Win a 1946 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead — or a 1939 UL Flathead — in Wheels Through Time's 24th Annual Raffle

What you're looking at

Two Milwaukee big twins, and the first name out of the drum decides which one goes home.

The headline bike is a 1946 Harley-Davidson EL: 61 cubic inches of overhead-valve V-twin, a four-speed gearbox, and the rocker boxes that earned the engine its nickname. Wheels Through Time lists it in Flight Red with chrome Harley-Davidson tank emblems, stainless trim and a 120-mph speedometer — a postwar E-series presented the way the factory would recognize it, not a bobber or a resto-mod. The Knucklehead ran from 1936 to 1947 and nothing else, which makes twelve model years the whole story; 1946 was the first full season of civilian production after the war, two years before the Panhead ended the line.

The second machine is the sleeper. It's an 80-cubic-inch side-valve finished in Airway Blue and White — a combination Harley offered for one year only — with stainless fender trim and the first-year cat-eye dash, the instrument panel collectors chase hardest on any late-1930s Harley. One nomenclature note worth knowing before you choose: Wheels Through Time badges it a 1939 UL, in the blurb and twice in §5.0 of the official rules. In Harley's 1939 catalogue the UL was the 74-inch high-compression side-valve; the 80-inch was the ULH. So if you see this bike called an 80-incher anywhere, that is the distinction being blurred. Same flathead family, different displacement, and the kind of detail that matters if you ever sell it.

Both are of the hand-shift, foot-clutch, rigid-frame, springer-front generation. That is the charm and also the homework — these are machines you learn to ride, not ones you swing a leg over on the way home from the drawing.

Why it matters

Most car and bike giveaways are marketing programs with a vehicle attached. This one is a museum's annual fundraiser, and it's on its 24th run. Wheels Through Time is a 501(c)(3) in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, sitting on more than 375 American motorcycles and billing itself as the museum that runs — its collection is famous for being started and ridden rather than roped off. The raffle funds that operation, and the winners are published by name on the museum's own site year after year, which is more verification than the average car sweepstakes offers.

It also means the prize is a genuinely uncommon object rather than a leased supercar. A correct 1946 EL and a one-year-color 1939 eighty-inch are the kind of bikes that usually move between collectors at auction, and the runner-up walking away with the one the grand-prize winner didn't pick is an unusually generous second place.

The fine print worth knowing

This is a licensed charity raffle, not a sweepstakes, and the rules print no free or no-purchase alternate route — every entry is a paid ticket. Read that alongside the tax line, because it surprises people: "The raffle ticket price is not tax deductible as a contribution to the Wheels Through Time Museum." You are buying a ticket, not making a deductible gift.

The winner pays to get the bike home. The rules state that "Winners are responsible for the transportation and delivery of their prize motorcycles," and that "Winners are responsible for any applicable taxes and fees including state and federal sales or income tax where applicable. WTT will comply with all applicable tax requirements, including reporting and withholding." On a prize in this value range, that is a real four- to five-figure federal bill in the year you win, plus a trailer from western North Carolina to wherever you live. There is no cash alternative printed for the motorcycles — the only cash in the promotion is the $5,000 third prize, drawn separately.

Miss the phone call and the bike moves on: "Failure to do so may result in forfeiture of the prize, which will then be awarded to alternate ticket holders No. 2, then No. 3."

On mechanics: entries run from $10 for a single ticket up to $1,000 for 250, with merchandise bundled into the higher tiers. The per-ticket rate does not fall smoothly — $20 buys 3 tickets ($6.67 each) while $50 buys 7 ($7.14 each), so the small package is the better rate of the two, and the $1,000 tier is the cheapest at $4.00 per ticket. The rules cap nothing: no total ticket count is published, so the odds are unknowable in advance. The deadline quoted here — "All electronic entries on the Museum website must be received at the Museum by November 20th, 2026 at 11:59 PM EST" — applies to online entries specifically; the rules also allow entry by phone at (828) 926-6266, in person at the museum and at certain events, without printing a separate cutoff for those. The drawing is Saturday, November 21st, 2026 at 2PM EST in Maggie Valley, streamed live by the museum.

Eligibility is 18 and over, with WTT staff and their households excluded, and the rules place the burden of state-law compliance on the entrant rather than the museum — worth a look if your state restricts buying out-of-state raffle tickets.