Harley-Davidson Trivia
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50 free Harley-Davidson trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Harley-Davidson started in a 10-by-15-foot shed in a Milwaukee backyard in 1903 and became one of only two American motorcycle makers to survive the Great Depression. Along the way it built army bikes for two world wars, nearly died under AMF ownership, and came roaring back on retro style and the loyalty of its owners. This quiz covers the founders, the engine nicknames from Knucklehead to Milwaukee-Eight, the model families, the Harley Owners Group, the failed sound trademark and the real origin of the name Fat Boy. Every answer is sourced and explained, so you can settle the debate at your next ride.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city is Harley-Davidson headquartered?
Milwaukee
Milwaukee. The company has been based there since its founding in 1903, and the Big Twin engine it launched for 2017, the Milwaukee-Eight, is named for the city and its eight valves.
Q 02Which carmaker was founded in 1903, like Harley-Davidson?
Ford
Ford. Henry Ford's company was founded that year, and the cheap cars it soon mass-produced helped turn the motorcycle from everyday transport into a recreational machine.
Q 03Which rival was the only other major US motorcycle maker to survive the Great Depression?
Indian
Indian. From 1931 the two were America's only major motorcycle makers, and when Indian shut down in 1953, Harley-Davidson was the last one left.
Q 04Where did the founders assemble the first Harley-Davidson motorcycles?
A backyard shed
A backyard shed. The 10-by-15-foot wooden hut in the Davidson family's yard had the company name scrawled on its door, and was later moved to the factory and kept for decades.
Q 05Which inventor, then building engines nearby, helped Harley-Davidson's founders with their first big engine?
Ole Evinrude
Ole Evinrude. A few years later he developed the first commercially successful outboard boat motor and founded the company that made his own name famous.
Q 06Harley-Davidson's founders were William S. Harley and three Davidsons, who were what to one another?
Brothers
Brothers. Arthur Davidson was Harley's boyhood friend, Walter joined to help finish the first bike, and eldest brother William quit a railroad job to sign on in 1907.
Q 07William S. Harley earned a mechanical engineering degree in 1907 from which school?
Wisconsin–Madison
Wisconsin–Madison. The degree made him the company's engineering brain: he designed its engines as chief engineer and in 1914 became its first racing engineer as well.
Q 08By 1920, Harley-Davidson held which title in the motorcycle industry?
World's largest manufacturer
World's largest manufacturer. Only 17 years after its founding it had dealers in 67 countries, helped by years of dominating American motorcycle racing.
Q 09What angle separates the cylinders on a classic Harley-Davidson V-twin?
45 degrees
45 degrees. First offered in 1909, the narrow V gives the engine the low, loping rumble that became the company's signature.
Q 10The uneven firing of a Harley V-twin is often described as sounding like what?
Potato-potato
Potato-potato. Both pistons share one crankpin, so the engine fires pop-pop and then pauses, a rhythm riders mimic by saying the word over and over.
Q 11What happened to Harley-Davidson's 1994 application to trademark its engine sound?
It was dropped in 2000
It was dropped in 2000. After almost six years of opposition from rivals including Honda and Yamaha, who said every V-twin of that type sounds much the same, the company gave up.
Q 12Which war was the first in which Harley-Davidson motorcycles were adopted for US military issue?
World War I
World War I. Harleys had already ridden against Pancho Villa on the Mexican border, and by 1918 almost half the company's output was going to the U.S. military.
Q 13In the World War II military model name WLA, what did the "A" stand for?
Army
Q 21Which company bought Harley-Davidson in 1969, ushering in an era of quality problems?
AMF
AMF. American Machine and Foundry, a leisure-goods maker, pushed for higher volume, and quality slid so far that many bikes left the assembly line incomplete.
Q 22In 1981, who bought Harley-Davidson back from its corporate parent?
A group of its executives
A group of its executives. Thirteen managers led by Vaughn Beals paid about $80 million, then rebuilt quality with the just-in-time methods of their Japanese rivals.
Q 23Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and which other maker formed the Japanese 'big four' that battered Harley-Davidson in the 1970s?
Suzuki
Army. Tens of thousands of WLAs went to war, and many of them were shipped to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.
Q 14The wartime Harley-Davidson XA largely copied the shaft-driven engine and drivetrain of which brand?
BMW
BMW. The U.S. military wanted a desert bike like the German R71, so Harley built a flat-twin with shaft drive, but only about 1,000 were made before the fighting left North Africa.
Q 15What was the three-wheeled delivery vehicle Harley built from 1932 to 1973?
Servi-Car
Servi-Car. Designed in the Depression to widen the company's sales, it was aimed at garages delivering customers' cars, and in 1964 became the first Harley with an electric starter.
Q 16Which nickname belongs to the overhead-valve engine introduced in 1936?
Knucklehead
Knucklehead. Riders named it for the rocker boxes on top of the engine, which look like the knuckles of a clenched fist.
Q 17Which Big Twin engine nickname covers the years 1948 to 1965?
Panhead
Panhead. Its chrome rocker covers looked like upturned cake pans, and it brought aluminum heads and hydraulic valve lifters to the Big Twin.
Q 18The 1984–1999 Big Twin engine, nicknamed "Blockhead", was officially called what?
Evolution
Evolution. Seven years in development, it ran cooler and cleaner than the engine it replaced and, unlike many older Harleys, stayed oil-tight.
Q 19To diversify in 1986, Harley-Davidson bought Holiday Rambler, a maker of what?
Motor homes
Motor homes. Fresh from its return to the stock market, the company bought the RV maker in 1986, then sold it off ten years later.
Q 20Which German carmaker's engineers helped develop the liquid-cooled Revolution engine for Harley's V-Rod?
Porsche
Porsche. Its engineers helped turn the VR-1000 race motor into Harley's first street engine with liquid cooling and overhead camshafts.
Suzuki. The four's cheaper, more dependable machines won over a generation of new riders, and Harley's share of America's big-bike market collapsed.
Q 24Which Harley-Davidson model family, launched in 1957, was soon billed as the first of the 'superbikes'?
Sportster
Sportster. It grew out of the K model, built to answer the lighter, sportier British bikes of the 1950s, and has stayed in production ever since.
Q 25Harley-Davidson bought an outside engineer's design to launch which model family in 1984?
Softail
Softail. Its rear shocks are hidden so that it looks like a rigid-framed chopper, a design Harley bought from Missouri engineer Bill Davis and launched on the 1984 FXST.
Q 26Which 1990 Harley-Davidson model has long been dogged by a false story about its name?
Fat Boy
Fat Boy. The tale says the name fuses the atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy as a jab at Japanese rivals; in fact it describes how wide the bike looks head-on.
Q 27Which 2019 Harley-Davidson motorcycle later gave its name to a listed company?
LiveWire
LiveWire. It was Harley's first electric motorcycle, and in 2021 the company said it would spin the brand off as an electric-bike maker of its own, valued at nearly $1.8 billion.
Q 28Who founded the Harley Owners Group in 1983?
The company itself
The company itself. Harley-Davidson launched the club as a marketing move to keep its riders close, and membership passed 90,000 within six years.
Q 29How did Harleys first come to be nicknamed "hogs"?
A race team kept a live pig mascot
A race team kept a live pig mascot. From 1920 the winning riders, farm boys nicknamed the 'hog boys', carried the pig on a victory lap after each race they won.
Q 30Which US president imposed steep tariffs on large Japanese motorcycles to help Harley-Davidson recover?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan. The five-year tariff began in 1983, and Harley recovered so quickly that in 1987 it asked for the protection to end a year early.