Pancho Villa - The Original Motorcycle Outlaw

Most photos of Pancho Villa depict him as a fearless revolutionary leader, usually mounted horseback, with a bandoleer of bullets wrapped around his chest and his trademark mustache and sombrero, but the photo below paints a much different picture.  It shows Pancho Villa astride a brand new 1914 Indian motorcycle.

It is not known if this was actually Villa's motorcycle or just an impromptu photo opportunity, but it is known that Pancho Villa did use motorcycle's in some of his raids during the Mexican Revolution.  Eyewitness accounts verify that Villa used Indian Powerplus motorcycles to attack Torreon, which he successfully captured in 1914.

In 1916, Villa attacked the US city of Columbus, New Mexico, bringing the United States military into the conflict.  President Wilson sent General "Black Jack" Pershing down to Mexico with orders to capture Villa. Pershing took 5,000 men, trucks, planes and motorcycles, to aid in finding Villa.  This was the first time that motorcycles had been used in an armed conflict by the US military and it was Harley-Davidson who provided them.  Harley supplied a number of J models, which were powered by F-head (intake over exhasust) engines and capable of speeds up to 60 miles per hour.  A combination of solo motorcycles and sidecar models were ordered by the military.  The sidecars models were additionally equipped with machine guns, making them into mobile gun platforms for fast attack missions.

Pershing spent 11 months chasing Pancho Villa around northern Mexico, but was unable to catch him.  Some sensational news stories told of motorcycle riders chasing down banditos with their pistols blazing, but these are likely to be completely false as the motorcycles stayed around Columbus, New Mexico.  Either way, the US military was pleased with the performance of the motorcycles, which played an important part in recommending them for service in WWI.