The History of Harley Davidson

Harley Davidson manufactures motorcycles. They started in 1901 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. William S. Harley founded the company at 21 years of age.

His friend, Arthur Davidson, came along two years later and began working with him in their machine shop. The first motorcycle weighted 28 pounds. It used a loop frame design and a 24.74 cubic inch engine.

In the beginning of 1905, ads were placed to sell the engines and by April of that year, the complete motorcycle started production. In 1906, they built their first factory in a small wooden structure.

They began producing motorcycles for police departments in 1907. In 1911, the engine was improved that was almost twice the size as the original one. World War I found them making over 20,000 motorcycles for the military forces.

They became the largest motorcycle maker in 1920 with dealers in 67 countries. They were producing over 28,000 machines at this time. Improvements were made over the next ten years including the gas tanks and brakes.

The Depression found them producing only 4,000 machines a year. Many changes occurred in the nest twenty years. They began producing thousands of motorcycles during World War II.
In the 1960’s they consolidated some of their models. Some models were also discontinued. They began manufacturing light weight motorcycles in the 1960’s. This brought the step through frame and a larger gas tank.

In the early 1980s the company started to come back by building motorcycles that looked like the earliest models they had made. In 1990, they became the leader in sales when they manufactured the “Fat Boy.”

The Harley Davidson Museum opened in 2008 in the Menomonee River Valley. All of the archives and historic motorcycles are on display here for visitors to see.