The HARLEY-DAVIDSON story

In the early 1900s, there were few books or engineering manuals on the art of motorcycle building and certainly no ready-made parts. Parts had to be fabricated from limited existing materials and plenty of good old American ingenuity. And you did not go to the local filling station for five gallons of gas. You bought it a pint at a time at the corner drugstore Harley and the Davidson had their work cut out for them.

WILLIAM BILL S. HARLEY and ARTHUR DAVIDSON, who initially met in 1901 at school, started experiments with building a two wheel vehicle powered by it's own power. Pretty soon they joined by two of Davidson's brothers- WALTER who shared his tooling talent, and WILLIAM. Aunt JANET DAVIDSON was painting by hand the original "Harley-Davidson Motor Company" logo on the tanks of the first machines. William (Bill) S. Harley 21, worked as a draftsman for an engineering company. In 1904 he went to Wisconsin University to get a degree in engineering. Arthur's father WILLIAM C. DAVIDSON, built a small wood shed (15 by 10 ft) behind their home at the corner of 38th Street and Highland Avenue, and production moved there.

There were many changes made to the design of the engin before it was first put into the frame. The first motorcycle "HARLEY-DAVIDSON" was made in 1903. It had been Bill Harley's initial idea to named the bike in that order, he had done most of the prototype testing. The bike was powered by single cylinder 167cc French DeDion-type engine (DeDion-Bouton atmospheric-intake-valve) with top speed 25mph, the design known as intake over exhaust (IOE) or pocket valve. The history does not record the first customer's full name, but a Mr.Meyer must have been very satisfied because he clocked up 6 000 miles on his Harley-Davidson before he sold it. Working evenings and weekends in the shed, they soon produced a second motorcycle, a larger single cylinder, 405cc (25cu.in.) and orders for two more rolled in. They were ready to start production after the new looped frame was finalized. By the end of 1903 they already made 4 motorcycles. The backyard shed became to small, it was doubled in size in 1905. Walter gave up his job in a railroad tool shop in Parsons-Kansas, so he became the first full time worker. Brother Arthur became Harley-Davidson's sales manager. The pocket valve motorcycles built by this year could go a full 45mph (73kph). But it still was not nothing special- the rider had to pedal backwards to slow down.

On July 4, 1905 in Chicago, something started happening. One of their bikes covered fifteen miles in nineteen minutes and two second. The following year (1906) the 'factory' moved again. They borrowed money from an uncle to buy land in an industrial part of MILWAUKEE, and they built a twenty-eight by eighty foot shop at 27th and Chestnut. Years later, Chestnut was renamed Juneau Avenue. The factory has never moved again. The number of employers grew to six, the production was 50 motorcycles and the size of the engine was slightly magnified.

Before the end of 1907, Bill Harley had accomplished his most notable-but least known-experiment, he had built his first two-cylinder engine. Historian David Wright, researching for his book "Harley-Davidson Motor Company", uncovered references to the engine. But, even as a Harley engineering experiment, it must have been disappointing. Beyond the brief reference, Wright found no details about the efforts.

Production by 1907 was up to 150 motorcycles. The same year William A. Davidson left his job. He and his brothers- Arthur and Walter, formed a corporation with Bill Harley. On their wooden shed door this qualified them to proudly paint "Harley-Davidson Motor Co." They were in business. these two families and following descendants retained a controlling portion of the stock and it continued successfully until the time the company was sold in 1969 to American Machine Foundry (AMF).

In June 1908 after the Federation of American Motorcycles star- ted there was an Endurance run in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Walter Davidson and his single-cylinder model was ready on the starting line with other 61 racers. He was the only one Harley-Davidson racer, and he was surely not favored. During the first days of the race on hard mountain track 15 racers went out. Walter was passing through the check points in great time and was still going strong.

Forty six riders, with Walter high in the standings, started the 180 mile circle around Long Island to Brooklyn the second day. After checking his performance with competitors and officials, the judges awarded him a unique winning score, a perfect 1 000, plus 5 for outstanding consistency of both rider and machine. And so began the Harley-Davidson racing legacy. Sales in Milwaukee rose to 410. The years that followed Harleys appeared at every kind of sporting event, from board tracks to road races. Their antagonists originally came from Indian and Excelsior, followed later by British bikes.

The engineer of the group Bill Harley had graduated from Wisconsin University and returned to start work on new model. Around 1909 he designed the first V-Twin, effectively grafting two of the single-cylinder engines together with 45 degrees angle between the two valves. To build and develop V-Twin engine was quite a step forward, and many companies experimented with that. It had 49.5 cu.in. and it produced seven horsepower, the top speed of this machine was 60 mph. They made 1149 motorcycles the same year. They had a reputation built on making strong machines by 1910. By 1914 the V-Twin was established as the most popular American motorcycle engine, it still is.. Harley-Davidson, Indian, Excelsior and others all adopted this engine.

From 1909 to 1913 the original factory had grown again, from 2 240 square feet to 297 110 square feet. Sales doubled to 3 168 in 1910, then rose to 5 625 in 1911 and then rose again to 9571 in 1912. The production of Harley-Davidson in 1913 was 12 904 machines, same year the company recorded 71 000 sales, since 1903.

During the First World War, the biggest Harley-Davidson motorcycles rival,- Indian, cut the price of a bike to $187.50 for cycle and $ 49.50 for sidecar. The government erdered 20 000 units at those prices. Indian expected that the profits would come from the quantity sold. They were willing to cancel the civilian market.

Harley-Davidson on the other hand knew that military participation was important, they were second after Indian in civilian sales, but they would improve if Indian would produce only for the government. So Harley-Davidson sold to the Government 7 000 motorcycle for Indian’s price, but they continued producing another 10 000 motorcycles for the home market. Arthur Davidson then sent new dealers in to areas known to be "Indian territory". During the war Indian sold to the government almost three times as many motorcycles as Harley-Davidson did, 41 000 Indian - 15 000 H-D. But after the war was over, most of the Indian’s dealers had shifted to Harley-Davidson in order to stay in business.

The fall of 1916, Arthur Davidson developed a new marketing effort. The company publication, a Dealer was replaced with The Enthusiast. This new publication would go to every registered Harley-Davidson owners and the dealers. In this way Harley-Davidson not only informed dealers about new models and development, but it also encouraged the owners to continue as customers.

In April 1919 Harley-Davidson introduced its new model W Sport Twin. This model showed a completly new technology used. The motorcycle hardly weighted 275 pounds. On July 9, 1919 , Harley-Davidson become the first motorized vehicle of any kind to climb. They become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, boasting dealers in 67 countries. In 1920 production- 28 189 motorcycles.

The Harley-Davidson factory had expandle to nearly 600 000 square feet, and now it had capacity to produce about 35 000 motorcycles. But in 1921 they sold only 17 000. The sales of the Sport Twin were bad, most of the production went to the European market.

A new "Superpower Twin," Model JD with new F- head engine and mechanically operated intake valves was made in 1922. By Model JD Harley-Davidson introduce the new big 74 cu.in., 18-horsepower twin. with a selling price of $390 in. In 1924 the JD’s heads got some changes. The old-style iron-cast pistons were replaced with the aluminium. Aluminium made the heat dissapate more efficiently. But later on in 1925, because they were not quite the succes that was hoped for, they were replaced with an iron-alloy casting with deeper but narrover piston rings that lessened friction.

By the mid-twenties, the number of significant motorcycle manufacturers had shrunk to just three. Indian was still the largest company, followed by Harley-Davidson and Excelsior, whose machines were built in Chicago by the Schwinn bicycle company, was the smallest. Production at Excelsior halted abruptly in 1931 with the Great Depression. Harley-Davidson and Indian were left to fight for the home market, that was still controlled by the founders, Harley was not bound by the demands of share holders. Indian, by contrast, was more interested in shorterm profit and so invested much less in developing new models. By the late thirties, Harley-Davidson had taken the leading position in home sales.

The first Harley-Davidson dealership, now closed, was established by C.H. Lang in Chicago and the first Harley-Davidson motorcycles were sold by him. The oldest still operating dealerships in the world are Keleg started in 1912 and Dudley Perkins operating since 1914. The Twenties were for Harley-Davidson a novelty decade, including the 74 cu.in. V-Twin (1922), the Teardrop gas tank (1925) and the front brake (1928).

One possible explanation of the "HOG" reference to Harley-Davidson motorcycles dates back to the 1920s. The factory racing team at the time brought their mascot pig along to every race. So dominant was the team, people would announce their entrance to a racing venue, exclaiming, "Here comes the Harley team and their Hogs."

In 1928, Harley-Davidson offered for sale the twin-cam Model JD-H Seventy-four at a price of $375. (A Jhmodel Sixty-one was offered as well, for $10 less.) The JD-H was the company’s answer to customer cries for performance. At $375, the single- seat JD-H was never compared with Ford’s $450 five seats Model A; the purchasing motivation was not for transportation. Harley buyers wanted sport. These bikes were fast, exclusive and expensive. The company offered eleven other models in 1928 and twelve others in 1929.

The First Flatheads (1929) - used a new valve configuration and new heads. This improvement allowed Harley-Davidson to make the motorcycle lower and also more comfortable, withdout having insets cut into the tanks to accomodate IOE mechanisms. The twenty-four cubic inch engine dimensions were unchanged from the standard Model J. These new engines had side valves and removable heads.

After the stock market crash of October 1929, sales were suffered as everyone elses in industry. By 1933 Harley-Davidson production had dropped to 3 700 motorcycles. But the company kept as many workers employed as possible during the Depression by reducing the work.time- week for each. Sometimes employess worked only two days a week, but at least they worked.

The first Knuckleheads- In 1936, with the U.S. still suffering from the Depression, Harley-Davidson bravely introduced its radically new "Knucklehead"( the valve rocker bosses resembled the shape of a closed fist, fingers down, knuckles up ), had many new patents, some of them are still found on Harley-Davidsons today, more than fifty years later. OHV Model E. The new machine had 61 cu.in. (1000cc) V-Twin engine and it produced 40 horsepower. The 74 cu.in. Knucklehead, came out five years later. The Knuckleheads standard with four-speed transmission was still shifted by hand. It was a major advance due to its overhead-valve design and recirculating oil system. The 61E was also skillfully styled, and became a big succes. After the shape of the engine’s rocker covers, it gave Harley the technical edge over great rivals Indian and became the illustrious ancestor of all modern Harley-Davidsons. In 1938 there were important developments- full valve enclosure and 1 200cc (74 cu.in.). Only 152 of these were sold in 1936, and only 126 in 1937. The selling price of the standart Knucklehead was $380.

Later when the second World War began the only bike that was wanted by the U.S. army was the BMW R71. So it issued official bid specifications that described a bike like that. Three companies were interested- Harely-Davidson, Indian and Delco. It did not matter to the government which company built the bikes, or what technology was used.

Whatever the real story was, in late-February, 1941, William and Walter Davidson and chief of engineering William Harley traveled to Washington D.C. to negotiate a sales and manufacturing contract on these shaft-drive, opposed-twin, air-cooled motorcycles. The product was coded XA.

The U.S. Army ordered 1 000 and paid $870 for each of them. These Harleys were perfect copies of the BMW forty-five-cubic-inch side-valve motorcycles. It was a masterpiece of innovation for the Milwaukee factory’s wokers. Harley-Davidson first introduced the hand-clutch and foot-shift, one push down for first, and then three up for the higher gears. These bikes produced about twenty-three horsepower and it could run thirty-five miles per gallon. As a result, the Army began to consider an order of possibly 25 000 of the XA Models. For all of that engineering the XA Harleys never saw a battle.After the war Harley-Davidson didn’t make the XA’s model any more.

There was already a military bike before the XA Model. It was called The WLA 750cc (45 cu.in), but they had low compression and low speed- 50mph (80kph). Between 1941 and 1945 Harley-Davidson manufactured about 88 000 military motorcycles for the U.S and Canadian armies.

The Knucklehead was replaced by the Panhead in 1948. Fours years after the Second World War ended, the springer front-ends were being replaced on some models by hydraulic suspension. The 61 cu.in. Panhead got the soft ride first, with other soon following. The production of 1948 was 31 163 motorcycles.

The introduction of the Panhead started a trend that continues to this day- the modern Evolution engine was developed by fitting a new top end on to the existing Shovelhead engine; the shovelhead had a new top end fitted to a Panhead engine; while the Panhead engine featured a new top end fitted to the bottom half from the Knucklehead. The name Evolution therefore,was derived from the engine’s having evolved from the Knucklehead. Obviously, some small but important changes were made over the years to enable these transitions to be made, which, for reasons of space, cannot be detailed here. Full details of these changes, however. are included in the excellent books by Allan Girdler or Jerry Hatfield.

The biggest difference between the Knucklehead and the Panhead were the aluminium heads, which was similar to upside-down baking pans. This engine was running cooler and kept the oil tight.Further important developments on the Panhead were made in 1949, when telescopic front forks were used on the Hydra Glide, in 1952 when the optional foot gear shift was added to the FLF, and in 1953, when the distinctive trumpet-shaped air horn was first used. In 1956 high lift cams were introduced; in 1958 rear suspension was used on the Duo-Glide, and in 1965 an electric starter was developed for the Electra Glide.

In 1953 when Harley-Davidson celebrated their 50th aniversary, their closest and oldest competitor, Indian, went out of business. Harley-Davidson was the only surviving American motorcycle company in the American motorcycle market. Harley-Davidson made 14 050 motorcycles 1953. 1965 was the last year of "Panhead" engine, production of this year was 36 310 motorcycles.

The first Harley-Davidson Electra Glide was made in 1965, it had 74 cu.in. (1200cc) aircooled 4-valve OHV V-twin engine. It weighted 770 pounds (350kg) and had a top speed of 95 mph (152kph). The Electra Glide of 1978 shows classic features, including big fenders, fat tires and lots of chrome. In 1995 Harley introduced the fuel-injection- Electra Glide Ultra Classic. For most people the Electra glide is the best bike built by Harley-Davidson because of her high comfort and elegant look.

After the Indian ceased production in 1953, Harley-Davidson’s competition came from abroad; lighter, faster British machines with better handling flooded the American market. In the sixties, fast, powered, and reliable Japanese motorcycles followed the British and won over American bike buyers. In response, Harley turned to the nostalgia market, making traditional looks a hallmark. This strategy brought Harley-Davidson into the 1990s as one of the select few manufactures increasing market share and production.

Motorcycles are made all over the world. Over a hundred years of motorcycle history, industries have come and gone. Most of the motorcycle companies who started build motorcycles are already gone. But there is one, that survived through all those barriers where others usually ended. Their bikes helped to win both World Wars. Harley-Davidson is still here and in last ten years it became the most powerful and the most reputable motorcycle company in whole world. Harley-Davidson is the king of the highways and forever will be.