Original subtitles

‐ [Narrator] 50 Million are sold every year,

creating a $10 billion industry in the US alone

and feeding a primal need for speed and power

but at the onset of the 20th century,

it's a crazy and dangerous idea.

‐ Yes, there's danger.

If you want the fun, if you want the freedom,

you're gonna have to exchange a little bit of risk.

‐ [Narrator] But to rival upstarts see a chance

to dominate the market.

‐ I'm Harley.

‐ I'm Davidson.

‐ The stakes couldn't be higher.

Everything was on the line and they knew

that this was going to make or break them.

(gun firing)

(engines roaring)

‐ [Narrator] From their early setbacks.

‐ We bit off more than we can chew.

‐ [Narrator] And crucial breakthroughs.

They'll push each other to the brink.

‐ It was horrendously dangerous

and the motorcycles will start to break apart

and killed not only the motorcyclist,

but also the people in the stands.

It's crazy.

‐ [Narrator] But only will reign supreme.

‐ These motorcycles did truly help build America.

‐ [Narrator] This is Motorcycle Kings.

(intense upbeat music)

(birds chirping)

(intense upbeat music)

(gun firing)

‐ [Narrator] It's 1908 and 63 riders are

in a grueling 350 mile two day race

from the Catskill Mountains to New York City

riding a new invention called the motorcycle.

These primitive machines are more like glorified bicycles

with pedals, chains and no front brakes.

There are entrants from dozens of companies all eager

to prove they're the best in this new untested industry

but most don't stand a chance.

The real contest is a David and Goliath battle

between Indian, the most popular motorcycle company

in the country, and a plucky Midwestern upstart

called Harley‐Davidson.

The outcome will have a major impact

on which companies will survive,

if the race doesn't kill them first.

In the decades following the civil war,

major innovations in transportation

are allowing people to travel further from home.

‐ Society is changing,

people, they know they can get on a train

and go three states away in an afternoon,

they know they can get on a trolley car in a city and get

to the other side of town easily but they want more,

they want more mobility.

‐ [Narrator] Cars don't yet exist

and horses are expensive to maintain.

People are desperate for a personal form

of transportation and they become obsessed

with the latest French import, the bicycle.

‐ At the turn of the century,

the bicycle was democratizing access to transportation.

It allows for Americans to be able to have freedom

of movement at a relatively affordable cost.

‐ [Narrator] As bicycles become stronger, faster

and better built, bicycle racing becomes

one of the most popular spectator sports

in the country.

Racing fuels a massive boom in sales and by the early 1890s,

there are 10 million bicycles on the road

and innovators are looking to get rich

on the multi‐million dollar industry.

In Springfield, Massachusetts,

one of the country's most successful racers

has just decided to retire

and risk his reputation and winnings‐

‐ Looks good.

‐ [Narrator] By opening his own manufacturing company.

His name is George Hendee.

‐ How are you?

‐ Hendee was kind of Lance Armstrong of his day.

So he had kind of that name recognition

when he started to build his business.

‐ George Hendee entered 300 bicycle races

and won all but five.

How is that even possible?

You enter 300 events of any type and you win them all

but five, that says something about you.

‐ I mean, his record was just tremendous.

He blew everybody away.

He was driven to design great bicycles and market them.

(bike roaring)

‐ [Narrator] One day, Hendee's bicycle company will lead

to one of the selling motorcycles in the world,

set a land speed record of 200 miles per hour

and become part of a global powerhouse worth over $7 billion

but in 1898, Hendee is just making bicycles

and he tries to capitalize on America's love of the Wild West

by naming his new model, The Indian.

‐ By the beginning of the 20th century,

people could imagine, boy,

I would like to have the freedom of the Indian on his pony,

a Comanche or a Lakota racing across the plains.

That image was very appealing.

‐ [Narrator] Thanks to his fame and master marketing,

Hendee's business is booming,

selling 4,000 bikes a year.

A 1,000 miles to the west,

two best friends are trying

to earn a living working in a bike factory.

‐ You fixed it?

‐ Yeah, it was easy.

Your front wheel was just bent out of shape.

‐ Hey, you ready to go?

Walter finally told me where his secret fishing hole is.

‐ I have to finish up here.

‐ Billy?

‐ [Billy] I'll see you outside in 15 minutes.

‐ [Narrator] One day, their names will

be the best known motorcycle brand on the planet.

They are William Harley and Arthur Davidson.

‐ Bill Harley was a tinkerer.

I mean, that was his thing

and it's little surprise that the motorcycle company

that would ultimately bear his name,

he would become the chief engineer there.

‐ Arthur Davidson was an extrovert,

very personable and genuinely liked people,

certainly in the friendship between him

and William Harley, he was the extrovert.

‐ [Narrator] They love their jobs

but a decade after the market takes off,

the bicycle business collapses

when consumers get frustrated with the bikes limitations.

‐ Have you ever ridden a bike on a dirt road?

It's not pretty if you don't know what you're doing.

‐ The roads would have been rutted, filled with dirt and mud

depending on the time of the year.

So at the turn of the century,

bicycle market crashes and bicycle sales drop

70% in that time.

‐ [Narrator] One day, the two friends stumble

upon a demonstration that stops them in their tracks.

‐ Gather around ladies and gentlemen,

the motorcycle, the most important invention

since the locomotive.

‐ At the turn of the century,

the combustion engine is being attached

to a variety of devices,

boats, carriages and the bicycle also proves

to be an ideal candidate with the promise

of speeding up transportation as well.

(engine clanking)

‐ [Narrator] The machine is unwieldy and barely functional‐

(engine dying)

(crowd jeering)

But for a young William Harley and Arthur Davidson,

it's a revelation.

(engine clanking)

They decide to go all in on building their own motorcycle,

but they'll need to figure out how to make it work.

By 1900, George Hendee's bicycle business is on the ropes.

He also sees the motorcycle

as a possible lifeline but there's a problem.

He doesn't know the first thing about building one.

He heads to his favorite racetrack

looking for a solution.

‐ Now George Hendee had been

on those bicycle racing circuit for years,

knew the engineers, he knew all of the community.

So it comes to reason that he would reach out to some

of these people when he started thinking

about putting a motor on one of these bicycles.

‐ Mr. Hedstrom.

‐ Mr. Hendee, were you at the race today?

‐ I was.

That is quite a machine.

‐ Oscar Hedstrom, he was a Swedish immigrant

and a very brilliant engineer.

He developed this motorized pacing bicycle

to pace the bicycle races.

The pacing vehicle leads the bikes around the track

to set a speed for the bicycles

to run and Hendee saw the potential

in Hedstrom's brilliance in his design.

‐ I'm sure if we partnered up we could build a motorcycle

that everyone would want to own.

‐ [Narrator] Hedstrom knows that partnering

with a man of Hendee's stature is a

once in a lifetime opportunity.

‐ Sounds great.

‐ Hendee becomes the business side

of this new enterprise and he knew his way around bikes.

He also knew what it took to please a crowd.

Whereas Hedstrom is very much the tinkerer,

he's the engineer, he's the one making it happen.

‐ [Narrator] The pair immediately

began designing their new motorcycle,

which they name after Hendee's popular bicycle,

the Indian Single.

Back in Milwaukee,

obsessed with building a motorized bicycle,

Harley and Davidson spend their nights

in a tiny shed trying to put their first engine together

but with no money,

they're forced to scavenge parts and tools

wherever they can find them.

‐ I think we bit off more than we can chew.

‐ [Narrator] And there's another problem,

they don't have the technical know‐how to actually build it.

Oscar Hedstrom does

but he's having trouble figuring out one major issue

with the new Indian prototype.

The engine doesn't generate enough power.

Hendee and Hedstrom are at an impasse

and if they can't solve the problem,

they fear someone else will.

Coming up.

‐ Holy Moses.

‐ They're getting beat up each and every day

and they just keep going after it.

(intense upbeat music)

(gun firing)

‐ If they won, this would be a game changer for their brand.

‐ There were really two kings in town now.

(intense upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] It's 1901 and Oscar Hedstrom is desperate

to find a way to increase the Indian Motorcycles power,

which will increase its speed.

The problem seems to be the carburetor

and he's struggling to fix it.

‐ The job of a carburetor is to take the air

and the fuel and mix them properly

as they go through the intake and into the engine.

That's what makes an engine run.

‐ [Narrator] Then, a possible solution strikes him

in an unlikely place.

‐ In the tank you have this float that when you flush it,

it raises the float and lets water flow in

but in the carburetor, it actually floats up,

lets fuel go into the combustion chamber and boom,

that's how you get the power.

‐ [Narrator] Hedstrom devises a new intake system

that allows the engine to be throttled back

to a speed of just four miles per hour

or up to 30 miles per hour,

three times faster than a bicycle.

By spring, the two men believe they are ready

to introduce their new machine to the public.

A consummate showman, Hendee stages a dramatic reveal

of the Indian Single for the press

and potential investors

but the timing for drumming

up new capital couldn't be worse.

‐ The 1901 Stock Market Crash is actually the first collapse

of the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors become wary.

‐ [Narrator] The centerpiece

of the unveiling is a live demonstration.

(intense upbeat music)

(crowd applauding)

It's a success but the question is, will anyone invest?

Meanwhile, still struggling to get their motorcycle built,

Harley and Davidson need a new approach.

‐ I know what we can do.

I'm gonna write to the best mechanic I've ever met.

‐ Arthur writes a letter to his brother,

Walter, who was working in Parsons, Kansas

for the the Kansas‐Texas Railroad.

Walter was a bit hoodwinked, he was told

that the motorcycle was nearly finished and

that came to find out that it wasn't.

‐ Oh, didn't I tell you?

We just have to throw it all together

and it's ready to roll.

‐ We?

‐ Well, you.

‐ [Narrator] But Walter is so convinced

that their onto something big, he quits his job

and becomes the third founding member

of this new company they call Harley‐Davidson.

Almost immediately, it seems like he's made a big mistake.

It looked like Harley‐Davidson,

even on the eve of its incorporation was gonna go out

of business, it wouldn't survive and

so they sent a pleading letter to their uncle and said,

could you see fit to maybe loan us some money?

‐ [Narrator] Back in Springfield,

despite the stock market collapse,

Hendee is able to line up new investors

and later he forms a board of directors

to oversee the company and ramps up production

at a state‐of‐the‐art factory.

By the end of the year,

he'll sell nearly 150 Indian Motorcycles at a price of $250.

Nearly one third of the average Americans annual salary.

Motorcycles have started to catch on.

‐ It provided transportation

that people 10 years earlier could not have dreamed of.

It'd be like if we got a flying car today,

like the Jetsons had.

‐ They were exciting, they were dangerous,

they were thrilling but they were also practical

for a lot of people.

If you lived on a farm 10 miles outside of town,

a motorcycle could get you into town in 20 minutes.

‐ [Narrator] With the success of the Indian Single,

dozens of motorbike companies quickly form,

Thor, Merkel and Excelsior

and at Harley‐Davidson,

they're finally ready to test their first model.

Their machine is still crude,

a small motor attached to an ordinary bicycle frame

and it lacks the carburetor refinement

that Hedstrom developed for the Indian Single,

(engine revving)

but it works,

(engine dies)

at least for a little while.

The test reveals it's faults,

their new machine needs better balance

and since it has trouble making it uphill,

a lot more power.

If they want to compete with Hendee,

they'll need to do much better.

(intense upbeat music)

(intense upbeat music)

‐ [Narrtor] By 1903, the first automobiles are rumbling down

city streets

and in Milwaukee,

William Harley and the Davidson brothers have cobbled

together their version of a nimble alternative

to the car, their first motorcycle

but to make it operational, they need a new idea.

‐ Invention isn't for the weak at heart,

they're getting beat up each and every day

and they just keep going after it.

(intense upbeat music)

‐ Holy Moses.

‐ [Narrator] Harley realizes that sitting the engine

four to five inches closer to the ground

could increased stability.

So he tries a new design.

‐ You want everything to be low.

You want your weight to be low on the bike.

You want your center of gravity to be down low.

‐ [Narrator] If it works,

this would also solve another problem.

‐ Their own frames allowed for larger engines

which allowed for much more displacement

and much more power.

(intense upbeat music)

(bike revving)

(intense upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] The Harley‐Davidson Model 1 Motorcycle

is born.

As 1903 draws to a close,

they sell their first motorcycle for $200.

The equivalent of about $6,000 today.

‐ In Harley's first production year,

they only built three bikes

so these essentially our hand‐built bikes

and it just climbs from that point onward.

‐ [Narrator] Harley and the Davidson brothers

are convinced they can make a big splash

in the motorcycle business but will it be big enough

to compete with Hendee and Hedstroms Indian?

The growing team moves its operation to a real factory.

Arthur begins recruiting new Harley‐Davidson dealers.

‐ Arthur Davidson wanted somebody

with a passion and a knowledge for all things automotive,

all things motion and somebody

with a proven track record in business.

‐ [Narrator] Within a year, Harley‐Davidson Motorcycles are

on sale in cities around the country

and they're beginning to make a small dent

in Indian's dominance.

‐ Harley‐Davidson.

What do you make of it?

‐ I can't tell much from that picture but I'm not worried.

‐ [Narrator] Hendee and Hedstrom know to stay

on top they must continue to innovate,

that means upping the power.

‐ When you look at us as humans,

at our core we are competitive beings and

so that competitiveness definitely is a major driver

for innovation throughout history.

‐ [Narrator] They think a revolutionary new engine,

developed in Europe may be the key and they

become the first American company to put it to use.

It's called the V‐twin Engine.

‐ V‐twins rock!

(laughing)

V‐twins are still used today and are my personal favorite.

The early motorcycles, they were one cylinder.

Now you've got two cylinders and they're set up

in a V formation.

If one cylinder is good, two cylinders have gotta be great.

Double the power, nothing feels like a V‐twin,

nothing sounds like a V‐twin, it's absolutely fantastic.

‐ [Narrator] The bike reaches a blistering 60 miles

per hour, faster than any car,

twice as fast as fledgling Harley‐Davidson's Model 1.

‐ This is gonna be an amazing paradigm shift

of change for people to think, wow, this is scary.

It's an adrenaline rush, I want one of these.

‐ [Narrator] Thanks to the power of the V‐twin,

Indian is dominating the market

and Harley‐Davidson needs a miracle to catch up.

‐ [Narrator] It's the first decade of the 20th century

and the country is at the height

of a transportation revolution.

‐ Previously, people could only go as fast

as the wind or their feet

or maybe their horse would take them.

Now, the fact that you could put an engine

on almost anything meant Americans

in particular had a whole lot

of space they could cover a whole lot faster.

‐ [Narrator] And the red hot motorcycle is

at the forefront of innovations in speed and power.

By 1907, Indians showstopping V‐twin engine

has raised the bar for the entire industry.

‐ Competition is generally just a good thing.

It's a good thing for consumers, it tends to lower prices.

It's also a good thing when it comes to innovation.

‐ [Narrator] Harley‐Davidson knows they can't compete

with Indian on speed.

So they tackle another issue plaguing motorcycles

of the day,

the bone jarring turbulence.

‐ I personally cannot imagine that it was a lot

of fun riding first‐generation motorcycles.

‐ It would have been driving 35, 40 miles an hour

on a road that was inconsistent, that was unpredictable.

‐ [Narrator] After negotiating a rough patch

of Wisconsin road, Harley has a moment of clarity.

He's not sure how he is going to fix the problem.

It turns out somebody already has.

Harley is able to buy the parts he needs

through another company and integrates them

into the frame to improve the motorcycle's suspension.

‐ So as you hit bumps,

that front wheel would absorb some things a little bit,

made it a little bit more comfortable

for the rider, made it a little more stable and safer

on the road as well.

‐ Look here.

Catskills to New York City, endurance race.

‐ Biggest race of the year?

All of New York press is gonna be there.

‐ Since Harley had started out as trying

to build a more rugged bike for everyone,

it only made sense not to enter in some speed trial

but instead they would enter it into an endurance race.

‐ Indian is sponsoring one of riders, I guarantee it.

‐ Not one of them, 16 of them.

‐ And what can we afford?

‐ We can probably afford to finance one.

‐ Well, that rider

is gonna be me.

‐ Indian was the top dog.

No one knew what Harley‐Davidson was.

If they won, this would be a game changer for their brand.

‐ The new Indian Motorcycle

will revolutionize the motorcycle industry.

There's a lot of new things were coming out

with at the moment.

The number one thing is that‐

‐ Mr. Hendee?

‐ Yes.

‐ I wanted to introduce myself.

My name is Davidson, Arthur Davidson.

‐ Oh, Harley‐Davidson.

Glad you boys made it out.

How many riders do you have?

‐ Well, one.

(crowd laughing)

‐ Listen son,

my advice, it's not whether you win or lose,

it's about showing up and having fun.

‐ With all due respect, sir, we plan to win this race.

(intense upbeat music)

(motorcycles revving)

‐ Racers ready.

(gun firing)

(engines revving)

‐ Imagine riding this motorcycle over uneven terrain,

rugged terrain, uphills, downhills through backwoods.

(engine revving)

That's a Testament to the quality

of this particular vehicle.

‐ [Narrator] It's two days of hell.

Over 350 grueling miles, Walter Davidson battles back

and forth with the other riders.

His sturdy workhorse with upgraded suspension

has kept pace with the faster, flashier Indian.

Down the final stretch, battered and exhausted,

it's gonna be close.

(intense upbeat music)

(intense upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] After a grueling two day, 350 mile endurance race

from the Catskill Mountains to New York City,

Walter Davidson crosses the finish line

in first place.

For George Hendee and Indian, it's a wake‐up call.

Harley‐Davidson has arrived.

Their business starts to take off.

They double the size of their factory,

hire 35 new employees and increase production

to 1,000 motorcycles a year

and in a stroke of genius,

Davidson talks his way into an untapped market

that will fortify their business even more.

‐ Police forces embrace the motorcycle

because of its handling.

‐ And the city of Detroit, Michigan

becomes the first municipality

to place a larger scale order for police motorcycles.

‐ [Narrator] But while Harley‐Davidson may

be growing rapidly,

they're still far behind industry titan, Indian

and it's not long before a revolutionary new machine

will become a huge threat to both of their businesses.

‐ The Model T came out in 1908,

it was a lot cheaper than the other cars

of the day and that was a challenge

to the motorcycle industry.

A car was much safer, more practical.

You could put your whole family in it.

‐ [Narrator] As the assembly line ramps up,

the price of a Model T plummets.

It's now about the same cost as a top of the line motorcycle

but Harley‐Davidson has a plan

to stay competitive and it has nothing

to do with bike technology.

‐ Harley Davidson created a product line

of things like gloves and hats and jackets and saddlebags,

a lifestyle around their motorcycle.

It's a brilliant marketing move.

‐ This was this type of man rides a car,

this type of man rides a motorcycle.

So the man that drove the car

was a family man very often but the guy

that rode a motorcycle was the cool guy

in the motorcycle jacket.

‐ [Narrator] And thanks in part to its vast dealer network,

motorcycle clubs spring up all over the country.

‐ People love a vibe and they love an image

and you become a band of brothers

when you've got this love for a motorcycle

and everybody shares that same passion.

‐ Harley‐Davidson was really ahead of its time.

Creating a whole subculture around it,

creating a certain kind of vibe around it.

Harley‐Davidson did that way back in the day

before there was a playbook and the internet

to really bring that forward.

‐ The motorcycle becomes a kind of symbol

of something more raw and elemental

and it's riders are seen as more rebellious

and living life to its fullest.

‐ [Narrator] By 1913, while Harley‐Davidson is tapping

into leisure and comradery to sell their product,

Hendee and Hedstrom double down

on speed and thrill seekers to keep their business afloat.

They enter a team

in a dangerous new competition called Board Track Racing.

‐ These people are like going 116 miles an hour

around a track that's at a 50 degree incline

with no brakes as fast as they possibly can

and the motorcycles will start to break apart

and kill not only the motorcyclist,

but also the people in the stands.

It's crazy.

‐ [Narrator] As the popularity of the sport continues

to grow, Indian's success on the track translates

into sales in the showroom.

‐ If your dad could afford an Indian, holy cow,

your dad was a celebrity man

and if you're a teenager and you've saved up enough money

from your newspaper route to get yourself an Indian Scout,

you're a rock star.

‐ Billy.

‐ [Narrator] Indians cache catches the attention

of Harley‐Davidson.

‐ You know, they just realize

that everybody else is doing it.

So they finally gave it up and put a team together.

‐ [Narrator] Thanks to their stellar group

of riders and well‐built machines, it isn't long

before they start to beat Indian at their own game.

When Harley racer,

Ray Weishaar starts bringing his pet piglet along

on victory laps, the motorcycle gets

its now famous nickname.

‐ That's possibly when people started to think

of hog being associated with Harley‐Davidson

and we also know that

one motorcycle journalist had referred

to the Harley‐Davidson team having done

so well that he said that they were hogging all

of the racetrack glory.

‐ [Narrator] By 1913, Indian and Harley‐Davidson

have become locked

in an ever increasing battle of one upmanship.

Harley‐Davidson releases its own V‐twin engine

and both companies adapt the latest English invention,

kickstarters, to replace pedals.

Desperate to put some distance

between their company and Harley‐Davidson,

Indian's board of directors demands innovation.

‐ A full electrical system?

A push button starter?

Honestly, I don't know if that is technically possible yet.

‐ Just do it.

‐ [Narrator] After Hedstrom works tirelessly

on the electrical system,

it's released on a new model called the Hendee Special.

‐ If you're in the innovation business,

it's riskier to be risk averse, you know,

by definition if you're trying something

that has a big upside,

guess what?

There's gravity, it has a big downside.

‐ [Narrator] Hendee and Hedstrom

have bet their company's reputation

on an untested idea

that doesn't pay off.

‐ People had paid a lot of money

for an electric starter and it didn't work

so they couldn't have been too happy.

‐ The battery technology of the time

wasn't powerful enough to turn the motor

over and continually start it many times

because as the battery would sit there, it would drain.

‐ [Narrator] It would be almost 50 years

before a motorcycle

with a reliable push button starter rolls

off an assembly line.

‐ I knew the batteries weren't strong enough.

‐ The board wants a full electrical system.

‐ I'm tired.

It's never good enough.

It's time for me to leave.

Good luck.

‐ [Narrator] Two years later, without his partner,

Oscar Hedstrom by his side and the board

of the Indian Corporation questioning his every decision

and every expense, George Hendee also resigns,

leaving the company he founded

to fight an uncertain future without him.

‐ [Narrator] It's 1917 and the United States has been dragged

into a conflict a world away fought in trenches,

the sea and sky.

It's a new kind of war with machines never

before seen on a battlefield.

‐ The countries that went to war at the beginning

of World War I went to war on horseback still,

but they came out driving trucks and tanks,

wars have that effect.

‐ Indian sees a giant opportunity

to stay ahead of Harley

by taking on government contracts to build motorcycles

for the war effort and deliver them overseas.

‐ [Narrator] The new management at Indian goes all in,

shipping 50,000 of their Powerplus Big Twins

to the European front.

‐ The motorcycle shows up and allows the transportation

of information in ways that hadn't been done before.

‐ It can maneuver in tight spaces.

They can traverse all types of terrain.

They're fast, much faster than any other method

of transportation available on the battlefield.

‐ [Narrator] The war effort demands more motorcycles

than Indian can supply and Harley‐Davidson

sells the army 20,000 of their new J‐Series bikes

but at home,

Arthur Davidson continues to focus

on his customers and vital network of dealers.

‐ During World War One, they knew they had

to keep the dealers as healthy

as they possibly could and

that might've just been service work of existing bikes,

parts and accessories sales,

apparel sales and of course, some new vehicle sales.

‐ [Narrator] During the war,

Indian is so focused on fulfilling military orders,

they have no inventory left for their American dealers.

‐ If there were a weakness in Indians strategy,

an Achilles heel, it might be that Indian

often took a more short term outlook toward its own success.

‐ [Narrator] With Indian dealers left scrambling

to fill empty showrooms,

they're forced to turn to a more reliable supplier.

‐ When you have store owners,

they're gonna fill their shelves

with stuff they can sell, you know, and yes,

if the thing that got them there

and it's making money, they're gonna stick with it

but if all of a sudden they can't put it on their shelves,

they're gonna find something else to put on their shelves.

‐ [Narrator] By 1918,

Harley‐Davidson sales have gone through the roof.

‐ Today, you work in the number one motorcycle company

in America.

(cork popping)

Harley‐Davidson!

(employees cheering)

‐ [Narrator] After chasing Indian for almost 15 years,

Harley‐Davidson hits their ultimate milestone,

they pass Indian in sales.

‐ This was a real moment in the history

of Harley‐Davidson and for the motorcycle.

It put all of the other smaller makers

on notice that there were really two kings in town now.

‐ [Narrator] But Harley‐Davidson's

loyal customer base,

popular merchandise line

and Arthur Davidson's brilliant marketing,

helped them maintain their lead

in sales and they never look back.

‐ I think the question that consumers

end up asking themselves is not

what that product does functionally,

but how does that product make you feel?

How does that product make others feel about you?

Building that brand, developing a story

around that marketing is so, so important.

‐ [Narrator] Indian can't keep up,

in 1953, they stop production

of all motorcycles and file for bankruptcy

ceding the title of America's undisputed motorcycle king

to Harley‐Davidson.

‐ Harley was one of the early great brands

in all of commerce.

They understood they didn't have the better mouse trap

at that time but we can build an ethos.

A brand that has a set of values

and we can connect to people in a way of

that kind of great American motorcycle and,

you know, reach their hearts.

‐ One of the coolest things

about motorcycles is the freedom that it gives anyone.

Once they get on the motorcycle

and they're riding across this great country

and they see all the amazing sights,

feel the wind in their face,

it's an amazing feeling, I highly recommend it.

‐ [Narrator] George Hendee spends his golden years

as a farmer in Connecticut

and would occasionally host an unlikely visitor

from his past.

‐ Catch you on the next one Hendee.

‐ I'm not so sure about that, son.

(upbeat music)

‐ I love motorcycles.

I understand the passion.

Love to get out in the wind,

be it by yourself or be it with your brothers.

If you haven't done it, get out and take a ride.

It just might change your life.

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