Today we’re delighted to welcome you to the first of a new fortnightly series…

The Sunday Run

These will be available on our facebook and here on our website!

We’ll bring you longer stories so we can take you deeper into the details, covering a vast array of subjects from the 123-year history of Harley-Davidson – we’ll dig into the unique and powerfully appealing world which we all enjoy.

You can expect to see:

• Interesting, significant, and unusual motorcycles old and new

• Important people from the Motor Company

• Harley riders who have shone with on the road or on the racetrack exploits

• Details and insights which are largely unknown

• Associated products and plans (some successful, some abandoned, and some failures)

Today we’ll start the new Sunday Series with a long one, as we take a run through the world of the “father” of so many things that we love… the great Willie G Davidson himself.

The 2024 H-D Homecoming Festival in Milwaukee was built around a single theme and essence - a celebration of the life, the work, and the importance of Willie G. One of the photos here today shows a seated Willie G with his children Bill and Karen. At 92 years old (then, 94 now), he’s in the middle… in the crowd… of the Homecoming Festival and still loving the interactions with Harley-Davidson riders, fans, and enthusiasts!

Willie G (William Godfrey Davidson) is the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson, and the grandson of William A. Davidson… who was one of the four founders of the Motor Company. Willie G’s children… Bill, Karen, and John… have also been heavily involved in the Motor Company, right up to Vice President levels.

Surprisingly, Willie G calls himself an Artist, not a designer, not an incredible innovator in the world of motorcycling, but an artist. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, he went on to study at the Art Center College of Design in California.

In 1957, Willie G. married school teacher Nancy, and when Willie G. began work at Harley-Davidson in 1963, Nancy was a school teacher. Before joining H-DMC officially, Willie G. had worked for Brooks Stevens Design, and as a designer for Ford, but as a Davidson family member he was often seen with Nancy at rallies and Motor Company events. Sadly, Nancy Davidson passed away in 2021.

In 1963 with his artist’s eye and businessman’s upbringing, Willie established the Design Department at H-DMC, and oversaw it as it became a core and vital segment.

So, to cut to much later in the Willie G story, on March 16, 2012, it was announced that Willie G would retire from Harley-Davidson on April 30, 2012. He remains, however, honoured and involved as the brand’s Premium Ambassador, and in Special Design Projects as Chief Styling Officer Emeritus.

In all those years between Willie’s start in 1963 and his retirement in 2012, his achievements changed the motorcycling, leisure, and racing worlds. Yep, he changed the motorcycling world! That’s why he’s a genuine legend, and an AMA Motorcycling Hall of Fame member. That’s also why the huge, ultra-modern H-DMC design centre in Milwaukee was named the “Willie G Davidson Product Development Center” in 1997.

Willie G is also one of the 13 Harley-Davidson Executives who risked their futures in 1981 and bought the Company back from AMF into private ownership.

Willie’s first design for the Motor Company was the 1957 Sportster tank badge (photo included) even though he wasn’t officially employed at that time! So the first-ever Sportster carried the first- ever Willie G styling point. We like that!

Now we’re going to jump through the years and take a look at a few #1 Hits from Willie G’s extensive playlist.

For many years up to 1970, the H-D offerings were a range of Sportsters and a range of big tourers. The Harley-Davidson Duo-Glide and Electra Glide were still commanding the highways, and the Sportster was the King of the traffic-light Grand Prix.

But for 1971, Willie combined the two, bolting the Sportster front-end onto the FLH Tourer frame, cutting the big bike’s weight, adding sleek bodywork, and introducing the Super Glide. Bang! In that moment the “Cruiser” category of motorcycles was born! And from that moment our motorcycling lifestyles changed, and every manufacturer has jumped into this then-new Cruiser style.

This is what we mean when we say that Willie changed the motorcycling world. Over 50 years later, every Fat Bob, Breakout, Fat Boy, or Street Bob (and others!) - every FX, Dyna, and Softail that we see, admire, and buy comes from the genetic-line of the 1971 Super Glide.

Willie’s next smash hit was the 1977 Low Rider, and the name says it all. No tougher looking motorcycle had ever been offered for public sale!

Willie G readily acknowledges that his inspirations sometimes come from the customisers in the public arena. He says that his time studying at the Art Center College of Design in California introduced him to the Customiser’s lifestyle. This explains the next Willie G #1 hit… the 1978 Café Racer.

It was chasing the British and European styles at the time, and wasn’t immediately successful… but today, if you can find one to buy you’re going to need deep pockets. The XLCR Café Racer is regarded as “ahead of its time” brilliance.

Also beginning with a custom builder in the 1980s was Willie G’s biggest-ever success… the Softail. These models brought (and still bring) together the best of current technology and the best of old-time simple motorcycle styling. The 1984 Softail is without doubt one of the most influential motorcycles of all time. Again, it changed the way motorcycles look, but it also changed the way riders want to appear. Softails became utterly dominant!

After the custom look of the original Softail came the historic look of the Heritage and Heritage Classic, and the brave introduction of the Springer. These were all deliberate returns to stylings from 1948 and into the 1950s in a modern bike, and for over a decade the Motor Company couldn’t build enough Heritages to satisfy demand!

Just for interest, in 2008 a new Springer-based, blacked out model was released as the Cross Bones, and Willie G states that it’s one of his personal favourite designs.

Blacked out is another signature styling first from Willie G, later emulated everywhere but beginning on Willie G’s worksheets and becoming the 1981 Sturgis.

The next smash hit… still a top-ten performer today after 36 years… is the Fat Boy. Based on the Softail platform, it was Willie G from end to end, top to bottom, start to finish. It was so popular that the Fat Boy generated urban legends about its supposedly Manhattan project, Los Alamos, and Enola Gay-related name! (The stories are, according to Willie G himself, nonsense. But they kinda fit together so well!)

While the Fat Boy has never lost its appeal, the monochromatic smoothness of the original 1990 Fat Boy is again one in great demand today… evidenced by the very recent release of the 2025 Fat Boy Gray Ghost from the Icons Collection.

Let’s look at one more… from among the hundreds of Harley models created by Willie G or under his supervision, here’s another world-changing release. The V-Rod. Another monochromatic silver masterpiece in its first form, evolving to the black and black fat-tyred Night Rod Special.

As with his earlier successes, on the V-Rod’s release in 2001 (as a 2002 model) there was NOTHING like it in the motorcycling world. So, yet again, Willie G led the way into brand-new market segments. Look at the V-Rod clones released afterwards, from European, Japanese, and American manufacturers.

On a smaller scale, we’re prepared to bet that many or most of you… on your clothing, or on your motorcycle, or in your house… have something carrying the Willie G Skull logo! It’s another design personally-sketched by Willie G, and so attractive that it’s now everywhere!

So that’s a little about Willie G. He’s now 94 years old, largely retired and painting up a storm according to daughter Karen. (One of Willie’s H-D 100^th Anniversary watercolours is pictured with this post, we recall one of these Limited Edition 250-only prints being sold by an Australian Harley dealer for over $1000 in 2003.)

We hope you’ll never forget the brilliance and influence of this gentle, visionary man... Willie G Davidson.

Thanks for joining us today for our Sunday Series!

Written By Phil Heath