The History of Harley Davidson car maker & VIN decoder

Harley Davidson is a great company that creates powerful and mesmerizing motorcycles. The history of the company began when brothers Walter and Arthur Davidson together with William Harley assembled their first motorcycle in 1903.

Motorcycle is not particularly different from those produced in those days - the usual bicycle with a motor in 1l.s., which through a belt drive rotated the rear wheel, to run the engine must first unwind it with pedals. The maximum speed of the motorcycle - 8km / h, as a fast walk. The engine could not pull uphill. Soon the brothers made a motorcycle with a more powerful engine of 3 hp, and already in 1904, 8 machines were produced, the next year 16 and in 1906 - 50 units. In 1907, a motorcycle with an even more powerful engine called V-Twin was released: it used new vacuum valves and belt drive. In 1912, Harley Davidson made its first gearbox, and as early as 1914 a two-speed gearbox was introduced. In 1912, the V-Twin engine grew from 812cm3 to 1000cm3. The engine was mounted on the X8E motorcycle and had a power of 8 hp. Rear-wheel drive and rear-hub clutch variants appeared in the motorcycles.

This model is still available today as a large motorcycle for tourism. When equipped with an electric starter, with increased battery capacity, and a full set of decorative elements Electro Glide weighed about 363 pounds. That could not but affect the speed characteristics of the motorcycle. The designers of Harley-Davidson decide to add power to Big-twin engines by increasing the piston stroke by 10%. Cylinder caps of the new motors resembled an inverted shovel, due to what they were nicknamed (all motorcycles of this model range) - Shovelhead. In 1969, the company American Machine and Foundry (AMF) bought the control stock of Harley Davidson. The new management saw the future in making motorcycles with small volume. So the Sprint motorcycle with a 250 cm3 single-cylinder four-stroke engine was born. Later, the same two-stroke engine was produced. It strongly undermined the reputation of Harley, because Americans were used to big and powerful bikes. Moreover, cheap and powerful Japanese bikes appeared at that time. In 1971, the FX Super Glide was released, designed by designer Willie Davidson, grandson of one of the company's founders.

In 1981, the board of directors, seeing that AMF is leading Harley Davidson to the abyss, bought out a controlling stake.At the end of 1985, the updated Sportster family debuted with the Evolution engine. The new powertrain appeared in two versions: an 883 cc, 50 hp unit mated to a five-speed transmission, and an 1101 cc, 54 hp, four-speed transmission. The FLST Heritage Softail motorcycle was equipped with this engine.

In 1987, this engine was replaced by a 64-horsepower 1,198 cc engine complete with a five-speed gearbox. In 1988, the 'FX5TS Springer Softail' motorcycle was released: a lever front fork that looked like the one used on the company's motorcycles from 1907 to 1949. The VRSCA V-Rod. (V-Rod), released in 2001, was revolutionary in its design. The unit is equipped with a two-cylinder V-type engine (1130 cm3, 115 hp), liquid cooling system, two overhead camshafts and four valves in each head, as well as fuel injection system. Unusual is the design of the machine, which is dominated by the spatial tubular frame of the original pattern. Today Harley Davidson is a giant in the motorcycle industry which amazes with its every creation, its motorcycles are not just machines, they are works of art. Do not forget to use Harley Davidson VIN decoder in order to avoid potential problems when buying a used car.

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