William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson: How a Couple of Lazy Twenty-Somethings Created an American Icon

By | April 15, 2019

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Walter Davidson, the first president of the Harley Davidson Motor Company, poses with his bike after winning the 1908 Federation of American Motorcyclists' endurance run. Source: (gettyimages.com)

The year was 1901. A new form of transportation was America’s newest obsession…the bicycle. The one-man, pedal-powered bikes were all the rage. Turn-of-the-century Americans loved the freedom and ease of transportation that the bicycle afforded them. Everyone was hooked on bikes. Except for 21-year old William S. Harley and his 20-year old childhood buddy, Arthur Davidson. They found the hard work of pedaling a bike to be…well, hard work. Wouldn’t it be nice, they dreamed if a motorized bike did all the pedaling for you? Harley and Davidson’s desire to take the pedal out of pedal-powered bikes ended with one of the greatest American icons, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 

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William Harley and Arthur Davidson in 1914. Source: (fineartamerica.com)

Asking Big Brother for Help

Harley and Davidson were convinced that their idea for a motorized bicycle was a viable one. If they could take the leg work out of riding a bike, folks could travel greater distances. In 1901, they set out to build a motorcycle, but there was just one problem. Neither one of them knew how. They conned Arthur Davidson’s older brother, Walter, to return home to Milwaukee from his job as a railroad machinist in Kansas with the promise that he could be the first to ride their new motorcycle. Walter Davidson was a bit surprised and angry to find, when he arrived home, that the motorcycle had not yet been built and that the Arthur Davidson and his friend, William Harley, expected him to build it. They had left that detail out of their letter to him.