How Powerful Was A Harley-Davidson 7D Motorcycle & What’s One Worth Today?

The important thing to remember is that the original Harley-Davidson motorcycles were manufactured in a time when motorcycle riding wasn’t really a thing. It was less a vehicle in its own right, and more just a bicycle you didn’t have to pedal (though early Harley-Davidson bikes also had pedals, just in case). This is why, compared to today’s motorcycles, the classics may seem a bit quaint. For their time, though, they were quite impressive.

The Harley-Davidson 7D was equipped with an 811cc V-Twin engine, the first of its kind developed in-house by Harley-Davidson engineers. With the power of its twin cylinders, this engine could output 7 horsepower, with a maximum speed of about 60 mph. Obviously, that’s almost nothing by today’s standards, but it is worth noting that one of Harley-Davidson’s previous models, the 1908 Strap Tank, could only output 4 horsepower with its single-cylinder engine, so it was an objective improvement. Fun fact, the 7D was also equipped with a proprietary muffler that helped to cut down on the noise produced by the heftier engine. This gave it an in-house nickname: “The Silent Gray Fellow.”