A photograph showing founders of Harley-Davidson, was it real?

A traditional photograph circulated online and frequently shared by a large number of online users since last month showing two men sitting on the Harley-Davidson motorcycles with a claim that those two men the founders of the company. Those two men are William Harley and Arthur Davidson, and this picture was supposedly captured in 1914 and considered the photograph of their first motorcycles. It is important that mentioned date on the published photograph is correct and it was taken in that specific period of time, but the story about this photograph is fabricated. This photograph was initially published by a website “Hollibaugh”, which was dedicated to the collection of old photographs of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. But, this website didn’t mention the origin of the image.

The website “Hollibaugh” claimed that two men showing in the picture are not the founders of Harley- Davidson Company, but this photograph was captured in Minnesota at a dealership of Harley-Davidson. Despite the origin, this photograph was captured in 1914, but showing men were not William Harley and Arthur Davidson because they were at the age of 33 at the time of presenting their first motorcycle. Point to be noted that first motorcycle of Harley-Davidson was presented in 1903 and first dealership was opened just after one year. It is important that Harley-Davidson participated in the world of motorcycle racing in the year 1914. We couldn’t find any specific photograph of 1914 regarding Harley and Davidson riding on the motorcycle.