Two friends in Milwaukee, Wisconsin began Harley-Davidson, or HD, back in 1903, a little over one hundred years ago. Originally, it was the combined efforts of William Harley and Arthur Davidson that began the company’s first prototype, but they would be joined in labor by Walter and William Davidson, Arthur’s brothers. The group formed the HD Company – which would later be incorporated – with Walter’s abilities as a mechanic and the second William’s skills as a toolmaker.
All three of the Harley-Davidson’s motorcycles in 1903 were paid for prior to completion and these were the only bikes produced in their first year of business. Gray was the standard color of the first motorcycles, which were often referred to as the ?Silent Gray Fellows?. It took just two short years to add a number of products to the company’s list, in 1905 HD was also producing motorcycle motors, marine motors, reversible propellers, and float feed carburetors.
The publics embrace of Harley-Davidson products did not ease up one bit in the next ten years, quite the contrary. Among the biggest fans of the company was the United States Postal service, who in 1914 used 4,800 of the company’s bikes but nine departments in total used the company’s products in the federal government in that year. Pancho Villa came face to face with the government’s love affair with HD’s in 1916, when motorcycles equipped with machine guns entered the fray against him. The federal government did not ease up on their use of HD during the first World War, on the contrary, the government purchased fifty percent of all of the HD motorcycles during this period and shipped them overseas for the military to use.
The following decade was another one of prosperity, as HD began to become a racing competitor. During a time when many other businesses were forced to shut down in the 1930s, Harley-Davidson was able to struggle through the Great Depression era, and even saw continued growth of the company. With the forties came the United States’ entry into World War II, as they had during the First World War, the HD’s served the country well.
The company continued to grow throughout the 1950s, as their marketing tactics grew in aggressiveness. The climate of the Korean War was not as conducive as the European market had been for making motorcycles into military equipment and as a result, the government opted for Jeeps instead. With the government’s attentions elsewhere, Harley-Davidson marketed their products exclusively towards an already adoring non-military fan base.
Not even the great company, however, could resist the change that was always prevalent in the 1960s. The production of a completely unrelated item, the 3-wheeled golf cart, was one such result of this change. Cornering a third of the market by the end of the decade, these carts were also sold in other countries. This decade also saw the premier of the Harley-Davidson line of accessories for motorcycles.
The sport of racing became a focus of Harley-Davidson during the next decade, as the 1970s machines included great mechanical advances that made them ideal racing machines. Following a buyback in the 1980s, HD became a private enterprise again. The company’s interest in building high quality machines continued, and this caused them to win contract deals with the California Highway Patrol in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989.
In the decade of the 1990s, the Harley-Davidson Company began producing of the FLSTF Fat Boy, their most customized factory custom motorcycle yet. While keeping up with contemporary trends in motorcycle production, the bike also draws on the past. With the debut of the twenty-first century, the company continues to remain strong. There are several models of each line (which include the Sporster, the Dyna, the Softail, the VRSC, and a Touring line) in the company’s current production.