For over a hundred years, Harley Davidson has developed multiple products in response to the needs of those who embraced the quality products and brand. It has gone through so many changes and enhancements for the betterment of its quality products. Neither the Harley tank logos were of any exception. Just like their motorcycles, tank logos have changed as well.
The advances in both engineering and technical aspects of Harley motorcycles during the early years of its existence occurred very rapidly. Despite of the rapid progress, styling of Harley gas tanks and tank graphics only have minimal changes for around 30 years since it first operates. However, the third decade of operation gave way to more a la mode Harley tank graphic designs.
In 1933, the traditional Harley-Davidson tank lettering was first changed. The usual lettering in Harley Davidson logo was circumscribed by a bird-like scroll. However, the bird motif lasted only for a year and it was superseded on the following year (1934) with the “flying diamond”. In 1936, a new tank logo appeared along with the advent of the Knucklehead engine. Three years later, it was replaced with another logo design.
The metal logo was first introduced in the year 1940 but only a few Harley motorcycles carried it due to the scarcity brought by the Second World War. The metal logo was then followed by the Harley-Davidson “speedball” logo in 1947, which waved goodbye to the last Knucklehead and embraced the first Panhead. In 1951, the underlined classic Harley Davidson script was being introduced. An identical script was used in 1954 but the underline was already omitted. The 1955 logo design had a capital V background to the script. The capital V denotes the Harley’s V-twin motor. It was then followed with the new circular tank emblem fitted to the very first Duo-Glide and Sporster in 1957. A larger and more colorful arrowhead logo made of metal was used from 1959 to 1960.
The “gun sight” logo of Harley Davidson was short-lived from 1961-1962 and it was followed by another emblem design, which adorn the last Panhead and welcomed the first Electra-Glide in 1963 to 1965. In the same decade, Harley Davidson was sold to AMF and HD returned to a badge design that was plain and simple. In 1972, AMF was added to the Harley-Davidson logo on the tank. Unfortunately, it did not help and most of them were quickly removed.
In 1981, the management of Harley bought back the company from AMF. In 1982, the “bar and shield” logo embellished the Harley Sturgis. In the later part of 1980’s, Harley started using decals to adorn the succeeding Harley motorcycles and some more logo designs came along as time passes by.
Throughout the years, Harley Davidson tank logos have evolved into something new and something that shows a lot of the HD pride. Some may have not pleased the entire Harley fan base, but it speaks a lot about the rich heritage of Harley Davidson motorcycles.