But Winters had a different idea. He began with a diminutive two-stroke machine that carried the Harley name even though it was designed by the German DKW firm. In the peace talks following World War II, the rights to the highly regarded DKW 125 were awarded to both Harley and BSA as part of Germany’s war reparations. The BSA version of the machine became the Bantam, while the Harley version began life as the 125, then was enlarged to become the 165.
Winters took a light, agile 165, modified it for the dirt, and rode it to victory in the 1956 Jack Pine, beating machines with four or even six times that displacement, and surviving a course that eliminated three-quarters of the entrants.
