Willie G. at Faaker See

Bill Davidson was on hand to pay tribute to his father’s incredible creativity at a special exhibition at European Bike Week 2024

Visitors to European Bike Week 2024 flocked to a new exhibit highlighting the life and work of a true icon of the Harley-Davidson world, Willie G. Davidson, alongside a selection of the most significant Harley-Davidson motorcycle models that he was involved in designing.

The bikes on display were supplied by two European dealers who are also keen collectors of Harley-Davidson® models: Christoph “Chicken” Repp of Harley-Davidson Würzburg Village and Matthias Meier of Harley-Davidson Factory Group. During the event, the two dealers had the opportunity to give a guided tour of the exhibit to Bill Davidson, son of Willie G., who provided an extended commentary on the bikes and personal stories of how Willie G. was intimately involved in the conception, design and eventual production of each of these iconic motorcycles.

Willie G. Davidson needs little introduction. Now the Chief Styling Officer Emeritus of the Motor Company and affectionately known as Willie G. to millions of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts worldwide, his creations include many of the company’s most admired, desired and significant motorcycles. In particular, those created in the period during which a group of executives – including Willie G. himself – returned the Motor Company to independence from ownership by AMF, which heralded the resurgence of the brand in the 1980s.

Born with gasoline in his veins, Willie G. is the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and the grandson of one of the original founders, William A. Davidson. For 50 years, he helped shape the look, sound and feel that define Harleys, and during the 1980s his unique designs kept the motorcycles selling while the company completed technological and manufacturing improvements which led to innovations such as the Evolution^™ engine and the Softail^® chassis, setting the stage for the resurgence of the business.

A native of Wisconsin, Willie G. attended the University of Wisconsin for three years then transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He joined Harley-Davidson in 1963 when he was invited to set up its motorcycle design department. As an avid rider, Willie G. clocked thousands of miles on the open road each year and his family, including wife Nancy and children Bill and Karen, made Harley-Davidson the centre of their lives. Ever since, through his life-long devotion and commitment to the Motor Company, Willie G. has watched firsthand as H-D has evolved into a true American icon. He is responsible for the visual design of many of the most iconic and beloved bikes ever produced by the brand, and examples of these key models were on show at the exhibition from the personal collections of Matthias and Christoph. These included models ranging from 1971 to 1994, each of which Willie G. had a huge part in designing and introducing to the motorcycle-riding public.

It would be hard to overestimate the significance of each of the bikes on show. The 1971 FX Super Glide®, with its radical-for-the-time ‘boattail’ design, has become recognised as possibly the first ‘factory custom’ model, setting the scene for much of Harley-Davidson’s subsequent history. The 1976 XLCR was one of the first factory café racers and is now an avidly collected model. Also, according to Bill, the first model that had the bar and shield on the tank.

The 1978 FLH Electra Glide^® Anniversary tourer shown at the exhibition represented Harley-Davidson as the ‘king of the road’; the 1981 FXB Sturgis was the first belt-drive model as well as a tribute to the famous motorcycle gathering in South Dakota; while the XR1000, a road version of the legendary XR750 racer, is the most pure and brutal iteration of a Harley^® race bike for the road.

Other significant Harley models on display included a 1990 FLSTF, forever legendary as the bike ridden by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; the beautiful and much desired FXDB Sturgis; the 1993 Heritage Nostalgia ‘Moo Glide’; and the 1994 FXSTC Softail Custom, the first iteration of the Softail chassis and thus one of the most important bikes in the company’s history.

Bill was deeply impressed by the tribute to his father at European Bike Week 2024, and the dealerships for bringing these iconic motorcycles together. Indeed, he also reminded us that both his parents attended the very first European Bike Week in 1998. According to Bill, “Before I left Milwaukee I was with Willie, and he said, ‘You know there’s something special about that rally – I wish I was going with you!’”

Willie G.’s artistic vision and passion for riding have made him a legend among enthusiasts, many of whom consider him the patriarch of motorcycling – and the queues for autographs by his son Bill were certainly testament to that legacy.