How many were made?

[stepside03]

does anyone know how many miles where on the odometers of the Harley mt500s when they were sold from the dealerships? I'm looking at buying one that still has a certificate of origin and has 4 miles on the odometer. never been registered but that doesn't mean it hasn't been driven a few miles. thanks for any and all help.

[Englishman]

As the supply of MT350,s from the army has ceased, that only "circa 3000" were made, many are broken for spares and other "losses", the history etc this bike has the potential to become with the passage of time a collectors item with an increasing value doesn't it?

[hounddog]

does anyone know how many miles where on the odometers of the Harley mt500s when they were sold from the dealerships? I'm looking at buying one that still has a certificate of origin and has 4 miles on the odometer. never been registered but that doesn't mean it hasn't been driven a few miles. thanks for any and all help.

Wouldn't know for sure, but I would guess it is delivery mileage as they call it. the bike might might be ridden off the production line into a warehouse, then moved into a truck , unloaded the other end at the dealers and moved around there, soon adds up. (Unless it arrives at the dealers in a crate for final assembly it which case it would have zero miles) . If a bike is in a dealers showroom it might get wheeled out the front each day then back at night, and do that 6 days a week for several weeks will add up). Incidentally, the UK bikes odometers are in km even though we still use miles (until Europe tells us to stop ), although main speedo display in miles ,don't know whether the US ones are all miles. I think my question to the seller would be why does it have 4 miles (or km) on the clock and see if the answer makes sense. Out of interest, are you planning on riding the bike or keeping as a collectors piece as an investment.?

[hounddog]

As the supply of MT350,s from the army has ceased, that only "circa 3000" were made, many are broken for spares and other "losses", the history etc this bike has the potential to become with the passage of time a collectors item with an increasing value doesn't it?

Yep I think we are seeing that already. Not too long ago you could pick up a 350 and get change out of a grand , not any more. Prices have crept up since the final big withams sell off. I hope they don't achieve classic cult status , and we still keep thrashing them round the countryside getting them covered in mud

[Daj]

Hear hear Ian !

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[Wirralman]

Stepside03
Based in your part of the world MT500s with electric start and odo in MILES were made.
Only a few were sold and used by the US military, most ended up in dealerships. I don't think that they were able to be ridden legally in a few States.
The mileage of 4 miles is probably genuine as they seem to have been kept as show bikes. Before you buy make sure that you can register your bike for road use otherwise you may find that you have bought an ornament for your garage that you can't legally ride on the road.
Eric

[stepside03]

Out of interest, are you planning on riding the bike or keeping as a collectors piece as an investment.?

HoundDog
I do plan to keep it as an investment. I own a 99 that i ride on a regular basis would like to have one that is mint condition. Also my odo is in miles and from what I've seen there haven't been any US MTs that use km.

Before you buy make sure that you can register your bike for road use otherwise you may find that you have bought an ornament for your garage that you can't legally ride on the road.

thanks Eric
i already have one registered and on the road here in Maryland so if i ever choose to take this one out on the road i wont run into any problems registering it.

thank you both

[Wirralman]

see http://www.klmotorsport.com/topic/11-mt ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were 85 MT500's made for the Canadian military-designated MT500EC and an unknown number for Jordan MT500EJ. The E stands for electric start- the UK didn't want to spend the extra £60/machine.

As for MT350s- circa 3000

MT500e -US spec
see below
The U.S. MT500 is one of the rarest and lowest production motorcycles ever made by Harley-Davidson in their York, PA. Manufacturing plant.

In York, Pennsylvania., Harley-Davidson produced;
About 3500 MT’s from 1989 to 1998. The MT350’s all went to the British Army and the few MT500’s went to Jordan and the Canadian Military’s.

In 1993 Harley-Davidson produced about 20 U.S. MT500’s (1995 I.D’s) They were made for the U.S. Military. One was kept by Harley-Davidson and now displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum.
They made 278 U.S. MT500’s in 1999’s and a few U.S. MT500’s in 2000. (There have only been 156 2000 models accounted for)
Thus making the U.S. MT500’s one of the rarest and lowest production motorcycles ever made by Harley-Davidson in this Country for the past 100 years.

The U.S. Military did not take any of the 1999’s and early 2000’s so, Harley-Davidson offered two bikes to their dealers. They had a retail price of $10,000.00 or $11,500 .00 (with the only option, Panniers and a gun case). However, due to a slow economy at that time, most dealers did not purchase any of these bikes

.
The U.S. Military DID take some of the 2000’s for testing. So consequently Harley-Davidson will not disclose any information about the 2000 year model because of Military confidentiality rules.
The U.S. Military had 15 new ones they did not use for testing. On Friday July 21, 2000 the Military put an ad in the Stars & Stripes newspaper for these remaining bikes. They had such a large response they had to have a raffle for the bikes. The few that Harley-Davidson had left, they offered to Harley-Davidson dealers.

In the years I have been collecting these bikes and information about them, I have found about 50, 1999’s and about 5 or 6 2000’s. Most of the bikes are at a few dealerships museums, or in a private collector museum.



HISTORY
In 1980 the initial development of this bike was started by an Italian company called SWM Motor Works. They used an Austrian engine called the Rotax which came in 350cc and 505cc sizes. They won several trials championships and two world championships with their bikes. In 1984 Armstrong of Bolton, England bought the rights to SWM Motor Works.
A military version of the motorcycle (tagged as an MT350 or MT500) was developed for use in the Falkland Islands for the British Army, for desert use by the Jordanian Army, and for the Canadian Army to use in mountainous areas.
Armstrong made this motorcycle from 1985 to 1989.
In 1989 Harley-Davidson bought Armstrong primarily to have the rights to the Rotax engine which was used for their dirt-track racing teams, then began producing the bikes here in the U.S.

These motorcycles are very rugged and can stand extreme desert temperatures, rocky terrain and harsh environments. They can even stand “torrents of fording water” as the operation manual states. However, Harley-Davidson lost the military contract because they proved not good for military use for two reasons, One, the heat from the engine was easily detected by enemy forces using infrared scopes. They tried blocking the radiation by adding front Panniers, (Storage case) but to no avail. The other problem was the use of gasoline for the bikes instead of diesel which was used primarily by the military.

This bike is unique because of the fact it has California registration and Title. California now requires any bike to have at least 7,500 miles on the odometer to register in the state. Unless it’s made for California. Making this bike especially desirable for California use.

This bike is not for everyone.
It’s for the connoisseur, the collector, someone with appreciation of rarity, an investor, an artist at heart.

I believe I was a member of this forum years ago, but I have to rejoin since my previous employer does not allow me to use his email account anymore.

I was laid off from Harley-Davidson (York) after 13.5 years, about 2 years ago. I worked at the plant while the MT's were being made. We made almost 3 bikes a day on the assembly line which is now called the CVO (Custom Vehicles Operations) line.
We were told that when the British spare parts contract runs out, about 2005, all the parts Harley owns for the MT 500's would be destroyed. Around 2007, I came across 2 Conex containers at York full of MT-500 parts. You guys would have loved it. Everything you would ever need. Then, shortly after I found them, they were gone. Rumor has it that someone in England bought the entire lot. This makes sense to me. As hard as it is for us to get spare parts in the US and here I was working a few hundred meters from a treasure trove of spare everything the whole time. Luckily, I have a pretty good collection of spares myself, but still it was sad to see them go.

1998 was before cell phone cameras (for me anyway) so I was never able to get any photos of the line. That was, and still is, pretty tabboo anyway. Although, I did sneak some good photos of me working in the HD paint shop on my last day of work.

There are a lot of false stories about the Harley version of the bikes out there. I can tell you that 468 were made for civilian sale with the 500cc engine. HD wanted to buy Rotax but the deal fell through. They also wanted to sell the bikes to the US Army but the gasoline fuel was a no-go. With 468 engines left over, they decided to sell the bikes, 2 to a dealer. The asking price was 9000-13000 US$. They never kept the value collectors hoped for. The bikes were sold for about $2500 to the British Army to win the contract for the 350's. HD made its money from the spare parts contract. I found that out the hard way when I ordered parts for my bike from the local dealer via the York plant. At the time, you could still do that because the spare parts contract was extended. You don't even want to know what I had to pay for some of the parts. It was nuts.

12 bikes were painted black and sold to the US Air Force special forces. They had parachute pintles on the handle bars and a blackout IR light up front. They were also modified to carry the US M-16 rifle vs. SA-80. 10 of those were sold at govt. auction about 3 years ago(written March 2012). They were basket cases but sold well considering they were the rarest of an already rare bike. They ended their lives patrolling an ICBM missle base in Montana.


I have some interesting sales materials (brochures) and photos of the bike that I will try to post when I get a chance. These bikes are super rare in the US and always turn heads anywhere I go.


Later, Dedgar

[gromit]

great post - really interesting... filled in many gaps in my mt knowledge

[Wirralman]

Just a bump of this old thread, It may be of interest