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The brand didn't begin in a corporate boardroom but in a 10x15-foot wooden shed in the Davidson family’s backyard. In 1901, a 20-year-old William S. Harley drew up plans for a small 116cc engine designed to fit a standard bicycle frame.

A central theme of the Harley story is the fierce, often bitter rivalry with Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company . At the time, Indian was the dominant force in America. To compete, Harley-Davidson turned to the track.

The era of Board Track Racing —where riders hit 100 mph on wooden tracks with no brakes—cemented the brand’s "tough" image, though the high fatality rates eventually pushed the company toward safer flat-track racing. 3. Engineering vs. Marketing