Harley-Davidson Motor Company was incorporated in 1907.
The incorporation formalized the business several years after the company’s motorcycle experiments began. Harley-Davidson’s commonly cited founding year is 1903, when William S. Harley and the Davidson brothers built the company’s first known completed motorcycle. Incorporation was a separate legal and business milestone.
By 1907, Harley-Davidson had moved beyond its earliest workshop operations and was producing motorcycles on a larger scale. The company’s stock offering and formal corporate structure helped support continued expansion.
This distinction explains why both 1903 and 1907 appear in accounts of Harley-Davidson history. 1903 refers to the company’s beginning, while 1907 refers to the creation of the incorporated Harley-Davidson Motor Company.