This year the company plans to produce and ship out about 222,000 new motorcycles. In 2018, Harley-Davidson sold 132,868 bikes domestically with a worldwide total output of 228,051 machines. These sales generated about $6 billion. Harley-Davidson dominates the motorcycle business, comprising half of all domestic sales. However, sales have been a little soggy over the past few years.
Always the innovator, the company plans to release an electric Harley soon. The biker look is wildly popular in some circles. Motorcycle-related product and specialized Harley merch brought in $262 million in 2017. Selling logo-heavy leather gear represents a respectable 5% of the company’s sales.
The Trademark Harley-Davidson Sound
The grumbling rumble of these bikes is, technically, not a trademark sound. However, the company did try to trademark it. In 1994 they filed a lawsuit, but many competing motorcycle companies fought it. H-D dropped the suit. The sound is definitely unique. It comes from the exhaust of the distinctive V-Twin engine. The crankshaft inside the engine works off a single pin so that both pistons are connected. The atypical rhythm of those pistons firing causes the choppy sound some call “potato potato.”
The real reason for the distinctive sound has nothing to do with engines and parts if you ask riders. They will tell you that the loud, ground-vibrating sound is not only a cherished H-D characteristic but also a safety feature. It’s true. Well, it’s a genuine belief in HOG culture, at least. Since motorcycles cruise down between lanes, cars are less likely to accidentally take out a bike while changing lanes—if they hear them coming.
Too Loud or Not Loud Enough?
The gentle roar of a Harley is pretty loud. Straight off the factory floor, Harleys emit 80 decibels of sound, a noise level equivalent to a garbage disposal. While Harley owners wouldn’t call it noise, it’s certainly got volume. Some owners opt to make the bikes even louder by removing the muffler. This engine tweak, sorry, modification, raises the bike’s decibel performance to 100. It’s also illegal.
They argue it’s safer and makes the bikes faster. (No oxymoron here.) What removing the muffler will do is cause hearing-loss. Unprotected ears subjected to 100 decibels of sound will suffer irreparable hearing loss after just 15 minutes of exposure.
Harley-Davidson: Not Your Average Military Contractor
When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Harley-Davidson was a robust company ready to help out with the War effort. The company cranked out over 20,000 military-ready motorcycles to fulfill government orders. The Harley-Davidson Model 17 packed a hearty 15 horsepower engine onto a modest 3-speed transmission. They were used for general transportation; leading convoys, dispatching messages and other miscellaneous transport. Some, with a sidecar attached, became ambulances able to transport one or two wounded soldiers on stretchers.
In WWI, many were used in the infantry, barreling into the front lines with machine guns strapped to sidecars. The superior vehicles made an impression on Europeans. Many began to drive them after the war. In fact, the oldest Harley-Davidson riders club is in Prague. It was founded in 1928.
The Japanese Production Line
After 1912, Japan began to import Harley-Davidson motorcycles. They used the vehicles for military, police, and state purposes primarily, and so when the demand for the machines began to strain domestic factory output, the idea to set up a factory in Japan came up. In 1929 it happened. Sankyo paid H-D $75,000 for the rights. It was during the darkest days of the Great Depression. The move quite possibly saved the Harley-Davidson company from bankruptcy. But by 1939, leading into World War II, the factory fell into Japanese Imperial hands and Harleys were produced under the Rikuo name. It wasn’t until 1962 when H-D reestablished its Japanese dealership network.
Most Harleys are American-assembled in Kansas City, Missouri and York, Pennsylvania. The V-Twin is built in the Milwaukee factory. But for international and European demand, assembly plants in Thailand, Brazil and India pick up the slack. Parts come from many places. With a made-in-America image to uphold, the company doesn’t share where in the world parts come from, but industry specialists know Japan, Italy, Mexico, China and Australia all make parts.