Harley-Davidson is an American motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, built around air-cooled V-twin engines since 1909-1911. It surv…
William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson completed their first motorcycle in 1903, built in a small wooden shed in the Davidson family's backyard. It was a single-cylinder…
The troubled 1909 V-twin, pulled from sale after reliability problems, returned in 1911 with mechanically operated intake valves in place of the earlier suction-operated…
Harley-Davidson produced 28,189 motorcycles in 1920, with dealers reaching 67 countries — a peak reached less than two decades after the company's founding.
The EL, nicknamed "Knucklehead" for rocker-box covers resembling a clenched fist, was Harley-Davidson's first overhead-valve V-twin, with a recirculating oil system that…
Harley-Davidson converted much of its manufacturing to military production, primarily the WLA, with documented figures putting total wartime output at roughly 90,000 uni…
The XL Sportster introduced the "Ironhead" overhead-valve V-twin, a lighter, sportier alternative to Harley's big touring twins that remains in production, in evolved fo…
American Machine and Foundry acquired Harley-Davidson in 1969, expanding production capacity sharply while, by widely corroborated accounts, build-quality consistency de…
Led by Vaughn Beals and including Willie G. Davidson, thirteen executives arranged a highly leveraged buyout for about $80 million, taking Harley-Davidson private and in…
The all-aluminum Evolution engine and the Softail chassis, which hides rear suspension under the transmission, both launched in 1984 — three years after the management b…
The VRSC V-Rod introduced the liquid-cooled Revolution engine, co-developed with Porsche Engineering, producing about 115 horsepower — the most technologically radical H…
Five years after the Project LiveWire concept, the production LiveWire began deliveries in September 2019, with 105 horsepower and a 15.5 kWh battery.
Harley-Davidson spun LiveWire off through a SPAC merger completed in 2022, letting it raise its own capital while Harley-Davidson retains a stake and dealer-network ties.
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