MOTORCYCLE WORLD
DECEMBER 9, 2021
The Harley-Davidson Long History And Legacy
The Harley-Davidson Long history and legacy continues to shine in the brand that has roots and legacy for motorcycle riders around the world.
For big motorbike lovers there are some names that create remarkable products. One of them is the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The legacy surrounding the brand is probably the strongest reason why most people prefer Harley motorcycles.
The Harley-Davidson, Inc. or Harley is an American motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.
The company was founded by William S. Harley, William A. Davidson, Walter Davidson, Sr. and Arthur Davidson. In 1901, the 20 year old Harley and his childhood friend, Arthur Davidson worked on building their motor-bicycle. They tested it in 1903 but the vehicle didn’t performed as they expected. Nevertheless they took this work as a valuable learning experiment.
In April 1905, they were producing complete motorcycle on a very limited basis. A dealer in Chicago sold three bikes from the five built in the Davidson backyard. In 1906, Harley and Davidson brothers built their first factory on Chestnut Street. this is now the location of Harley-Davidson’s corporate business. The factory produced around 50 motorcycles that year.
In September 1907 the Harley-Davidson was officially incorporated. They expanded the factory with a second floor and expanded their production facilities, the new factory increased the production to 150 motorcycles in 1907. Another important thing in this year was when the company started to sell their motorcycles to police departments, a major market for them ever since. Also in 1907, William A. Davidson quit his job in Milwaukee Road railroad and joined the Motor Company.
By 1913, the factory was demolished and a new five-story structure built on the site along Juneau Avenue. After 1914, Harley-Davidson dominated motorcycle racing and production raised to more than 16.000 units.
In 1917 when United States entered World War I, the US military purchased over 20.000 motorcycles from Harley-Davidson. That was the first time the Harley-Davidson motorbike was used for military purpose.
By 1920 Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. There were 67 dealers worldwide and over 28.000 machines produced in average.
The Great Depression started from 1929 made the sell of Harley-Davidson fell from 21.000 to 3.700 in 1933. The company diverse their production by manufactured industrial powerplants from their motorcycle engines.
During the World War II, Harley-Davidson produced large number of motorcycles for the US Army. More than 90.000 military motorcycles were produced, mostly WLAs and WLCs models. The company received two Army-Navy “E” Awards on 1943 and in 1945, this award was for their Excellence in Production.
In 1969, American Machine and Foundry (AMF) bought the company and streamlined the production while slashed the workforce. In 1981, AMF sold the company to a group of investors for $80 million.
Modern Harley-Davidson motorcycles are fall in seven model families : Touring, Softail, Dyna, Sportster, Vrod, Street and LiveWire.
Harleys are assembled in one of four plants located in Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Some components are imported such as brakes and clutch from Italy, engine pistons are made in Austria, suspension from Japan and electronic components made in Mexico and China. In average, the number of American made components of Harley-Davidson is somewhere around 60% to 70%.
The average of a Harley owner these days is 44 year old. More than eight out of 10 Harley owners are over 35 and almost one in five is 55 or older. The oldest Harley-Davidson Club in the world was founded in Prague, Czech Republic. The oldest continuously operating Harley-Davidson dealership outside of United States is in Australia which established in 1918.
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