Harley-Davidson insurance

Even for non-motorcycle enthusiasts the name and badge of Harley-Davidson is incredibly familiar.

Classic films like 1969’s Easy Rider helped reinforce Harley-Davidson’s iconic status as a motorcycle manufacturer. The customised Harley-Davidson choppers used in the film vie with stars Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda for top billing.

Although the manufacturer has a particularly glamorous reputation, its origins are actually quite humble.

In 1903, in a small shed in Milwaukee in the US, William Harley and Arthur Davidson worked together on the prototype for their company’s first motorcycle. The bike was completed the same year but, not happy with that design, they immediately began work on a new prototype featuring a bigger engine.

By 1905 the first production bike, the Harley-Davidson Model No 1, was released and a year later the first Harley-Davidson factory was built on Chestnut Street in Milwaukee. The company produced 50 bikes that year and 12 months later the firm was officially incorporated¹.

In 1917, approximately 50% of Harley’s sales went to the US armed forces for use in World War I. After the end of the First World War, Harley-Davidson continued to grow its business. It completed its seven-storey-high facility on Juneau Avenue in 1920 - which still serves the company to this day as its corporate head office.

The 1920s was a significant decade for Harley-Davidson bike designs because the JD model launched in 1925. It incorporated a fuel tank with the distinctive rounded, teardrop shape that has been associated with the brand ever since.

One of the few US motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression of the late 20s and early 30s, Harley-Davidson was able to continue building and developing bikes.

As with the First World War, the US participation in the Second World War saw Harley-Davidson produce an estimated 88,000 motorcycles for the US military between 1941 and 1945.

It is not just the US Army that Harley-Davidson has impressed over the years. Harley bikes are used by the California Highway Patrol and can be found in over 3,400 police departments in the US and in 45 countries.

In addition to its US production, Harley-Davidson now makes bikes across the world in India, Brazil and more recently Thailand. The bikes have true global appeal and will continue to attract discerning bike riders as the decades roll by.