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1903 Harley Davidson
It was actually Wiliam S. Harley's initiative. Therefore, and because it sounds better, his name came first, although the Davidson brothers were
in the majority. His blueprint of 1901 showed an auxiliary motor for bicycles, which had little more than 100 cm³ displacement and with less
than 1 hp performance was too weak and probably not quite reliable, too.
Together with Arthur Davidson, he founded the first workshop in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), just 100 miles north of Chicago. It was made of wood
(picture above) and resembled a stable with its size of little more than 3 by 4.5 m. A first prototype was produced with 440 cc (79.4 mm * 88.9 mm) and 2 kW (3 hp) at 1600 rpm.
A certain Ole Evinrude, who helped construct the engine and/or the carburetor, was the later co-founder of a company for two-stroke engines,
the world-famous Evinrude Outboard Motors Company, now part of the Bombardier group.
It is astonishing that the first prototypes could already be sold and were already known for almost legendary durability. On April 17 Walter
Davidson terminated his job in Kansas and joined the company. The first regular seller for Harley-Davidson was C. H. Lang in Chicago.
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