Harley-Davidson sold 132,535 motorcycles around the world last year. In its first year, it sold three, out of a wooden shed in a Milwaukee backyard.
The shed was 10 by 15 feet, according to the Harley-Davidson Museum’s archives. William S. Harley and his childhood friend Arthur Davidson built it in 1903, and it’s where they later sold their first motorcycle to a friend named Henry Meyer.
A Backyard Project
Harley was 20 when he drew up plans for a small engine in 1901, according to Wikipedia’s history of the company. He and Davidson started working on motorized bicycles that year, with help from another friend, Henry Melk, who had a lathe, the museum says.
Their first attempt, the museum says, was “a bicycle adapted with a small engine and belt drive.” Arthur’s father, William C. Davidson, wasn’t thrilled with having the project around and asked them to move it to the backyard, where they put up the shed.
They finished their first motor-bicycle in 1903, with help from Arthur’s brother Walter Davidson.
From 3 Motorcycles to Nearly 13,000
The museum says the company went “from only 3 motorcycles sold in the first year” to “just under 13,000 vehicles within 10 years’ time.”
Production stayed small at first. By April 1905, Harley and the Davidsons were building complete motorcycles “on a very limited basis,” according to Wikipedia, and they made about 50 the following year.
A Chicago dealer named Lang agreed to sell the new motorcycles out of his shop on Adams Street, which made him Harley-Davidson’s first dealer.
In 1906, Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first factory on Chestnut Street, later renamed Juneau Avenue. The next year, William A. Davidson quit his job as a tool foreman for the Milwaukee Road railroad to join the company, and Harley-Davidson was officially incorporated that September.
The Juneau Avenue campus is still Harley-Davidson’s headquarters, according to the museum.
Harley-Davidson Today
Harley-Davidson sold 132,535 motorcycles worldwide in 2025, down 12% from 151,229 the year before, the company said in its full-year results in February. Its revenue came in at $4.47 billion, down 14%, with $3.58 billion of that from the motorcycle business, Harley-Davidson Motor Company. It also shipped 124,477 motorcycles to dealers worldwide, down 16%.
Milwaukee has another big story this October. The Brewers lead the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 in the World Series, with Game 3 set for 7 p.m. Central on Monday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, according to Yahoo Sports.
