Topper could stand a lot more heat than we could,\u201d Ross commented. \u201cWe purposely went to Death Valley looking for heat to test the engine of the Topper and we found it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Produced between 1960 and 1965, the Topper had a 165cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine, mounted horizontally between the floorboards. The engine starter used a recoil rope, similar to some lawn mowers. Crucially, unlike most scooters with enclosed engines, the Topper\u2019s engine did not have a cooling fan. Not the vehicle of choice for a trip into the Mojave Desert, you might think. But you\u2019d be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route went from Bakersfield to Trona (125 miles\/201km) to Stovepipe Wells, where the pair spent the night. Early the next morning, they travelled on \u201crough roads and hot sands\u201d to the \u201cblistering\u201d heat of Badwater Basin. As the article details: \u201cAt 280 feet below sea level, Badwater is the lowest spot in this hemisphere and is the hottest spot in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Badwater Basin, they summited Mount Whitney \u2013 the highest peak in the country. It\u2019s a fun fact that the lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are just 85 miles apart. Finally, \u201cwhen they reached the summit, the pair made an about face and headed the Topper back to Bakersfield. The rugged test was climaxed by running the last 10 miles with the throttle wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing temperatures \u201cin the high 120s[\u00b0F, equivalent to around 50\u00b0C]\u201d and \u201cheights of 8,200 feet, trails strewn with rocks, corrosive salt and other hazards\u201d, the Topper took it all in its stride. In fact, the whole run was made \u201cwithout making a single adjustment or touching a wrench to it,\u201d marvelled Ross. \u201cThe Topper, with a 210-pound rider, had no indication of over-heating, while a lot of cars were boiling and spouting water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon returning to Bakersfield, \u201cthe Topper required only five minutes wiping with a rag before putting it back on display,\u201d he added. A horse with no name might be a more classic way to travel through the desert, but the scooter named Topper can certainly hold its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A 1959 article in The Enthusiast demonstrated the prowess of the only motor scooter that Harley-Davidson has ever produced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-company"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}