Warren Buffet

"It was the bridge we needed to get us through a rough time," Olin said. Between 2007 and 2009, sales of Harley's classic motorcycles -- celebrated for their heavyweight, outlaw biker image -- plummeted, down as much as 50% in the United States, as people had far less disposable income for purchases, or even for gasoline.

As the company began to climb back from the near-abyss, it wanted to repay its high-interest loan ahead of schedule, but Berkshire Hathaway struck a harder bargain, sticking with the handsome five-year loan terms, according to Harley-Davidson. No wonder, as the loan earned millions for Buffett, who already had chalked up a stellar windfall by investing a whopping $5 billion in shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) as the financial system teetered in the fall of 2008.

That loan had a 10% interest rate, and, like the Harley loan, came at a key time for the investment bank, which repaid the loan in 2011 -- after paying about $500 million in interest.

While the loan to Harley-Davidson was also highly lucrative for Berkshire Hathaway, it drew much less attention than the one issued to Goldman Sachs, which became part of a key insider trading trial in which prosecutors accused former Goldman board member Rajat Gupta of helping hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam make $1 million by tipping him off to the Berkshire infusion before it became public.

Berkshire Hathaway -- which has taken stakes in other noted American brands like Coca-Cola (KO), and always on good repayment terms -- invested $300 million in the troubled chopper manufacturer in 2009. At the same time, Davis Selected Advisers LP, Harley-Davidson's biggest shareholder, also sank $300 million in unsecured loans into the company.

Despite twists and economic downturns as far back as the Great Depression of the 1930s, and then the onslaught from Japanese motorcycle makers in the 1970s and 1980s, Harley-Davidson celebrated its 110th anniversary last year -- on the upswing.

Its iconic status seems to be...