The great American icon celebrates its first century. MOTORCYCLES
They were so young. William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson were only 21 and 20, respectively, when they built their first motorcycles for sale in 1903. Working out of a 10 x 15-ft. backyard shed in Milwaukee, the pair built only three of their bicycle-based single-cylinder motorcycles that year. But what they started has lasted 100 years and grown to become an internationally recognized symbol of America.
These two tinkerers and racers were later joined by two more Davidson brothers, William and Walter. The four went on to launch a company that has sold more than 3.7 million motorcycles worldwide. Those bikes have been raced in every type of motorcycle competition and have won …show more content…
Its design proved to be more successful than any other Harley race bike, and it is still raced today. On the Bonneville Salt Flats, factory racer Cal Rayborn broke the world land speed record for motorcycles strapped into a 16-ft.-long streamliner powered by a Sportster engine, averaging just over 265 mph.
With the introduction in 1971 of the FX Super Glide model — a hybrid of the Electra Glide and the Sportster — under the direction of Willie G. Davidson, grandson of William A., the company started 30-plus years of the factory customs program and Willie G. became an internationally recognized designer.
In 1973, the Harley-Davidson Motor Co., as it has come to be called, opened its first assembly plant outside the Milwaukee area, in York, Pa. Harley-Davidson introduced the Low Rider in 1976. Later in the year, Willie G. Davidson's all-black, coffintank, siamese-pipe version of the Sportster, the Café Racer, was released. In 1978, Scott Parker started his racing career for Harley-Davidson on the AMA dirt-track circuit and became the most successful racer in company history, accumulating 93 career victories and winning nine Grand National Champion titles in 10 years. Harley began switching over from chain to belt drive in