Harley Owner’s Group was
established. By the close of the year,
there were 33,000 members in US &
Canada.
1984
HOG conducted 2 National
Rallies: one in Reno & the other in
Nashville with 3,000 in combined
attendance. ABCs of Touring Contest was
introduced.
1985
Sauk Trail HOG Chapter,
the first on record, was formed. By the
end of 1985, 49 Chapters officially
existed.
1986
Ladies of Harley
®
was established.
1988
HOG celebrates its 5th
Anniversary while Harley Davidson
celebrates its 85th Anniversary.
1989
Original HOG Mileage
Merit Program kicks off.
1991
The first official
international HOG event, The European
HOG Rally, is held in Cheltenham England
with over 3,500 members present.
1993
HOG celebrates its 10th
year Anniversary in Milwaukee with over
20,000 attending. The Canadian National
HOG Rally launches in Ottawa with 600+
members.
1994
HOG’s 250,000th member enrolls. French
National HOG Rally is held in Vannes,
Brittany. Over 1,200 members attended
1995
HOG Mileage Program is
kicked-off, replacing The Mileage Merit
Program. The 1st German National HOG
Rally attracts over 2,000 members in
Loreley.
1996
The 1st cross-country HOG
Tour travels from Milwaukee to LA with
425 riders along Route 66, the fabled
Mother Road
1997
HOG conducts the
250-rider Posse Ride from Portland,
Oregon to Portland, Maine over a 12-day
period.
1998
Milwaukee celebrates
HOG’s 15-year Anniversary with over
53,000 members from 42 countries.
1999
The HOG Members Only
website goes on-line.
2000
HOG’s 500,000th member
enrolls. The 1st South American Regional
HOG Rally is held in Iguaçu Falls,
Brazil.
2002
Milwaukee kick’s off
their 100 Anniversary with The
Harley-Davidson Open Road Tour at the
19th Annual HOG Rally in Atlanta.
2003
HOG reaches its 750,000
membership milestone. HOG celebrates its
20th Anniversary with Club HOG XX Rally
in Bend, Wisconsin
2005
The 2nd leg of the Posse Ride finishes
in Milwaukee, with over 700 riders
2006
HOG attains its
one-million member milestone. The Moscow
HOG Chapter is founded.
Harley Davidson -
A History
The Early
Days, 1900's
Silent Gray Fellow
In 1903, Mr. & Mrs. Davidson rarely
saw their three sons. None had followed their
father’s footsteps into the carpentry trade while
they were ambitiously pursuing engineering jobs.
William, the oldest, was a foreman with the
Milwaukee Railroad Company while Walter, second
oldest, was a machinist in Kansas. Arthur, the
youngest, became a patternmaker at the Barth
Manufacturing Company, also in Milwaukee.
Arthur
and his good friend, William Harley, were soon
focused on the internal combustion engine. Society
was poised in optimistic belief of the
fast-developing technology as steam power began to
transform North America and Europe. Electricity and
the petrol engine were emerging, giving way to the
promise of a higher standard of life. Mankind was
now on the brink of a new age in transportation and
it is no surprise that Arthur and William were among
the pioneers in the development of such technology.
Some said that the young Harley and Davidson wanted
to build a petrol engine to pace cycle races while
others thought they wanted to power a rowboat since
both were cycling and fishing enthusiasts. Whatever
the reason, from the winter of 1900, they began to
spend their spare time designing their first
engine. Their first 10-cubic inch engine wasn’t a
masterpiece since speed was controlled by the spark
setting. However, it ran so the two young men did
the obvious and bolted it onto a bicycle frame.
Meanwhile, Arthur had been corresponding with his
elder brother, Walter, keeping him abreast of their
progress. Walter was so interested that he left his
job in Kansas to take another in Milwaukee so he
could partake in this new enterprise. All retained
their full-time jobs until their first proto-type
putted its way onto the streets of Milwaukee.
Contrary to many young entrepreneurs of the day,
Harley and the Davidsons didn’t jump into production
until their prototype worked reliably and
consistently.
This conservative and cautious thinking typified the
way they ran their business for the next four
decades. The 10-ci engine needed more power and was
soon discarded and replaced by a larger 25-ci
(410cc) motor. This one had sufficient power but
soon vibrated the bicycle frame to pieces. Their
answer was a special-purpose frame with larger
tubing, bigger brakes, wider wheels and beefier
bearings. Yes it still had pedals, which one had to
work like mad to start, but once running it cruised
around 25mph. This coupled with the fact that it had
no gears or suspension, was evidence that it was now
becoming a true motorcycle.
The 25-ci F-head worked and kept on working. People
began to take notice and the first orders started to
trickle in. William Davidson Sr. began building a 10
X 8’ shed in their back-yard garden area, which
became the first Harley-Davidson factory. During the
winter of 1903/1904, Arthur built two bikes for
their first paying customers. Bill Harley then left
Barth Manufacturing to study for an engineering
degree and Walter left his machinist job in Kansas
to participate in the new venture full-time.
As word got around that the Harley-Davidson was a
reliable machine, more orders flowed in. To help
support their fast-growing business, an affluent
uncle, James Mc Lay lent them sufficient money to
build a “proper” factory on Chestnut Street (later
renamed Juneau Avenue), where in 1906 forty-nine
bikes were produced. For the next 70+ years,
Harley-Davidsons were produced from this site and
even now the infamous V-Twin is still produced
there. Production grew in leaps and bounds as orders
kept piling in. More staff was taken on to keep up
with the increased production. Output tripled to 152
bikes in 1907 and then tripled again the following
year. Arthur, a born salesperson, left his day job
and went out on the road to demonstrate the bike and
recruit dealers. William Sr. then became the “Works”
Manager and Harley-Davidson Incorporated was born.
The Explosive
1910's
1914 V-Twin Racer
The Silent Gray Fellow became
the nickname for the 25ci F-Head that had hardly
changed since 1903. It was dubbed Silent Gray Fellow
because it was quiet and came in only one color,
Gray. However, it was much improved over its
predecessor with the addition of sprung
leading-link forks designed by Bill Harley while
attending college. In fact, this design was used
until 1947 and then reintroduced in modernized form
in the late 1980’s. Soon after, the 25ci (410cc)
engine was beefed up to 35ci (575cc) and was
installed in a longer wheelbase frame. This model
was given public credibility by Walter in the Long
Island Endurance Run, which he won in 1908. The
5-35, as it was officially known, topped speeds of
50 mph. However, it wasn’t enough for the emergence
of the day’s motorcycle riders who traveled great
distances throughout America. As was the case with
all of Harley-Davidson’s rivals, Harley-Davidson
needed a bigger bike.
Oddly enough, Bill Harley
did not invent the V-Twin when he doubled the single
cylinder onto a beefier crankcase. Bill was merely
doing what his competition was doing to improve
their product. Although the V-Twin was fairly quick
and easy to manufacture using existing engine
components, it had its problems in its early days.
Hampered by an atmospheric inlet valve, which was
actuated by piston vacuum rather than a camshaft &
pushrod, it was actually no faster than the 49ci
twin. As a result, the 803cc 49ci was quickly
withdrawn from Harley’s product line while Bill
Harley retreated to the drawing board.
Then it reappeared in 1911 as the F-type with a
mechanical inlet valve. This resulted in high-rev
output that yielded considerably more power. Another
problem of the prototype was drive belt slippage,
which was overcome with belt tensioning. Through
1916, an insurgence of innovation from American
manufacturers put American motorcycles ahead of
European with Harley-Davidson in the lead. A clutch
in the rear hub allowed the rider to stop and start
without having to stop and restart the engine. That
was soon superceded by a multi-plate clutch and
chain drive with a two-speed gear in the hub.
Harley-Davidson further enhanced this breakthrough
in 1915 with a three-speed gearbox and automatic
engine oil pump. Also that year Harley introduced
the J-model with optional electric lighting powered
by a gear-driven magneto.
Production soared from these technical enhancements
to over 3,000 bikes in 1910, 5,000+ in 1911, 9,000+
in 1912 to more than 16,000 units the following
year. As the decade closed, Harley-Davidson sales
soared over 22,000. With only 10 years after Harley
produced their first prototype, they had become #2
in the American motorcycle market. The
longer-established Indian was still in the lead and
Excelsior was #3. A bitter and intense rivalry
ensued between Harley-Davidson and Indian for the
next 25 years. However in a fit of patriotic fervor,
Indian unleashed its entire production line to the
military during the First World War. The result was
many disgruntled Indian dealers with no product to
sell who, at the hands of Arthur Davidson,
transitioned to Harley-Davidson sales.
The Harley-Davidson/Indian rivalry was never more
apparent than at the racetracks. Although the
Harleys and the Davidsons were not racing
aficionados, they shrewdly realized that
board-racing success would translate to increased
sales. So, William Ottaway, an engineer at
Harley-Davidson, developed the short wheelbase II-K
racer which topped speeds of 90 mph. It’s racing
success was so profound that he was given approval
to develop an Eight-valve V-twin racer, producing 55
hp. The infamous Harley-Davidson “Wrecking Crew”,
the official factory V-twin racing team headed by
Harry Ricardo, swept up the racing victories all
over America until the motorcycle market collapsed
in 1920.
With the emergence of inexpensive cars (including
Henry Ford’s Model T), motorcycles were increasingly
perceived as leisure toys for adventurous young men
& women. However, motorcycle manufacturers
optimistically believed that a quiet, efficient and
inexpensive machine would entice their market back
to riding motorcycles. Harley-Davidson’s panacea for
the market’s declination was the Sport Twin of 1919,
a semi-bland flat-twin, which could barely reach
speeds of 50 mph.However, it was quiet and easily
ridden with a three-speed gearbox, enclosed drive
chain and optional lights. Unfortunately, the
Sport Twin failed to draw back the motorcycling
market and was mothballed only a few years later.
Although it was well received in Europe, it was
regarded as Harley-Davidson’s first flop. The
Sport Twin was a loan-funded revival initiative for
Harley-Davidson. This was very bad news!
Since 1903, Harley-Davidson sales grew in leaps and
bounds year after year and nearly caught up with
that of Indian, the global market leader of the day.
Then in 1919/1920, Arthur, Bill, Walter and William
disregarded their natural apprehension and borrowed
$3-million smackers (a huge sum in the day) for
expansion of their factory on Juneau Avenue
(formerly Chestnut Street). When it was finished,
the Juneau facility was the largest motorcycle plant
in the world and phenomenally produced a record
28,000 machines in 1920. The Four Founders, now
prospering in their middle age, made failure seem
impossible.
A Rough Ride,
1920's
1922 Sport Twin
Harley-Davidson’s success at the
close of the 1910’s was followed by setbacks in
1921. Sales declined by over half to 10,200 bikes
from 28,000 in 1920. Harley had a considerable
inventory of unsold bikes and a three million
dollar loan to pay off for the expansion of the
Juneau factory. The decade’s beginning was dismal at
best and had to be met with strong business rigor.
The fantastic four quickly applied survival
measures by closing the Juneau facility for one
month, abandoning the board-racing program and
cutting back on salaries by a whopping 15%! The
decision to cease their racing program had an
immediate affect on their racing staff who were
stranded at the State Fair in Phoenix. Most had to
pawn their jewelry or borrow money from the local
Harley-Davidson dealer in order to purchase
transportation fare home.
Harley’s sudden cinching
enabled them to sell their unsold inventory while
production began to recover. However, recovery
waivered and was anything but consistent. The
motorcycle boom had definitely ended, primarily due
to the availability of inexpensive cars. It took
Harley-Davidson another 20 years to match their peak
sales of 1920. The riding market wanted more power.
Harley-Davidson responded with the Superpowered Twin
in 1922 which was initially intended to be a sidecar
machine. Its 74 cubic inch V-Twin was no larger than
the original twin. It still had the overhead inlet
valve, side exhaust, total-loss lubrication and came
with magnetos and electric lights (FD & JD models
respectively).
Harley-Davidson took pride in strengthening their
business by building a strong dealer network.
Picky-Picky-Picky was the name of their game. They
were not only selective about who their dealers
were, they imposed much control over their
dealerships through franchise agreements which were
for one year only. No dealer was allowed to sell any
other make alongside a Harley. As a dealer, if you
screwed up during the term, you would lose your
franchise. However, if you abided by the rules there
were benefits derived by being a Harley-Davidson
dealer, specifically that the Harley-Davidson
product had a superior reputation and sold very
well.
Harley-Davidson and Indian were the only
manufacturers of the day manufacturing motorcycles
in large quantities. Competition between the two was
very strong and sometimes bitter. However despite
this rivalry and related illegality, they actually
met periodically to fix prices! In 1922, Arthur
Davidson met with Frank Weschler of Indian and
agreed to sell at the same price the following year.
This became an annual practice for some time to
come. In spite of this, Harley-Davidson was actually
better off than Indian by the mid 1920’s since they
sold more product, produced more efficient product
and maintained much tighter control over their
dealerships.
Nonetheless, Indian sometimes appeared to be
ahead in terms of model development. Indian had the
first flat-twin (Remember, Harley countered with the
Sport Twin) and produced the first single-cylinder
21 cubic-inch (350cc) Prince in 1925. Knowing this,
Harley-Davidson had a Prince, 350cc BSA and New
Imperial shipped to Milwaukee for ‘evaluation’.
Shortly following, Harley’s 350cc single appeared in
side-valve as well as overhead valve models. The ‘A’
version (side-valve) was primarily sold as a
utilitarian bike and the ‘AA’ (OHV) did very well in
racing and became known as the Peashooter. In a
nutshell, Indian was invariably first introducing a
new model, which Harley would soon counter with
superiority. The Sport Twin, Peashooter, Two-Cam 45
and VL were all Harley-Davidson’s responses to
Indian products.
Indian’s edge was the side-valve twin, which was
faster than the Harley’s older ioe
(inlet-over-exhaust), even though it didn’t match up
to the stamina of Harley’s ioe. The Two Cam was
Harley’s answer to this by employing a separate cam
for each valve, which provided higher compression,
higher revs and more power. Available in 61ci
(1000cc) and 74ci (1200cc) versions, the Two Cam was
$50 more than the conventional J. Further; the 74ci
could reach speeds of up to 100mph! The Indian Scout
was a preverbal problem for Harley-Davidson. In
1927, Walter Davidson delivered his promise to the
Shareholders and delivered the Model D (otherwise
known as the 45) response to the Scout challenge.
Similar to the Scout, the Model D included a 45ci
side-valve V-twin. Unfortunately, the 45 lacked the
Scout’s power and was unable to reach 60mph, while
the Scout could top 75mph. Harley-Davidson rushed a
carburetor kit into production in effort to improve
the 45’s power. Shortly following, it became
apparent that Harley’s vertically-mounted generator
was prone to failure. The 45 had clearly been rammed
through production without adequate testing before
market introduction. In time though, the 45 became a
reliable machine and was installed in the wartime
WLA and the 3-wheeled Servicar.
Was Harley-Davidson losing steam? It might have
seemed so to the time-honored riders and dealers
when they introduced the VL in 1929. The VL was a
replacement for the long-standing F/J models. The
bore, stroke and capacity was all that remained the
same on this side-valve V-twin which Milwaukee
claimed had up to a 20% power improvement.
Surprisingly, the net increase was one single
horsepower. Adding salt to an open wound, the VL
weighed 120lbs more than the F/J. In a final bid to
mitigate the situation, the flywheels were made
smaller/lighter. This provided for better
acceleration up to 50mph, but that was all it did.
Top speed and climbing capability were brazenly
lacking, not to mention the fact that the lighter
flywheels caused a great deal of vibration. It’s not
a surprise that some customers wanted the F/J & Two
Cam reinstalled while others wanted their money
back.
Milwaukee had to come up with the answers, and
quick. After spending boo-coo hours redesigning, the
answer came in larger & heavier flywheels, as well
as modified cams. However, bigger flywheels needed
bigger crankcases which called for larger frames. At
the end of the day, all 1,300 VL’s made to that
point had to be totally rebuilt to the tune of over
$100,000. This obviously caused the dealers a great
deal of heartburn, especially when they were
expected to do the rebuilding at their own expense!
It also served to present quite a blow on
Harley-Davidson’s reputation for reliability. Things
did obviously improve in the years ahead, but not
without overcoming more 'difficult' times first.
A
Rocky Recovery, 1930's
1934 VL
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 hit
motorcycle sales with a devastating blow. Ironically
though, Harley Davidson sold 21,000 that year
followed by more than 17,000 in 1930. Oddly enough,
the full impetus of the stock market crash hit
Harley Davidson in 1933 when sales declined to 3,700
motorcycles.
The Four Founders were nearing
retirement age by that time and were financially
secure. Why bother to carry on? Well fortunately for
all of us they did. Whether it was loyalty to their
employees, some whom had been with them since the
beginning, or simply their refusal to pitch away 30
years of hard work & innovation, they decided to
stick with it. They invested a lot of time and money
into an all-new bike that, for them, was a giant
leap into the unknown. The Knucklehead was a real
milestone for Harley-Davidson that ultimately
enabled them to leave Indian in the dust. However
until Knucklehead sales matured, employees were laid
off and, for those that remained, salaries were cut
by 10% while the Founders slashed their own
compensation by half!
The 45ci and side-valve VL were improved. The 45’s
frame was redesigned, doing away with the vertical
generator that was the source of the derogatory
nickname “Three-cylinder Harley”. Renamed the
“R-Series” its sales were given a big boost when
Indian temporarily ceased to manufacture the Scout,
which was taken over by Du Pont. This yielded the
mid-weight market to Harley-Davidson. Along came the
innovative introduction of a range of bright new
colors, taking their product away from dark & drab
colors. Eye-catching reds, beiges, oranges and
two-tones were given to the Harley product line,
with tank logos having stylish art-deco motifs. Once
again, Indian was the catalyst to Harley’s actions.
Du Pont’s chemical mainstream gave Indian access to
a wide range of colors and Harley-Davidson had no
choice but to follow suit. Further, Indian’s big
engine 80ci (1300cc) V-twin (The Big Chief) gave way
to the VLH having its crankpin moved outward to
provide a 4-1/2” stroke and the biggest
Harley-Davidson engine yet.
While all of this was going on, Harley’s Engineering
Department was hard at work designing the
Knucklehead. After nearly 5 years of development,
the Knucklehead reached production. Several
challenges led to the lengthy Knucklehead
development including; depleted engineering
resources resulting from budget cuts, pesky
engine-oil leaks coupled with the advent of a new
dry sump lubrication system. The Knucklehead was
finally unveiled & received well at the annual
Dealer Conference in 1936. The 61ci (1000cc)
overhead V-twin had a shorter stroke, giving it
higher rev-ability than all previous models. The
recirculating oil system replaced the outdated
total-loss system, giving fresh and cool oil
delivery that helped cope with long high-speed runs.
It incorporated a new four-speed constant-mesh
gearbox, new clutch and a new stylish frame, all of
which led to an almost immediate success of the
’61-E’, nicknamed ‘Knucklehead’ because of the shape
of its rocker boxes.
The Founders insisted that the 61-E was for limited
production only. Dealers were not allowed to order
them as demo bikes. As always, the Founders’
knowledge proved to beneficial because the
Knucklehead’s first year wasn’t trouble-free. It
continued to leak oil until valve-spring covers were
employed. Even the springs themselves broke but
these were only tooth-cutting problems and quickly
overcome. Joe Petrali set a new speed record at 136+
mph. Police Officer Fred Hamm broke the distance
record on a standard Knucklehead riding 1,825 miles
at an average 76mph in a 24-hour period (including
stops!). The successful Knucklehead led to successes
of the 1937 45ci, the 74ci and 80ci (750cc, 1200cc &
1300cc respectively) side-valve engines, all of
which were recipients of the new lubrication system
and streamlined styling.
While the Knucklehead dominated the Headlines, the
Servicar came alive with the front end of a 45
coupled with a two-wheel rear end and a
load-carrying box. Initially intended for garage
mechanics to retrieve cars needing repair, it also
proved ideal for meter maids & police and remained
in production until 1973.
After the start of the decade’s near closure of
Harley-Davidson and multiple challenges that
followed, Harley-Davidson was back to riding the
wave’s crest. They had survived now two major slumps
with difficult competitive challenges between them.
Harley-Davidson had overtaken its Indian
arch-rivalry and graduated to the #1 maker of high
performance machines!
1938 61ci Knucklehead
This page last updated on
Monday, October 29, 2007 09:25 PM
