William Ottaway

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Next to the four Founders, Ottaway was a figure central to Harley-Davidson's racing and engineering policy. He joined in 1913 as assistant engineer to William Harley. He was an instinctive engineer, and in four years designing Aurora Thor machines had made a name for himself in racing circles; Bill Harley realized that Harley-Davidson needed some of Ottaway's natural flair. One of his first jobs was to improve the efficiency of the standard Harley-Davidson 61ci twin, and he also spent much time reducing vibration levels. Ottaway is probably best known for his work on Harley racing machines, notably the II-K (using a tuned version of the 61- ci/1000-cc side-valve twin) and the Model 17 8-valve racer. The latter (after refinement by cylinder-head specialist Harry Ricardo) produced 55hp, plenty to win races in 1915. These technical advances, plus tight team organization from Ottaway, allowed Harley-Davidson's all-conquering Wrecking Crew to sweep the racing boards in the late teens. It was also William Ottaway who warned Bill Harley that his clutch design might infringe Bendix patents and was proved right when Bendix took Harley-Davidson to court. He increasingly concentrated on road bikes after Harley-Davidson dropped its big racing program in 1921 and Joe Petrali took on the development of race machines. When William Davidson died in 1937, Ottaway took over as interim production manager and agreed to allow trade unions into the plant for the first time. In 1943 he took over as chief engineer when Bill Harley died, though this function was soon passed on to Bill's son, William.