When was harley davidson founded

Also around that time, the oldest Davidson brother named William had caught wind of what his brothers and William Harley were up to and he came to join the group too. William was an mechanic and tool room foreman for the West Milwaukee shops another railroad company , and his skill set was a definite asset in building their first motorcycle.

With the "dream team" now together, construction of the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle began in earnest in a small wooden shed located in the backyard of the Davidson family home. Harley-Davidson's first factory and headquarters. Most of the motorcycles on the roads during the early 's were essentially just motorized bicycles. Even their soon to be rival, the Indian Motorcycle Company, used a bicycle style frame with a small, under-powered motor mounted in it.

William took note of this and also looked at the loop frame design used by fellow Milwaukee motorcycle manufacturer Merkel. Basing his own designs heavily on the Merkel frame, the first Harley-Davidson prototype was built using a loop frame and cc single cylinder motor. With William away at engineering school and everyone else working full time, things moved slowly at first. A second prototype was completed around , and it still survives today.

It also was the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle to be documented as participating in a motorcycle race, which they unfortunately lost to another rider on a Mitchell motorcycle. Harley-Davidson Serial 1. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.

Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Matthew DeBord. Harley-Davidson has been around since The motorcycle manufacturer has seen it all — including two world wars — but the company is now up against new challenges. But the brand remains an American icon and its history is fascinating.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In , William Harley and Arthur Davidson founded the company that would bear their names. Harley would remain the company's chief engineer and treasurer until his death. He was an indispensable facet of the company's success and crucial in the development and introduction of new bikes. An avid racer, he also had the pleasure of testing his latest creations. He died of heart failure on September 18, ; he was Harley was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Arthur developed a friendship with Walter Harley as a child.

The two would fish together and shared an interest in biking. Arthur Davidson was the first general sales manager and secretary of Harley-Davidson. Davidson saw the value in a coalition of industry insiders and riders working toward the common end of advancing motorcycling.

Davidson was inspired to align himself closely with and support the American Motorcyclist Association. At the age of 69, Davidson was killed in a car crash just three miles south of his home. The accident claimed the lives of Davidson's wife Clara, and their friends Dorothy and Donald Jeffery. The Davidsons were survived by their three children, Margaret, Arthur Jr.

It was quite the risk considering how well paying his job was! Once the original foursome incorporated Harley-Davidson, Bill became the works manager. His responsibilities were to buy the presses and other tools necessary for the manufacturing process. Throughout his tenure, Bill would keep in close contact with factory employees. They were his eyes on the ground, keeping him abreast of everything necessary to keep the factory running smoothly. Bill died at the age of 66 on April 21, His son William G.

In addition to his position within the company, Bill was known for his charity and generosity. During the Christmas season, he would make care packages for strangers. He was also known for his amiable disposition, which extended to everyone from machinists to politicians. As a child, Walter raced and repaired bikes. As a teen, he taught himself how to be an electrician and was even known to make his own batteries. After being called to Milwaukee from Kansas to work on the first motorcycle, Walter became an indispensable part of what would eventually become Harley-Davidson.

He joined his brother Arthur and William Harley in finishing the first batch of bikes sold to the public. Walter, it turned out, was responsible for building the first bike. Walter also became a motorcycle enthusiast and won several races as a rider, including the Federation of American Motorcyclists endurance run in the Catskill Mountains. It was an accomplishment that provided a great deal of press for the motorcycle company!

It had 2, dealers in sixty-seven countries. In , the company introduced the seventy-four-cubic-inch V-twin engine on the JD and FD model motorcycles. The Harley-Davidson brand became associated with hogs because after each victory by the company team, the mascot, a pig, was taken for a victory lap. By , all Harley-Davidson models had the distinctive teardrop-shaped gas tank. All subsequent models have had this feature. In , Harley-Davidson began to sell, for the first time since , single-cylinder motorcycles again.

From to , he won consecutive National Hill-Climb Championships. Concurrently, in , he began a five-year-long consecutive winning streak with the American Motorcycle Association A. Grand National Championship. In , he won all thirteen A. National Championship dirt track races.

The next year, he set a speed record iof miles per hour on a a modified. In , front-end brakes became available on all models. That same year, the company introduced the forty-five-cubic-inch V-twin engine on the D model motorcycle. Hendee in and headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts were the only major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Second Great Depression They were the only two major American motorcycle manufacturers until Indian went out of business in Available for forty-one years until , it was popular both with police departments and as a commercial vehicle.

Starting in , Harley-Davidson introduced an Art deco-style eagle painted on motorcycle gas tanks. This was the start for graphic designs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Previously, there had only been special-order paint jobs.

In , Harley-Davidson gained another revenue stream when it began to license blueprints, tools, dies, and machinery to the Sankyo Company of Japan. The resulting motorcycle was called the Rikuo.

Bill Davidson was sixty-six years old when he died on April 21, He had been manager of the works factory. His son, William H. A second son, William G. Davidson, would go on to lead a group that purchased the company in In , Harley-Davidson produced the first WL model motorcycles. In , Harley-Davidson almost entirely suspended civilian motorcycles in favor of military production. Amongst other motorcycle models the Harley-Davidson manufactured for the U.

Army, in , Harley-Davidson produced 1, model XA motorcycles with horizontally opposed cylinders and shaft drive. It was designed for desert use. Government cancelled the contract under which Harley-Davidson manufactured it due to Allied victory in North Africa. No president or chief executive officer of the company has matched, much less surpassed, his tenure in office.

As the company expanded, it was Walter who would address the stockholders. Davidson, succeeded his uncle as President of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, a post he held until Overseas, many American servicemen got their first exposure to Harley-Davidson motorcycles, something they would not forget when they returned to the U. Harley died, of natural causes, on September 16, , in Milwaukee. He had overseen product development until his death. Harley, and Ann.

Both John Harley and William J. Harley, Junior. In November of , Harley-Davidson was able to resume production of civilian motorcycles. In , Harley-Davidson introduced the forty-five-cubic-inch flathead WR racing motorcycle. It proved to be one of the best racing motorcycles ever built. Formerly the A. Harley-Davidson began to sell what would become the classic black leather motorcycle jacket in Grand National Championships. Various iterations appeared until In the s, Arthur Davidson, Sr.

Arthur was the last of the four founders to still be alive when he and his wife died in an automobile accident in Milwaukee on December 30, Grand National Championship in dirt-track racing. Harley-Davidson riders won eighteen of the twenty-four National Championships and set six new racing records. The K model motorcycle will evolved into the Sportster.

In , Harley-Davidson celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in part with a new logo with a V to commemorate the V-twin engine that had been so successful for the company. Harley-Davidson would remain the sole American motorcycle manufacturer for the next forty-six years.

In , dirt-track racer Joe Leonard won the A.