WASHINGTON -- A motorcycle dealer supplying bikes for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration parade led his own procession Friday as he delivered 12 Harley-Davidsons to the District of Columbia police.
Traffic on the Capital Beltway slowed as drivers gawked at the shiny, birch-white bikes and matching sidecars atop two flatbeds. Michael J. Vantucci led the convoy in a pickup truck bearing his Frederick, Md.-based shop's bright orange logo.
The Jan. 20 parade up Pennsylvania Avenue will mark the fifth straight time that bikes supplied by Vantucci will help lead an inaugural procession. The affable, white-haired dealer attributes his successful bidding to his company's ability to make many of the special parts specified in the contract, which is worth $360,000 this year.
Radio brackets, wiring harnesses and flag brackets are all produced in Vantucci's nondescript machine shop next to his showroom. It's a part of the business most customers never see but is closer to the 62-year-old racetrack mechanic's heart than the chrome-and-leather mystique of Harley-Davidson.
"I used to have to pay people to make me parts. When I became a successful Harley dealer, I bought the equipment to make my own parts," Vantucci said.
Vantucci credits his company's expertise in crafting parts with giving him an edge over at least seven other motorcycle dealers who bid on the inauguration contract.
"Our whole company gets very, very involved in the inauguration," Vantucci said. "This is something everybody rallies around."
The bikes -- 2009 FLHTP Electra Glides with oversized, 103-cubic-inch motors made in York, Pa. -- will be among about 50 motorcycles leading the inaugural parade. These are bikes used exclusively for escort and security duty -- an almost daily assignment in the nation's capital, said G. Greg Hester, fleet director for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department.
On Inauguration Day, the bikes will be on prominent display, led by flag-flying leader and arrayed in a formation called the Power V.
Hester said the department replaces 10 to 12 motorcycles a year and sells the retired bikes, with 40,000 to 50,000 miles on them, online.
Vantucci doesn't win every contract with the D.C. police. Two years ago, the department bought bikes from another Harley dealer in Elkridge, Md., Hester said.
He said the department specifies bikes from Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson because it is the only maker of police pursuit motorcycles with sidecar attachments.
Vantucci has a photo wall in his shop dedicated to inaugurations. But he's never been to one, and he doesn't plan on going now.
"With the prediction of the crowd, we're going to comfortably watch it on television," he said.
