The True Story of

America’s Greatest Vehicle

TEXT and LAYOUT by LIAM GREENAMYRE

otorcycle riders say that it’s hard to explain the feeling to somebody who hasn’t ridden. They speak of a heighten-ing of senses - hearing the roar of the

engine, feeling the wind whip by, and being in touch with the open road and great expanses of the outdoors. They speak of a feeling of power during a roll-on, or the thrill of leaning through a turn. But more than anything

else, they speak of freedom. Of escaping from everyday life, of an adventure that is not about the destination, but about the journey itself.

No motorcycle can capture the thrill of riding quite like a Harley-Davidson. Although Harley-Davidson enjoys unpar-alleled customer loyalty and a dedicated connection to riders, the company’s jour-ney through the years has not been an easy one. Despite more than once coming to the brink of collapse, Harley-Davidson has withstood the test of time to become not only the longest-standing motorcycle manufacturer in the world, but also a tes-

An early racer powers through a curve on a dirt track The founders

and associ-ates outside the factory in 1910.

tament to the strength of American inge-nuity and persistence.

merica at the dawn of the twen-tieth century was quite a different place from what it is today. Although the Indus-trial Revolution had begun to change the lives of everyday Americans, many were still without electricity. Streets were made of cobblestone, gravel, or even dirt, and no highways existed to transport people between cities. People walked from place to place, or rode bicycles or horses if they were lucky enough to own one. Travel-ling across the country was a lengthy and dangerous prospect.

At the turn of the century, Milwau-kee was a typical manufacturing town. It was notorious for brutal winters, fuelled by the freezing winds blowing off of Lake Michigan, but it was home to a number of successful mills and factories. Plants were often staffed with immigrant labor who

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endured rough and dangerous conditions to provide for their families. Yet it was here that two lifelong friends would create the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a vehi-cle that would go on to leave an indelible mark on America’s future.

rthur Davidson and Bill Har-ley were next-door neighbors, and had worked at the same metal fabricator in their early twenties. They were also avid hobbyists in their spare time, spending after-hours tinkering and inventing. The two became fascinated with the idea of creating a motorized bicycle from the ground up.

Enlisting the help of a friend from the plant, Arthur and Bill spent their nights and weekends in the Davidson family basement at 315 North 37th Street, build-ing each part from scratch. They toiled for several years, recruiting Arthur’s brother Walter and building a ten by fifteen shack in Davidson’s backyard, which bore the

name “Har-ley Davidson Motor Co.” on the door. After two years of la-

bor, they c r e a t e d their first prototype engine. It was single cy l inder m o t o r with displacement of just 106 cubic cen-timeters, and the pair found that it lacked the power to get up many of Milwaukee’s steep hills.

And so they returned to the drawing board. They created another, larger pro-totype with another engine design, and by 1906 the company was selling fifty motor-cycles per year. The Harley-Davidson leg-end had begun.

or the average American, own-ing a motorcycle was an expensive and potentially risky investment. It would likely replace their horse or bicycle, and customers were not yet convinced that these machines were trustworthy, safe or reliable.

It was with this in mind that Harley-Davidson’s racing heritage began. The in-dustry’s first race events were endurance competitions – long-distance races over

An early model Harley-Davidson, still featuring pedals to start the engine

The first Harley-David-son motorized bicycle

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every type of rugged terrain – and the company aimed to prove that its motor-cycles could withstand any test. In 1908, Harley’s fifth year of production, Walter Davidson entered the first competition both for the company and for himself as a rider. Competing against more than sixty other riders, Davidson rode for two days through 365 miles of New York’s Catskill Mountains. He not only won the race, but did so with a perfect score. Davidson re-vealed after the race that he had been so confident in the motorcycle that, unlike other riders, he hadn’t even bothered to carry spare parts. Word of this feat spread fast, and Harley-Davidson’s reputation be-gan to grow.

Endurance competition, however, was not the only form of motorcycle racing.

Speed racing was also popular, taking place on large wooden tracks with high, steep banks. To add to the danger, the tracks would quickly become extremely slippery – early motorcycles vented oil af-ter running it through the engine. Many racers died or were seriously injured. Al-though the founders declined to partici-pate, riders nonetheless used Harley-Da-vidsons and helped to raise awareness of the company’s motorcycles.

purred by a growing reputation for quality and reliability, Americans began to find many commercial uses for Harley-Davidsons. Deliveries could be completed in half the time and without the need to feed and house a horse. The United States Postal Service soon followed suit. In 1908, Harley made its first sale to the Detroit Police department, and orders from other police forces began to roll in. By the Great Depression, more than 3,000 police depart-ments around the country were enforcing the law using Harley-David-sons.

In some races, riders had to sprint to their bikes, kick start them, and race to the finish line.

A racer on the perilous board tracks

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Harley-Davidson’s first sale to the mili-tary came in March of 1916, after the Mexican general Pancho Villa led an ex-pedition into America and killed several citizens in Columbus, New Mexico. The War Department requested motorcycles

to use in the South-west’s desert terrain, and Harley-David-son delivered, with custom motorcycles including sidecars that could be used with mounted ma-chine guns. The War Department was impressed not only with the qual-ity of the bikes, but also the speed at which they were delivered. So began Harley-Davidson’s

long association with the armed forces.In the first year of World War I, the

War Department purchased nearly half of Harley-Davidson’s entire production for the year – more than 18,000 motorcy-cles. The bikes were used in scouting mis-sions and to transport messages, and more

than 90,000 ended up being used in the war effort. Most of the bikes shipped to Europe ended up staying there, having the unintended consequence of establishing the company’s reputation overseas.

y 1920, Harley-Davidson was the

largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world and sold bikes in 67 countries. The period after the war was difficult, how-ever, with a troubled economy and the explosion of the automobile. When the Great Depression hit, only Harley-David-son and one other company were able to weather the storm, though there had once been over 150 competitors. Harley had to adapt quickly, and was only barely able to survive.

It was during this time that the com-pany introduced its three-wheeled, utili-tarian Servi-Car and began to diversify its styling at a time when it could not afford to develop new engines and prototypes. Harley-Davidson went from offering only olive-green bikes with tank lettering to of-

Police depart-ments were some of the earliest com-mercial buyers of Harleys.

An American soldier takes cover behind his Harley-Davidson WLA during training

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fering a more diverse color selection and the opportunity for custom paint jobs – a selling point that remains one of Harley’s core competencies even today.

hen World War II broke out in 1939, Harley-Davidson responded to increased demand by unveiling the WLA, a military version of their 45 WLD. This new model was used for everything from scouting to overall reconnaissance, and was loved for its abilities on rough ter-rain and in tight spaces. By the time the United States entered the fray, almost every bicycle the company manufactured was being used for the war. Shortages of materials meant that civilians often had to wait for replacement parts, but the war again paid dividends for Harley. Return-ing soldiers often wanted to continue riding, and civilian demand increased significantly after the war.

In 1953, rival manufacturer Indian closed, leaving Harley-Davidson as the only American motorcycle manufacturer. Lifting the import tariffs, however, opened the door to stiff competition from British motorcycles including Norton and Tri-umph, and the U.S. soon saw an influx of smaller Japanese bikes. Although foreign

competitors were a serious challenge to Harley-Davidson, they helped to solidify the concept of an American motorcycle.

The period after World War II her-alded a sea change in motorcycle culture. What started with a small number of rid-ers – a break from the norms of society, a distinctive style, and a certain lawlessness – came to be associated with the motorcy-cle itself, and would change perceptions of the machine for generations.

Groups of riders began using their motorcycles as an unmistakable statement of self-expression. They began modifying their motorcycles, stripping them down to make them lighter and faster. They would remove the front brakes and fenders, re-place the heavy wheel with a lighter rim and tire, mount smaller seats directly to the frame, and shorten or “bob” the rear

Bikers ride through traffic in New York City

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fender. Groups of these riders, clad in black, military-style leather jackets, began to garner a bad reputation.

The situation came to a head in the summer of 1947, at a motorcycle rally

in Hollister Cali-fornia. Thousands were in attend-ance – many times more than had been expected. Bikers were forced to sleep on side-walks and in parks. In the crowded, alcohol-fueled en-vironment, things began to get out of hand. Fights broke out, and more than

fifty were arrested for public intoxication, reckless driving, and disturbing the peace. There were sixty reported injuries, three of them serious.

The national press, however, took the story and sensationalized it. Life maga-zine featured staged photos of public dis-order, and reported that the bikers had ‘taken over the town,’ riding their bikes into bars and restaurants and terrorizing

citizens. With the release of the movie The Wild One, par-tially based on the events in Hollister, Hol-lywood had found a new bad-guy arche-type – motorcycle gangs.

arley-Davidson was deeply con-cerned about the deteriorating reputation of motorcyclists. But they would soon find that to be the least of their problems.

The company had become the target of hostile takeover attempt by the manu-facturing conglomerate Bangor Punta, maker of everything from guns to yachts to aircraft. Harley-Davidson’s leader-ship realized that in order to stay viable, they needed to be acquired by a company that shared their vision and had the deep pockets to help them in the next stage of their development. In January of 1969, the company closed a deal with American Machine and Foundry.

AMF quickly made its presence felt in Harley-Davidson’s factories. They in-sisted on putting the AMF logo alongside Harley-Davidson’s on the motorcycles’ gas

Life magazine published this staged photo to sensational-ize what had happened in Hollister.

A scene from The Wild One

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tanks, and wanted to turn the company into a high-volume manufacturer with a focus on nothing but the bottom line. The quality of the bikes declined, and rider loyalty began to deteriorate.

Sales slipped with the recession of the 1970s, and AMF was not seeing the quick return on investment they had hoped for. AMF began looking for a buyer for Har-ley-Davidson, but found the market cold. One afternoon, Harley’s CEO called a meeting and proposed an exciting, but highly risky maneuver: a highly leveraged buyback of the company by the company’s leaders. Although the move was financially perilous for the buyers, on June 16, 1981, Harley-Davidson once again became an independent company.

Word spread quickly in the motorcycle community, and riders were seen covering or painting over the AMF logo on their motorcycles and memorabilia. The shirts printed for the occasion summed up all the

e x c i t e -m e n t – “The E a g l e S o a r s Alone”.

Harl ey -Dav id son’s troubles, however, were far from over. In 1983, Ronald Reagan and the Interna-tional Trade Commission granted the company’s re-quest and imposed a 40% tariff on heavy motorcy-cles imported from over-seas, allowing the compa-ny to continue to compete. But by 1985, the company was still in trouble and in danger of insol-vency. In October of that year, the com-pany’s lead lender told Harley-Davidson that it would no longer continue lending to them above their credit limit. The com-pany had until the end of the year to find new financing, or Harley-Davidson would go bankrupt.

The company’s CEO and CFO ap-proached every major lender on Wall Street, only to be rejected. Finally, the se-curities firm Dean Witter made a verbal commitment. But panic struck yet again when Dean Witter announced that there was no way they could close the deal be-fore the new year. On December 31, 1985, Harley-Davidson CFO Rich Teerlink begged the company to keep their office

The Harley-Davidson buyback team

A Harley-Davidson dealership spray paints over the AMF logo

open late, then literally ran desk to desk to gather the needed signatures. The money was transferred with literally minutes to spare, and Harley-Davidson avoided bankruptcy by the narrowest of margins.

Less than six months later, the com-pany conducted an Initial Public Offering, making its stock available to the public for the first time. The stock was met with great enthusiasm and continued to per-form well. 1986 and 1987 were landmark sales years, and in March of 1987, the company made a bold and unprecedented move. With a year left before the ITC tar-iffs expired, Harley-Davidson announced that it was strong enough to compete with any company in the world, and requested that the tax protecting the company be lifted. The media had a field day with this

announcement, and soon a letter came announcing Ronald Reagan’s intention to visit Harley-Davidson’s York plant.

On this momentous occasion, Presi-dent Reagan declared that American busi-ness, given the opportunity to compete fairly, could take on any competition the world had to offer, thus cementing Harley-Davidson’s legacy as not only a maker of legendary motorcycles, but a triumph of America’s dogged determination in the face of any challenge.Ronald

Reagan’s 1987 visit to the Harley manufactur-ing plant

Racer Joe Petrali finishes a race at Hor-nell, New York