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William Harley and Arthur Davidson are the founders of Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
William S. Harley was born on December 29, 1880. When he was 15, he began to work in a bicycle factory. His childhood friend, Arthur Davidson (1881-1950) also started to work when he was very young. “Both boys were fond of mechanics and tried to learn as much as it was possible bicycles and, later, motorized bikes” (Lynch. 2003).
William Harley was an ambitious person. He was the only college graduate among the four founders of Harley-Davidson and was very skillful in riding. After several years of studying, Harley became a good draftsman.
Arthur Davidson was fond of fishing in the beautiful Wisconsin wilderness, which inspired him to create a motorcycle that would “take the hard work out of pedaling a bicycle” (Davidson, pp. 78-81).
William Harley was also skillful in practical things. He participated in a lot of endurance races, tested his own models. Being a talented rider, William knew what the riding public desired. His true judgment and skills had an important influence on motorcycle design.
Harley was working as a draftsman, when he and his friend Arthur Davidson built their first motorcycle.
But their story began at the turn of two centuries. At the time of the steam and internal combustion engines two fishermen William Harley and Arthur Davidson got tired of working the oars. Having read popular science magazines, yesterday’s schoolboys, had made for their old boat single-cylinder 167-horsepower 1.3 vat engine. The boys were surprised when it started on the first try! However, there was one secret of their success, his name was Emil Krieger. Before arrival to the U.S., the German draftsman was working in Paris, for the company Aster, which was supplying parts for the De Dion. He not only supplied the young designers with the drawings and charts of one of the most advanced engines of the time, but also “provided all possible assistance in its creation and debugging” (Hamner. 2009).
It is understandable, that after such success, William and Arthur got tired to pedal. And in early 1901, William S. Harley, who was only 21 years, made a project for a small engine with the capacity of 7.07 cubic inches. The next couple years William Harley and his good friend Arthur Davidson worked on their motor-bicycle using the garage in the house of their friend Henry Melka. The work was completed in 1903 with the help of Arthur’s brother, Walter Davidson. Upon completion of boys realized that their creation is not able to conquer even little hills of Milwaukee without pedal assistance. “For this reason, Harley and Davidson decided to leave their bicycle with the engine as the first, not a very good experience” (Girdler p. 67). After some time they started to work on a new, more modern motorcycle model. This first “real” Harley-Davidson motorcycle had a big engine of 24.74 cubic inches (405 cm ³) with 9-3/4 inch flywheels weighing 28 pounds. The new advanced frame was similar to a motorcycle frame 1903 Milwaukee Merkel (designed by Joseph Merkel, creator of Flying Merke). The new tubular frame and a powerful engine made the new model of Harley-Davidson not a bicycle with a motor, but a real motorcycle in the sense we understand it now. In developing the new engine guys were helped by an engineer Ole Evinrud, one of the pioneers of American Motors. A prototype of the new bike was set up in a shed measuring 3 to 5 meters, which was situated in the courtyard of the Davidson family. However, most of the major components were manufactured in other places, mostly in the workshop of railway depot West Milwaukee, where the elder brother, William A. Davidson, worked as toolmaker. The prototype was finished on September 8, 1904 and on the same day participated in motorcycle racing at State Fair Park. The Ghost Rider was Edward Hildebrand, who took the fourth place. That race was the first documented appearance of the motorcycle Harley-Davidson. In January 1905 in the journal “Automobile and Cycle Trade Journal” there appeared the first small advertisement that announced that the engines of the company Harley-Davidson would appear in the free sale (Davidson. p. 134). In April, the complete motorcycles began to be sold, but in very limited quantities. That year the first dealer of Harley-Davidson, Charles Land from Chicago, has sold three of the dozen motorcycles assembled in the barn. Later the original shed was put in the center of the factory on Juneau Avenue, where it was as a memory of the humble origins of the cult motorcycle company. Later, in 1970`s, unfortunately, the shed was accidentally destroyed by contractors, who were employed to clean the factory yard.