MANKATO — It wasn’t the average group of bikers heading through Mankato Saturday on its way to Sturgis.

The top executive team from Harley-Davidson stopped at the Mankato Harley shop — CEOs, CFOs, COOs, vice presidents. But the 50 or so people on hand were there to see just one man: Willie G.

“He’s kind of the Messiah for Harley-Davidson fans,” said Brent Busch, business manager at Mankato Harley-Davidson.

Willie G. Davidson, grandson of one of the original founders of Harley-Davidson, is the public face of the company, credited with changing the staid design of the motorcycles and helping revitalize the brand.

“He’s awesome,” said Paul Schmidt of St. James, after getting his photo taken with Davidson. “I’ve known about him since I had my first Harley.”

That was when Schmidt was 15 and took savings from summer work to buy a bike. “I had a Harley before I had a license.”    

He plans to blow up the photo and hang it on the garage wall next to his Harley.

The executive team, traveling with Milwaukee police on Harley Police motorcycles, came from Rochester and drove through a heavy early morning rain. Davidson, traveling with his wife and two of his children, said this trip is unique from many he’s taken.

“I’ve done Sturgis many, many times but this is the first with the executive team and the stops at dealers.”

Davidson spent most of his time during the stop autographing shirts and Harley gear and posing for photos.

Willie G. Davidson received a college degree in graphic art. While living in California, he discovered the burgeoning world of motorcycle customizing, which become a major influence in his later designs. After working in other industries, including design work for Ford, he joined the Harley-Davidson design department in 1963, where he clashed with executives over what they viewed as his radical designs.

He designed the FX Super Glide, the company’s first attempt to mass produce motorcycles with some of the style of the custom motorcycles.

In 1981 he joined a dozen other company executives to buy Harley-Davidson back from conglomerate AMF for $80 million.

Mark Harmon, owner of Mankato Harley, said the recession has hit the motorcycle industry hard but that the Mankato shop has been weathering the storm.

“We deal in a luxury, so people are going to cut back,” he said. “You just do all the things all businesses are doing, watching your inventory and costs.”

He said sales are tracking about the same as last year. And while a small surge in sales in early spring brought promise, a slowdown in consumer confidence over the summer slowed sales again.

Busch said representing the most popular motorcycle in America helps.

“We’re fortunate to have a very loyal customer base. There aren’t too many people who tattoo a brand name on their body.”

Harley-Davidson has had a rough ride since the start of the recession. Motorcycle sales are falling in 2010, as they have for each of the last three years. The company does not expect a turnaround anytime soon.

But despite that drought, Harley’s profits are soaring due to cost cutting and other measures, with the company reporting a $71 million profit in the second quarter, more than triple what it earned a year ago.

Harley has announced plans to cut 1,400 to 1,600 more jobs by the end of next year. That is on top of 2,000 job cuts last year — more than a fifth of its work force.

And the company said recently that it may move its Milwaukee manufacturing operations elsewhere if it can’t cut millions of dollars in costs at the factories that make the bikes known as "Milwaukee Iron."

Part of the company’s strategy for the future is to tap more Asian markets. The company has opened its first dealerships in India.