In another time, another place, they might well have run away to sea. Or fallen under the familiar spell of the open road. Maybe gone wandering with an old-time traveling carnival. Instead, William Harley and Arthur, Walter and William Davidson found their own way. They built a motorcycle. And the rest, as they say, is history - the legendary Harley-Davidson now firmly ensconced as part and parcel of the American dream.

Any engineer will tell you. The basic purpose of a motorcycle engine is to contain the burning of fuel mixed with air and convert it into something useful. To the Harley rider, however, an engine is something quite different. Its purpose is to unleash the inner fire - thus igniting forces no engineer can explain. That’s not bad going for a motor cycle that has only been in production for some 90 years? So how did the Harley manage to establish itself as the undisputed ‘king of the road’?

It all began in a 10' x 15' shed located in the Davidson family’s Milwaukee backyard. There the Davidson brothers and William Harley crafted their first motorcycle using the best available tools they had - mostly their hands and their ingenuity. All of that at a time when priorities in America were quite clear: freedom of speech, freedom of movement and the ability to lose oneself in the wide open spaces. Harley Davidson responded to that dream by manufacturing a vehicle most suited to that aim: a thumping great twin-cylinder engine nestling behind the front forks, with a large, accommodating seat perched above it; a big gas tank fed the beast, and a variety of handlebar designs held the rider in a position of control. The adventurous American could ride for hours, the fuel tank accepting even the lowest grades of fuel to provide surprisingly economical motoring. In fact the engineering that goes into today’s motorcycles remains little changed from the precepts of the company’s founding fathers. For the typical Harley remains a low-revving affair, a country-mile apart from the culture-shock of riding any of the Japanese alternatives.

The Great Depression almost succeeded in devastating the entire motorcycle industry. Only two manufacturers survived the slump. Harley-Davidson was one of them, thanks to a strong dealer network, police and military use, and conservative business management combined with strong exports. Then, in 1941 the company answered the call to war - its entire motorcycle output supplying American and Allied forces during World War II. The Milwaukee-based production line built more than 90,000 motorcycles during the war, earning the coveted Army-Navy ‘E’ aware for excellence in wartime production.

The fifties and sixties also saw the explosion of the American motorcycle culture, with black leather jackets becoming not only a statement of fashion, but of a lifestyle. The tough ‘Wild Ones’ image, made popular by the Marlon Brando movie of the same name, labeled motorcycle enthusiasts as outlaws, even though only a tiny proportion of all motorcyclists happen to conform with such an anarchic image.

Peter Fonda (brother of Jane, son of Henry) rode into oblivion on a Harley, to the strains of Steppenwolf’s rock anthem ‘Born to be Wild’ in the infamous road movie ‘Easy Rider’. But as is so often the case, that which is portrayed in the media as bad and unacceptable, soon comes to be embraced by the very establishment which has ostracized it. As a result, modern-day rebels, such as American move stars, Bruce Willis and Michael Douglas, revel in helmetlessness weekend jaunts along Sunset Boulevard. They are joined by other members of the action movie set - Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone equally enthusiastic riders of the famous marque.

And in these politically correct times, when ‘dames’ are no longer ‘the weaker sex’, such personalities as the popular yet raunchy stage performer Cher have taken to the Harley. But royalty also lays claim to a share in Harley fever, with King Juan Carlos of Spain regularly heading out towards the hills on his customized Electraglide. Thus making two kings of the road on one bike.

In 1965, Harley-Davidson ended family ownership with a public stock offering, merging with the American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF) shortly thereafter. The company was continuing to expand, producing some 14,000 motorcycles per year. But then huge numbers of low-priced motorcycles were imported from Japan, flooding the American market, the ferocious competition causing a severe financial strain for the Wisconsin company. This encouraged 13 members of the Harley-Davidson management team to purchase the company from AMF in a leveraged buy-out. Their belief was in a return to quality and they wasted no time introducing a number of new management and manufacturing techniques - many of them learned from the Japanese competitors. Five years later the company had bounced back - seeing off Honda for the top spot in the U.S. super-heavyweight market. The company now has its eyes firmly fixed overseas for further expansion. For demand for Harley-Davidsons is increasing in Europe, Japan, South East Asia and Australia, the international market-place thus an increasingly important part of the company’s future. Today more than 100,000 bikes are produced every year, almost 5,000 people are employed world wide and future has never looked more promising.

Harley-Davidsons have thus become big business. But they are also an important and prestigious part of biking lore, for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Harley-Davidson has come to represent the individual, a triumph of non-conformity in an which often appears to have as its goal the lowest common denominator of ordinariness. It also happens to be a superb motorcycle. Seldom is one obliged to endorse a company’s own advertising slogan. But in the case of the Harley-Davidson you really have no choice. ‘Not so much a means of transport’, the marketing men inform you, ‘more a way of life’.