About Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson is less a motorcycle company than a piece of American mythology with a dealership attached. William Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first machine in a Milwaukee shed in 1903, and the company survived the Depression, two world wars and the Japanese invasion of the 1970s to become the emblem of open-road freedom, from police escorts to biker films to the sound of a big V-twin idling outside a diner.
The road was rarely smooth. Under AMF ownership in the 1970s quality collapsed, and a management buyback in 1981 led to a hard-fought revival built on the Evolution engine, the Softail and a fiercely loyal owners' culture. Since then the company has lived on its heavyweight cruisers and baggers, while repeatedly trying, with mixed results, to win younger and international buyers with smaller bikes, the Pan America adventure bike and the LiveWire electric brand.
The current Harley leans on its Softail cruisers and Touring and CVO baggers, powered by the Milwaukee-Eight engine, while LiveWire operates as a separately listed electric company. In India, the X440 built with Hero MotoCorp gave the brand an accessible single-cylinder model, and further small Harleys are following. Trade wars have made the company a regular tariff target, and dealer consolidation and an aging customer base keep investors debating its future. This page follows new models, earnings, leadership, tariffs, dealer news, custom builds, recalls and the culture that surrounds the bar-and-shield.