The American Motorcycle - A Brief History

In 1901, the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company designed the “diamond framed” Indian Single. The Single was only available in the deep blue and by 1902 production was over 500 bikes. By 1913, Indian would sell more than 20,000 bikes per year. Soon after Indian’s inception, Harley-Davidson started producing motorcycles in 1903.

During this period, experimentation and innovation were driven by the popular new sport of motorcycle racing, with its powerful incentive to produce tough, fast, reliable machines. This led to Chief August Vollmer of the Berkeley, California Police Department organizing the first official police motorcycle patrol in the United States in 1911. By 1914, motorcycles were no longer just bicycles with engines; they had their own technologies, although many still maintained bicycle elements, like the seats and suspension.

During World War I, the motorcycle was used for sending messages to front lines instead of horses. After the war developments in the motorcycles increased with better motors, different drives, all in-cased transmissions, better wheels, and better suspension. By 1920 Harley Davidson became the largest manufacturer of motorcycles having dealers in more than 65 countries.

After World War II, some American Veterans founded Groups and Clubs of motorcyclists and created a new social institution – Motorcyclists or Bikers. In 1954 Bikers were looked at as a new kind of “outlaw,” when The Wild One was released starring Marlon Brando. In Europe, however, motorcycles were being made more economically to attract more people to ride which brought Vespas and Lambrettas to the market.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Japanese manufacturers, such as Honda and Yamaha, became the predominant motorcycle manufacturers. The Japanese were successful with modern designs which were produced quickly and cheaply eclipsing many huge manufacturers such as Triumph, BSR, BMW and even Harley Davidson.

Today we’ve seen a return to vintage labels like Indian, Moto Guzzi, Norton and Triumph, with Harley Davidson back on top with sales in 2017 of 41,000 (down from 50,000 a few years ago).