In 1903, when William S. Harley (1880–1943) and Arthur Davidson (c. 1880–1950) produced their first motorcycle in their backyard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there were 15 motorcycle manufacturers in the United States. By 1911, there were 151 manufacturers. In 2001, only one American motorcycle maker remains: Harley-Davidson. Its bikes have become a major cultural icon around the world, representing not only efficient transportation but freedom, rebellion, and a romantic outlaw image. Harley-Davidson has weathered the arrival of the cheap automobile in the mid-1920s and the appearance of the cheap, high-quality Japanese motorcycle in the mid-1970s, to remain one of the most well-known American corporations in the world.

Harley and Davidson only produced one motorized bicycle the first year they set up shop. The next year they made two; in 1905, eight. In 1910, thirty-two hundred hundred motorcycles rolled away from the Milwaukee factory. By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, producing twenty-eight thousand...