100 Fun Facts About Harley-Davidson

In which city is Harley-Davidson headquartered?

Milwaukee. The company has been based there since its founding in 1903, and the Big Twin engine it launched for 2017, the Milwaukee-Eight, is named for the city and its eight valves.

Which carmaker was founded in 1903, like Harley-Davidson?

Ford. Henry Ford's company was founded that year, and the cheap cars it soon mass-produced helped turn the motorcycle from everyday transport into a recreational machine.

Which rival was the only other major US motorcycle maker to survive the Great Depression?

Indian. From 1931 the two were America's only major motorcycle makers, and when Indian shut down in 1953, Harley-Davidson was the last one left.

Where did the founders assemble the first Harley-Davidson motorcycles?

A backyard shed. The 10-by-15-foot wooden hut in the Davidson family's yard had the company name scrawled on its door, and was later moved to the factory and kept for decades.

Which inventor, then building engines nearby, helped Harley-Davidson's founders with their first big engine?

Ole Evinrude. A few years later he developed the first commercially successful outboard boat motor and founded the company that made his own name famous.

Harley-Davidson's founders were William S. Harley and three Davidsons, who were what to one another?

Brothers. Arthur Davidson was Harley's boyhood friend, Walter joined to help finish the first bike, and eldest brother William quit a railroad job to sign on in 1907.

William S. Harley earned a mechanical engineering degree in 1907 from which school?

Wisconsin–Madison. The degree made him the company's engineering brain: he designed its engines as chief engineer and in 1914 became its first racing engineer as well.

By 1920, Harley-Davidson held which title in the motorcycle industry?

World's largest manufacturer. Only 17 years after its founding it had dealers in 67 countries, helped by years of dominating American motorcycle racing.

What angle separates the cylinders on a classic Harley-Davidson V-twin?

45 degrees. First offered in 1909, the narrow V gives the engine the low, loping rumble that became the company's signature.

The uneven firing of a Harley V-twin is often described as sounding like what?

Potato-potato. Both pistons share one crankpin, so the engine fires pop-pop and then pauses, a rhythm riders mimic by saying the word over and over.

What happened to Harley-Davidson's 1994 application to trademark its engine sound?

It was dropped in 2000. After almost six years of opposition from rivals including Honda and Yamaha, who said every V-twin of that type sounds much the same, the company gave up.

Which war was the first in which Harley-Davidson motorcycles were adopted for US military issue?

World War I. Harleys had already ridden against Pancho Villa on the Mexican border, and by 1918 almost half the company's output was going to the U.S. military.

In the World War II military model name WLA, what did the "A" stand for?

Army. Tens of thousands of WLAs went to war, and many of them were shipped to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.

The wartime Harley-Davidson XA largely copied the shaft-driven engine and drivetrain of which brand?

BMW. The U.S. military wanted a desert bike like the German R71, so Harley built a flat-twin with shaft drive, but only about 1,000 were made before the fighting left North Africa.

What was the three-wheeled delivery vehicle Harley built from 1932 to 1973?

Servi-Car. Designed in the Depression to widen the company's sales, it was aimed at garages delivering customers' cars, and in 1964 became the first Harley with an electric starter.

Which nickname belongs to the overhead-valve engine introduced in 1936?

Knucklehead. Riders named it for the rocker boxes on top of the engine, which look like the knuckles of a clenched fist.

Which Big Twin engine nickname covers the years 1948 to 1965?

Panhead. Its chrome rocker covers looked like upturned cake pans, and it brought aluminum heads and hydraulic valve lifters to the Big Twin.

The 1984–1999 Big Twin engine, nicknamed "Blockhead", was officially called what?

Evolution. Seven years in development, it ran cooler and cleaner than the engine it replaced and, unlike many older Harleys, stayed oil-tight.

To diversify in 1986, Harley-Davidson bought Holiday Rambler, a maker of what?

Motor homes. Fresh from its return to the stock market, the company bought the RV maker in 1986, then sold it off ten years later.

Which German carmaker's engineers helped develop the liquid-cooled Revolution engine for Harley's V-Rod?

Porsche. Its engineers helped turn the VR-1000 race motor into Harley's first street engine with liquid cooling and overhead camshafts.

Which company bought Harley-Davidson in 1969, ushering in an era of quality problems?

AMF. American Machine and Foundry, a leisure-goods maker, pushed for higher volume, and quality slid so far that many bikes left the assembly line incomplete.

In 1981, who bought Harley-Davidson back from its corporate parent?

A group of its executives. Thirteen managers led by Vaughn Beals paid about $80 million, then rebuilt quality with the just-in-time methods of their Japanese rivals.

Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and which other maker formed the Japanese 'big four' that battered Harley-Davidson in the 1970s?

Suzuki. The four's cheaper, more dependable machines won over a generation of new riders, and Harley's share of America's big-bike market collapsed.

Which Harley-Davidson model family, launched in 1957, was soon billed as the first of the 'superbikes'?

Sportster. It grew out of the K model, built to answer the lighter, sportier British bikes of the 1950s, and has stayed in production ever since.

Harley-Davidson bought an outside engineer's design to launch which model family in 1984?

Softail. Its rear shocks are hidden so that it looks like a rigid-framed chopper, a design Harley bought from Missouri engineer Bill Davis and launched on the 1984 FXST.

Which 1990 Harley-Davidson model has long been dogged by a false story about its name?

Fat Boy. The tale says the name fuses the atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy as a jab at Japanese rivals; in fact it describes how wide the bike looks head-on.

Which 2019 Harley-Davidson motorcycle later gave its name to a listed company?

LiveWire. It was Harley's first electric motorcycle, and in 2021 the company said it would spin the brand off as an electric-bike maker of its own, valued at nearly $1.8 billion.

Who founded the Harley Owners Group in 1983?

The company itself. Harley-Davidson launched the club as a marketing move to keep its riders close, and membership passed 90,000 within six years.

How did Harleys first come to be nicknamed "hogs"?

A race team kept a live pig mascot. From 1920 the winning riders, farm boys nicknamed the 'hog boys', carried the pig on a victory lap after each race they won.

Which US president imposed steep tariffs on large Japanese motorcycles to help Harley-Davidson recover?

Ronald Reagan. The five-year tariff began in 1983, and Harley recovered so quickly that in 1987 it asked for the protection to end a year early.

The Italian partner that built Harley-Davidson's small Sprint singles in the 1960s was best known for making what?

Aircraft. The partner was Aermacchi: Aeronautica Macchi had built seaplanes and warplanes since 1912 and turned to motorcycles after World War II.

What was the Topper, introduced by Harley-Davidson in 1960?

A scooter. Harley built it to cash in on the scooter boom of the late 1950s, but it never caught on and was dropped after 1965.

Which sportbike company did Harley own until shutting it down in October 2009?

Buell. Erik Buell built American sportbikes around Harley V-twin engines; Harley took a minority stake in 1993 and control in 1998, then closed the brand in 2009.

For roughly how much did Harley sell MV Agusta back to Claudio Castiglioni in 2010?

3 euros. Harley had paid $109 million for the Italian sportbike maker in 2008, and to be rid of it also had to leave 20 million euros in the company's accounts.

Since the 1980s, what has carried power to the rear wheel on most Harley-Davidsons in place of a chain?

A toothed belt. Kevlar belts arrived in 1980: cleaner than a chain and needing far less adjustment, they soon became standard across the range.

Which music star was the secret headliner of Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary concert in 2003?

Elton John. His name was kept secret until the night, but it was Kid Rock, earlier on the bill, who drew one of the warmest receptions from the crowd.

Which Harley factory location is in Pennsylvania?

York. In the early 1970s the company moved final assembly of its motorcycles to the Pennsylvania plant, while engines went on being built in Wisconsin.

Harley-Davidson announced expansion into which country in 2009, then shut its operations in 2020?

India. Sales began in 2010, but demand stayed weak, and in September 2020 the company said it would stop selling and building bikes there itself.

Styling chief Willie G. Davidson, who joined Harley-Davidson in 1963, was related to its founders in what way?

A founder's grandson. Willie G. mingled with riders in beard, jeans and black leather, and designed the 1971 Super Glide, the bike that pioneered the factory custom.

In which city did Harley-Davidson's first dealer, C.H. Lang, set up shop?

Chicago. Lang sold some of the very first machines the founders built, and by 1912 the company had more than 200 dealers across the country.

In 1995 a 30th-anniversary model became the first production Harley-Davidson with which feature?

Fuel injection. The electronic system began as an option on the 30th-anniversary Ultra Classic Electra Glide, the first step in retiring the carburetor from the whole range.

Harley-Davidson briefly sold what non-motorized product from 1917 to 1923?

Bicycles. They were built for Harley by a sewing-machine company in Dayton, Ohio, and sold through its motorcycle dealers, but sales disappointed and the line was dropped.

Which styling feature, introduced in 1925, has shaped the look of Harley-Davidsons ever since?

The teardrop gas tank. It set the basic profile of every Harley that followed, and decades later the company even applied to trademark the shape.

The 1949 Hydra-Glide took its name from Harley-Davidson's first use of hydraulic what?

Front forks. Oil-damped telescopic forks replaced the old leading-link springs that year, and the smoother ride began the long line of Harley 'Glide' models.

Which customers, first won around 1908, have bought Harley-Davidsons for their work ever since?

Police departments. The first police Harley went to Detroit in 1908, and steady orders from police forces helped carry the company through the Great Depression.

Which annual South Dakota rally, begun in 1938, is a pilgrimage for Harley riders?

Sturgis. Ironically, the first rally in 1938 was staged by the Jackpine Gypsies, a club whose riders favored a rival make, as a weekend of races and stunts.

The star-spangled 'Captain America' chopper, an old Harley-Davidson, starred in which 1969 film?

Easy Rider. Harley-Davidson long kept its distance from the outlaw chopper scene the film celebrated, yet a replica of Peter Fonda's bike now stands in the company's own museum.

In 1965, after six decades in the founders' families, Harley-Davidson did what?

Sold shares to the public. The two founding families gave up control, and within four years the company had been swallowed by a conglomerate.

For its fiberglass know-how, Harley-Davidson bought into a maker of which product in 1962?

Boats. Harley took a majority stake in the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company, and within a year its plant was molding fiberglass parts for Harley's motorcycles.

In the late 1990s Harley-Davidson set up an assembly plant deep in the Amazon, in which country?

Brazil. The plant is in Manaus, which Harley chose because the city is a free-trade zone: American-made parts are shipped in and the bikes are put together there.

Which daredevil made his 1970s headline jumps on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 built for dirt-track racing?

Evel Knievel used the XR-750 from December 1970 until his final jump in 1977, and one of his bikes went to the Smithsonian.

Which 1991 blockbuster made an icon of a big Harley-Davidson later displayed in the company's museum?

Terminator 2 earned the bike a lasting place in American pop culture, and the same model returned in Terminator Genisys.

A Harley-Davidson found on a British Columbia beach had drifted over 4,000 miles after a tsunami in which country?

Japan was struck by the tsunami in 2011, and the bike that crossed the Pacific became an exhibit at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Which pope was given a Harley-Davidson for the brand's 110th anniversary and put it up for auction?

Francis autographed the Dyna he was given in 2013, and its sale by Bonhams raised money for a hostel and soup kitchen in Rome.

Which outlaw motorcycle club, founded in California and nicknamed the 'Red & White', typically rides Harley-Davidsons?

Hells Angels in North America are required to ride American-built motorcycles, and Harley-Davidsons are the most common choice in the club.

Which leisure vehicles did Harley-Davidson begin building in 1963, turning out thousands with three or four wheels?

Golf carts wearing the Harley-Davidson name rolled out by the thousand before the line was sold on, ending up with Columbia Par Car.

Which name, later famous on hulking GM off-roaders, did Harley-Davidson give its tiny 125 cc two-stroke of 1955?

Hummer honoured Dean Hummer, an Omaha dealer who led the country in sales of Harley's two-strokes, and the stripped-down bike came with no battery, horn or brake light.

Which act ended the Magic Tour with a show at Harley-Davidson's 105th anniversary celebration in 2008?

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band closed the tour at the party with crowd-pleasing covers, ending on Born to Be Wild.

On which Florida sands did Joe Petrali ride a streamlined Harley-Davidson to a 136 mph record in 1937?

Daytona saw Petrali clocked at 136.183 mph on an experimental streamlined Harley, an American mark that stood for 11 years.

The Davidson family behind Harley-Davidson traces its roots to the county of Angus in which country?

Scotland was home to the Davidsons until Alexander 'Sandy' Davidson emigrated to the United States with his wife and six children, the founders' father among them.

Which TV crime drama follows a California outlaw club whose members ride black-painted Harley-Davidson Dynas?

Sons of Anarchy let each member style his own Dyna, and in the final season Jax Teller rebuilt and rode his late father's 1946 Harley.

Which actor played a biker named Harley Davidson opposite Don Johnson's Marlboro Man in a 1991 action film?

Mickey Rourke rode a chopper called Black Death in the film, which took only $7.4 million in the US against a budget of at least $18 million.

Which class of motorcycle is defined as echoing American machines such as the Harley-Davidsons of the 1930s to 1960s?

Cruiser is the label for bikes in that old American style, a look that makers from Honda to Moto Guzzi have since built models to evoke.

Harley-Davidson's Big Twin engine family of 2016 carries 'Eight' in its name because it has eight what?

Valves come four to a cylinder in the engine, which also went back to a single camshaft, the layout Big Twins had used from 1936 to 1999.

In the name of Harley-Davidson's Twin Cam 88 engine of 1999, the number 88 stands for what?

Cubic inches are how the engine's displacement was counted, and 88 of them, from a 3.75-inch bore and 4-inch stroke, come to about 1,450 cc.

Harley-Davidson's Big Twin engine of 1966 earned its nickname because the rocker covers resemble an upturned what?

Coal shovel was the shape riders saw in the rocker covers, so the engine became the Shovelhead, and Harley claimed it made 10 more horsepower than its predecessor.

Which Harley-Davidson tourer took its name in 1965 as the first Big Twin with a push-button starter?

Electra Glide marked the arrival of electric starting on the big FL tourer, and the name later titled a 1973 film about an Arizona motorcycle cop.

Which nickname did Harley-Davidson's WLA earn as Allied soldiers rode it across occupied Europe in the 1940s?

Liberator stuck because the bike was seen under the troops freeing occupied Europe, and some 30,000 went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.

Jochen Zeitz, who became Harley-Davidson's CEO in 2020, had spent 18 years running which sportswear brand?

Puma had Zeitz as its chairman and CEO for 18 years, and he started at Harley-Davidson as acting boss in February 2020 before getting the job outright that May.

Which French film star recorded the 1967 Serge Gainsbourg song titled 'Harley Davidson'?

Brigitte Bardot released the Gainsbourg-penned number as a single from her album Show, with a track called Contact on the B-side.

Which singer, listed as a self-employed vocalist, bought a Harley-Davidson KH from a Memphis dealer in January 1956?

Elvis Presley paid $50.15 a month for the red and white bike, and that May he was the cover star of Harley-Davidson's own magazine, The Enthusiast.

Which movie monster names the 13-foot, two-engine custom Harley-Davidson in the company museum's Custom Culture gallery?

King Kong, the work of customizer Felix Predko, is the centrepiece of a gallery devoted to the brand's mark on American and global culture.

Harley-Davidson's patented 'Ful-Floteing' feature of 1912 used a coil spring inside the frame to cushion which part?

The seat rode on a spring that could be set to the rider's weight and gave more than 76 mm of travel, a design Harley-Davidson kept until 1958.

Serial Number One, a glass-encased centrepiece of Harley-Davidson's museum, holds which distinction?

Earliest surviving example of a Harley-Davidson, it anchors a museum holding more than 450 of the company's motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of artifacts.

Which nickname did early Harley-Davidsons carry in advertisements that played up their polite, effective mufflers?

Silent Gray Fellow suited a company selling respectability, with early ads aimed at refined-looking ladies with parasols and men in conservative suits.

Bessie Stringfield, owner of 27 Harleys and rider through 48 states, was dubbed the Motorcycle Queen of which city?

Miami gave Stringfield her title after her skill and antics at motorcycle shows caught the local press, and she entered the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2002.

Which slang name do riders give Harley-Davidson's touring family, which includes the Road King and Street Glide?

Baggers began as a jokey, sometimes disparaging label for Harleys hung with luggage, and the term has since spread to touring bikes of any make.

Which Harley-Davidson, powered by the 150 hp Revolution Max engine, took the company into the adventure-bike market?

Pan America straddles adventure, sport-touring and dual-sport riding, trading strength in one area for adaptability to commuting, touring and some off-road use.

Harley-Davidson threw a 115th anniversary party in 2018 in which European capital, home of the oldest Harley club?

Prague has had a Harley-Davidson club since 1928, and the 2018 party there drew more than 100,000 visitors and 60,000 bikes.

Which publisher and Fabergé egg collector amassed Harley-Davidsons and joined the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999?

Malcolm Forbes pursued motorcycling alongside yachting and ballooning, and his collections ran to specially shaped hot-air balloons as well as Harleys.

Which channel aired Harley and the Davidsons, a 2016 miniseries dramatising the motorcycle company's early years?

Discovery screened it as a three-night event, with Michiel Huisman as Walter Davidson and Robert Aramayo as William Harley.

Which snowmobile maker launched the Victory brand in 1998 to compete directly with Harley-Davidson's big V-twins?

Polaris based Victory in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and kept its heavy American-style bikes on sale until it began winding the brand down in January 2017.

Which nickname is used for the full fairing on many Harley-Davidson tourers other than the 'Sharknose' Road Glide?

Batwing fairings are named for their unmistakable outline and turn with the handlebars, while the Sharknose is fixed to the frame and carries a dual headlight.

Which nickname did Harley-Davidson's factory racing team carry in the 1910s and 1920s, when Ray Weishaar rode for it?

The Wrecking Crew took shape as Harley-Davidson came to dominate American motorcycle racing after 1914, with Weishaar among its Class A champions.

On Harley-Davidson's limited-edition premium models, a programme begun in 1999, the letters CVO stand for what?

Custom Vehicle Operations takes a few production models each year and adds bigger engines, costlier paint and touches such as ostrich leather and gold leaf.

The WLC was a version of Harley-Davidson's Second World War WLA built for the military of which country?

Canada took the WLC while the WLA went to American and allied forces, and some 90,000 military Harley-Davidsons were built during the conflict.

A Harley-Davidson XR-750 featured in The Art of the Motorcycle, a 1998 blockbuster show at which Manhattan museum?

Guggenheim attendance hit an all-time high for the exhibition, which architect Frank Gehry designed for the museum's curved rotunda.

Before 1917, US troops had already ridden Harley-Davidsons on an expedition into Mexico hunting which revolutionary?

Pancho Villa's pursuers gave the bikes an early military trial, and the US military later bought more than 20,000 motorcycles from Harley-Davidson.

An Italian rider won four world titles for Harley-Davidson's factory team in the mid-1970s in which sport?

Road racing brought the team the 250cc world crown in 1974, 1975 and 1976, plus the 350cc title in 1976, far from the brand's dirt-oval heartland.

The plans for Harley-Davidson's small post-war two-strokes came as war reparations from which German motorcycle maker?

DKW's RT 125 drawings were also handed to Britain and the Soviet Union, so BSA and a Moscow factory turned out close copies of the same lightweight.

Which Schwinn-owned marque ranked third in the US motorcycle market, behind Harley-Davidson, before closing in 1931?

Excelsior built the first motorcycle officially timed at 100 mph, in 1912, but the Depression persuaded its owner to shut it down in September 1931.

Which Italian firm entered motorcycle production in 1978 by buying Harley-Davidson's factory at Varese?

Cagiva was turning out 40,000 bikes a year by 1979, and it kept many of the old Harley-Davidson models in production under its own badge.

Which name did Harley-Davidson's 1930s licensee in Asia adopt for the V-twins it kept building into the 1950s?

Rikuo began by using Harley-Davidson's own tooling under licence, a link the American company chose not to publicise.

Harley-Davidson's headquarters occupies the site of its 1906 factory on which street, once called Chestnut Street?

Juneau Avenue has been the company's address ever since, and by 1913 a new five-story factory there filled two blocks.

Which women's riding club, founded in 1940 and backed by Arthur Davidson, had Dot Robinson as president for 25 years?

Motor Maids was one of the first women's motorcycle groups and has been called the oldest existing women's club in the United States.

A Harley-Davidson centenary statue stands in Littleport, birthplace of William S. Harley's father, in which country?

England's county of Cambridgeshire unveiled the monument in 2003, in the village where the elder William Harley was born in 1835 before he left for the United States.

Harley-Davidson co-founder Arthur Davidson, who lived on a dairy farm, died in 1950 at the age of 69 in what way?

A highway collision three miles from his farm killed Davidson, his wife Clara and two other people on 30 December 1950.

Which actor rode a Harley-Davidson alongside the hero in 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

Shia LaBeouf's ride reached cinemas the same year the company opened its museum, where a video screen replays classic Harley moments from film and television.

Harley-Davidson's 1920s racers hit 100 mph on steeply banked tracks, notorious for fatal crashes, surfaced with what?

Wooden boards made the tracks fast but fatalities were common, and the Harley-Davidson Museum hangs a replica section in the air with period racers attached.

Which actor played Jax Teller, the Harley-riding heir of a California motorcycle club, on television from 2008 to 2014?

Charlie Hunnam's character begins to question the club after discovering a manifesto written by his late father.