HARLEY-DAVIDSON MORE THAN A NAME Its just one year till Harley-Davidsons 100th Birthday! But what is Harley-Davidson, you may ask? Well Im here to tell you .Get comfortable weve got a lot of ground to cover. Although the Indian motocyle was the first motorcycle to be built in the U.S. in 1901 by the Hendee Manufacturing Company of Springfield MA, and the founder George Hendee called it a motocyle instead of motorcycle. After a 50 year battle of engineering and marketing Harley-Davidson was the only survivor. The company remains a constant, surviving the Stock Market Crash, World War II, the purchase by AMF, the Recession, and finally the buy back led by William (WILLIE G) Davidson in 1981. Here starts the tale of how a (LEGEND) came to be. In 1903 William Harley along with Arthur and Walter Davidson of Milwaukee,WI began experimenting with an internal combustion engine in a small wooden shed, amazingly the shed doesnt burn down and the motorcycle that was built in it goes over 100,000 miles under 5 owners. And that was just the beginning, soon after that first bike being built; it began to happen. A cheap reliable form of transportation was needed in the country. Henry Fords automobiles were a little expensive for the average family. So a niche opens up for the motorcycle. Though there was no cutting- edge technology in their design, it worked. The trio had just brought a single cylinder engine (based on a DeDion design) and tube type bicycle frame together. Painted in gloss black, that first machine was admired by friends and family - now it gets interesting. Several parties expressed an interest in buying one after they had seen the machine in action. At that point there had been no plan by the young boys to sell t...
