In 1900, 15 years after Gottlieb Daimler created the world's first powered two-wheeler, when William Sylvester Harley and Arthur Davidson got together in a Milwaukee basement with motorcycling in mind. After being impressed by a variety act where comedienne Anna Held rode a French-built motorcycle across the stage of Milwaukee's Bijou theatre.
Harley was 20 at that time and had worked as draughtsman with six years of experience in bicycle manufacturing. Davidson was 19 and was a pattern maker with the same company as Harley, working on a small petrol engines. Work on the first Harley Davidson engine began in 1900 and was based on one of the do-it-yourself kits available then, the French De Dion-Bouton design.
One of the first prototype dated 20 July 1901 shows a 7.07cu in (115.8cc) engine with a bore and stroke of 2 x 2.25in (50 x 55mm). When mounted on a bicycle, power proved deeply disappointing. Soon at least one more prototype followed, a machine capable of speeds up to 25mph and measuring 10.2cu in (167cc). It soon became clear to the duo that more expertise is required if the motorcycle was ever to get up to speed and they were able to recruit Arthur's brother, Walter Davidson, when he was due in Milwaukee for the wedding of a third Davidson brother, William A. (Bill). Walter Davidson was working as a railroad machinist in Parsons, Kansas then.
The founders became four when William, the eldest Davidson brother and a foreman railway toolmaker, came on board and the four began the ride of their lives.
The First Harley Davidson
The first true Harley Davidson engine was built during the 1902-3, having a similar Bore and Stroke of 3 x 3.5in (76.2 x 88.9mm) for a displacement of 24.74cu in (405cc) as the one locally built by Merkel and Mitchell except that the Harley Davidson engine had incorporated many technical refinements.
The new engine was of F-Head layout, with much larger cooling fins and as well as a much larger flywheels, almost 10in (250mm) across. Legend has it that the first carburettor was made from a discarded tomato can and Bill Harley described its spark plug, which had cost a princely sum of $3.00, as big as a doorknob. Ole Evinrude, Arthur's childhood friend, who was already making liquid-cooled engines of his own helped with the design of the new engine.
Scaling 491lbs (22kg), this engine was installed in a loop frame similar to the existing Merkel design in the Davidsons family's back yard at 315 37th Street.
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