How Harley-Davidson Supplied Two World Wars and Outlasted Every American Competitor

In 1903, four young men in a Milwaukee backyard shed completed a small gasoline-powered bicycle that could not climb the hills around the city without pedal assistance. Over the next 123 years, the enterprise they founded — Harley-Davidson Motor Company — would supply motorcycles to U.S. and Allied forces in two world wars, survive a hostile corporate acquisition that nearly destroyed its reputation for quality, negotiate one of the most-discussed protective tariff arrangements in American trade policy history, and stand today as the only American motorcycle manufacturer of national commercial scale. This documentary traces the complete industrial arc of Harley-Davidson: from the first V-twin engine of 1909, through the 90,000 WLA motorcycles built for World War II, through the AMF ownership years and the quality collapse of the 1970s, the 1981 leveraged buyout by thirteen company executives, the near-bankruptcy of 1985, and the Evolution engine that turned the company's fortunes. The video also examines the cultural dimensions the brand neither fully created nor controlled — its adoption by law enforcement, its presence in Hollywood film, its relationship to outlaw motorcycle culture, and the Sturgis Rally — alongside the current challenges of an aging customer base and a struggling electric vehicle subsidiary operating as LiveWire.