In 1901, William S. Harley, age 22, drew up plans for a small engine with a displacement of 7.07 cubic inches (116 cc) and four-inch (102 mm) flywheels. The engine was designed for use in a regular pedal-bicycle frame.
Over the next two years, Harley and his childhood friend, Arthur Davidson worked on their motor-bicycle using the northside Milwaukee machine shop at the home of their friend, Henry Melk. It was finished in 1903 with the help of Arthur's brother, Walter Davidson.
Upon testing their power-cycle, Harley and the Davidson brothers found it unable to climb the hills around Milwaukee without pedal assistance. They quickly wrote off their first motor-bicycle as a valuable learning experiment.
It was one of three major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression. By 1931, only three US manufacturers had survived the great depression so far:
Indian, which produced its first motorcycle in 1902
Harley-Davidson, built its first motorcycle in 1903
Excelsior-Henderson-first bike in 1905
However, EH foresaw the continuing depression and stopped production on March 31, 1931. Indian fought longer but sales continued to decline. It was forced to halt production in 1953.
Only Harley-Davidson kept continuous operations.
No comments:
Post a Comment