
While Rommel's German army was taking it easy with their BMW's and Zundapp's the Patton's US army was struggling to get through the desert on their Harley WLA's. Though the WLA performed terrific in most any condition, the African desert didn't do it much good, because the chain final drive required a lot of maintenance, and with the sand getting between the links tended to break easily.

Therefor the US Army requested Harley-Davidson to come out with a shaft drive model so they could defeat Rommel's troops in Africa. They made their own version of the German BMW, and called it the XA. Around a 1000 of these were made in 1942, and didn't really get out of the prototype fase. By the time the XA was rideable, Rommel was close to being defeated in Africa, plus it's need was no longer necessary, because Willy's Jeep was out, and even more practical than the XA could ever be. Spotted this nicely restored XA from Belgium....a true rarity to see in the wild!!!