Back in 2010, US Highland was set to begin making a new breed of custom bikes and, more significantly, engines. The company relocated from Sweden to Oaklahoma, and leased factory space to start building bespoke motors to be dropped into customer-designed motorcycles. In July of that year, Chase Bales, Damian Riddoch, and Mats Malmberg, all partners in U.S. Highland died in a plane crash. Their Cessna went down over the heavily wooded Mohawk Park, just outside of Tulsa. The company, founded the previous year, shut down the plant and sold the business to new investors.
After the crash, the company had a just a single customer, an unfulfilled engine design, and a warehouse full of equipment locked up by the proprietor. Since then, a new set of directors have worked to revive the brand, starting with former Harley Davidson and Indian Motorcycles executive John Fitzpatrick. He's been US Highland's CEO and president since September 2011.
The company is on its way back. Early this year, Fitzpatrick signed a lease for 17,000 square feet of factory space near Tulsa. Highland is set to deliver their first new bike, the classic-styled Street Tracker, in January 2013. Alongside the bike, they'll begin fulfilling engine orders, too. US Highland will start by making a single-cylinder model that’ll be available with 350, 450, and U507cc of displacement. A V-Twin will follow, and customers can get just an engine and drop it into an ATV or generator, or put a full order in for a complete bike. Besides the Street Tracker, an ATV and off-road bike will appear sometime next year.
