In 1903, William (Bill) S. Harley and the brothers Arthur, Walter, and William Davidson built their first 3 motorbikes in a little back-yard shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA) and founded a company together: The Harley - Davidson Motor Co.
Production began with a bicycle frame in which a single cylinder engine was mounted, this drove the back wheel by means of a belt. There was no gearbox and no clutch. The ignition was fed by a battery.
In 1909, magneto ignition systems were also used.
The constructors attached great importance to stability and quality. This earned the bikes a reputation as reliable, workaday machines. Because of their grey colour and, for those pioneer days, pretty good silencer, they got the name -Silent Gray Fellow.
In 1906, Harley - Davidson produced 50 models of this type.
And how the story continued is known to all who ever possessed such a machine.

Here they are.
The two wheeled counterpart to a Ferrari, emotionally speaking.
26 images.

The first is the V-Twin-Cylinder from 1916.
Connoisseurs know that this construction form with the cylinders arranged in a 45° V pattern was the classic Harley-Davidson.
Its space-saving design led the pistons to fire at uneven intervals: the first cylinder fires, the rear cylinder fires 315° later, then there is a 405° gap until the first cylinder fires again.
This design gave the Harley its distinctive choppy ‘potato-potato’ sound.
The next model is a ‘WL’ from 1940, and then a ‘WLD’ from 1946.
Then came the time when the machines at last got proper names: The “Police Panhead Hydra Glide” from 1952, or the “Panhead 1965 Electra Glide”
From there it went to the “FL Heritage Special” from 1981, the “Heritage Softail” from 1985, to the “Electra Glide Classic Series FL Touring”.

All the models on this poster are depicted with much love for detail.

It’s an absolute must.

Size: 68 x 98 cm
Art Print on 100g paper.