A Baby Boomer icon……. Does this say it all? You don’t really have to read on…..

The Harley-Davidson company began with two friends, in 1903, the headquarters of HD back then was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The joint forces of William Harley and Arthur Davidson came together to begin work on the first prototype, they were joined by two additional Davidson’s, Walter and William, who were Arthur’s brothers. Walter was a mechanic, and William a toolmaker, all four of the group had a hand in the later incorporated company.

The first year, 1903, was a slimmer year than future ones would be, in terms of production, Harley-Davidson only produced 3 pre-paid motorcycles. The early motorcycles did not show the brightness of their later counterparts, as they were all gray, earning them the name ‘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 Harley-Davidson company only continued to prosper through the next decade. By 1914, nine departments of the federal government of the United States used them, including the U.S. Postal service who used more than 4,800 for rural mail delivery. In 1916, with tensions between the US and Mexico running high, the government helped to solve their border problems with revolutionary Pancho Villa with HD’s (those models included machine guns, of course.) The military love affair with HD’s continued during World War I, with fifty percent of all HD’s that were produced going to the military use overseas.

The end of the war did not hurt HD, as they took the opportunity to engage the sport of racing for the first time. The Great Depression of the following decade did affect Harley-Davidson, but the company was able to thrive nonetheless. With the advent of World War II in the following decade, HDs went into service for the government once again.

In the decade of the 1950s, the company began employing more aggressive marketing strategies and saw increased growth. The Jeep was favored by the government over the motorcycles when war once again was declared during the 1950s in Korea. Harley-Davidson responded to this by simply continuing to target their already expansive civilian consumer base.

The 1960’s brought about as much change for the company as everyone else in the United States. The company met this wind of change head on with the decision to branch out and begin producing a 3-wheeled cart for golfers. Cornering a third of the market by the end of the decade, these carts were also sold in other countries. Harley-Davidson also began marketing an extensive line of motorcycle accessories.

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. The 1980s were a decade of great financial change for many companies, and for the HD Company, this was especially true when they became a private ownership again as the result of a buyback. This decade continued the theme of change by the company continuing to strive for even greater standards of quality in their machines, this paid off when the California Highway Patrol granted them a contract in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989.

In the nineties, Harley-Davidson focused on customized motorcycles with the production of the FLSTF Fat Boy making its debut. The production of this bike allowed buyers to produce high quality items that were both evocative of previous era’s products, and contemporary enough to compete in the present-day market. The HD Company retains its strength and popularity in the dawn of the twenty-first century. There are a number of lines of bikes made by the HD company, and these include the Sporster, the Dyna, the Softail, the VRSC, and a Touring line, the amount of models that branch off from those lines are numerous.