There is a revolution going on in the motorcycle world, and it’s the rise of the affordable bike. There are lots of people who want to ride motorcycles, but don’t want to detonate their savings to afford a new one. Several brands have found success in launching smaller, more affordable motorcycles. Now, it’s time for Harley-Davidson to get in on the fun. Next year, Harley-Davidson says it will launch the Sprint, a $6,000 Harley that you might actually be able to afford.
This news comes to us from Motorcycle.com, which cites Harley-Davidson’s July 30 earnings call. In that call, Harley-Davidson Chief Executive Officer Jochen Zeitz dropped a bombshell. It had been developing two new affordable motorcycles in secret. Now, Zeitz says, these bikes are almost ready for primetime. One of them is the Harley-Davidson Sprint, a bike that’s supposed to cost just $6,000. The motorcycle sounds like a nod to the past, but also signals that Harley-Davidson is paying attention to the motorcycle market.
Harley-Davidson has thus far missed out entirely on the biggest trends in the motorcycle industry. If you look at charts of motorcycle sales, it appears that the whole industry is struggling to convince people to buy new motorcycles. In 2006, 1.2 million new motorcycles went home to customers in America. Sales crashed during the Great Recession and still haven’t fully recovered. Nowadays, a good year of sales for the industry looks closer to 500,000 units. It isn’t that people aren’t riding motorcycles anymore, as motorcycle registrations remain high. It’s that it’s hard to sell a rider on a new bike when a used one often has low miles for a fraction of the price of new. So, manufacturers are trying to find out how to get more people on new motorcycles.
The Small Bore Revolution
One winning strategy has been the low-displacement, low-cost motorcycle. These motorcycles aren’t big on power, but they’re huge on character and fun while having prices that young riders can actually afford. Honda has seen massive success in its lineup of MiniMotos, and Royal Enfield deals in pretty much nothing but affordable motorcycles. Even Triumph has seen the writing on the wall and launched a line of affordable small-displacement motorcycles.
Many brands continue to sell big and expensive bikes, too, but with the small bikes they can cover nearly all ends of the market. This has worked smashingly well. In 2024, Triumph had its best sales year in its 122-year history after moving 134,635 units worldwide, and Triumph’s success was fueled by its new small motorcycles.
Meanwhile, Royal Enfield has been a barn burner that’s broken its sales records over and over for the past couple of years. It’s doing this on the backs of so many new affordable models that keep getting rave reviews.
Yet, missing from all of this action has been Harley-Davidson. Back in 2023, I reported how Harley-Davidson began importing its seriously affordable X350 from its Chinese operations. However, bafflingly, Harley stomped all hopes of the bike being available to the public. Instead, the X350 has been relegated to a life in the company’s motorcycle training classes.
Harley has been trying to attract riders with lighter wallets, but not particularly well. The Motor Company’s LiveWire spinoff brand launched the $15,999 S2 Alpinista, which is the cheapest electric motorcycle you can buy with Harley DNA, but that’s still quite expensive. Then, back in early spring, Harley dropped the price of the Nightster to $9,999. That was a move in the correct direction! But while $9,999 is cheap for a Harley, it’s not really cheap for a motorcycle.
Harley’s Secret Cheap Moto
As it turns out, Harley has had an Ace up its sleeve this entire time. According to Harley-Davidson’s Q2 2025 presentation, Harley-Davidson has been secretly working on a new affordable motorcycle since 2021. This motorcycle, named the Sprint, has been in development alongside an entry-level cruiser.
Reportedly, Harley didn’t even plan on showing its dealers the new Sprint until this October, and the world wasn’t going to see it until 2026. It’s not clear why Harley seemingly dropped the bomb early, but Motorcycle.com speculates it’s because investors might have been feeling uneasy about the brand not taking the affordable part of the market seriously. The press and enthusiasts have felt similar.
However, it does appear that Harley is finally joining the affordable motorcycle party, and I suppose it’s better to be late than to never enter the market at all. Here’s what Zeitz said, via Motorcycle.com:
“Inspired by our heritage and the spirit of the iconic Harley Davidson Sprint motorcycle, this new bike embodies boldness, irreverence and fun, capturing the rebellious energy that defines the Harley-Davidson experience,” says Zeitz. “Scheduled for release in 2026 and for presentation to our global dealer network in October, I’m pleased to share that we’re targeting an entry price below $6,000 We believe this motorcycle will not only be highly accessible, but also profitable, marking a significant step forward in driving Harley-Davidson’s future profitable growth and opening up a new path in motorcycle segment for the company in future years for its key markets.”
Harley says that this motorcycle will right the wrongs of the past. Harley has dabbled in affordable motorcycles throughout its history, with the most recent attempts being infamous failures. More than two decades ago, Harley-Davidson wanted the Buell Blast (above) to be the entry point into the Harley ecosystem, but that bike ended up being so over-budget that it was one of the projects that accelerated the demise of the relationship between Buell Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson.
Then, in 2014, Harley tried to go its own path with the Street 500, Street 750, and their derivatives.
The Street series even had an attractive entry price of only $6,700, or $1,200 cheaper than what was the cheapest Harley-Davidson Sportster of the era. Unfortunately, Harley admits that the Street series never found a large enough audience to make it profitable, and the Bar and Shield killed the Street series off in 2022.
Riders and journalists, myself included, have wondered why Harley has completely left the affordable motorcycle market. Seemingly, everyone else was cashing in on the trend, while Harley stayed the course, selling expensive bikes. It was even more frustrating to see that Harley had an affordable motorcycle in its international markets, but it refused to sell it in America. This announcement ties it all together. Development on a new cheap bike began before the Street was killed off, and Harley’s refusal to sell the X350 in America might have been because it was developing the Sprint in secret.
What’s In A Name
Alright, so Harley has a cheap bike coming. What’s with that name? Harley’s announcement says it’s “inspired by our heritage,” but what does that mean? Back in the 1950s, Harley-Davidson found itself battling the increasing popularity of imported motorcycles in America. To help shore up its position against the flood of imports, Harley-Davidson purchased 50 percent of Italy’s Aermacchi in 1960. Aermacchi-Harley-Davidson was born and soon enough, Harley began importing Italian Aermacchi motorcycles into America with Harley-Davidson badging on them.
In 1961, Harley imported the Aermacchi 250, renaming it the 250 Sprint. This bike, which was really only a Harley in name only, sported a 246cc single making 18 HP. In 1969, Aermacchi bumped the engine up to 344cc, giving birth to the SS 350 Sprint, which made around 25 HP.
The Aermacchi Harley period is sometimes considered to be part of a dark era for Harley, especially in the context of what happened to Harley-Davidson in the late 1960s: The AMF years. My retrospective elaborates:
It’s 1965 and as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, Harley-Davidson is finding itself struggling to swim up a stream of imports flooding in from Japan. The company is in need of cash, so it goes public. In 1968, Bangor Punta Corp., a conglomerate with its hands in boats and firearms, made a bid to purchase Harley for $32 a share, valuing the motorcycle manufacturer at $22.8 million. Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson hit back, telling Bangor Punta that the company wasn’t for sale. But that wasn’t necessarily true.
Harley-Davidson instead ended up in bed with American Machine and Foundry. Many Americans are familiar with AMF for its bowling equipment, but AMF also built bomb casings, tennis rackets, and propane cylinders. AMF’s purchase of Harley, while cheaper at $21.6 million, was supposed to shore the American motorcycle maker up for the future. Harley says it made the 1969 deal with AMF because it desperately needed the resources to update its organization.
AMF then took Harley-Davidson in a bunch of strange directions. The company slapped AMF on Harley-Davidson tanks while upping production. However, this seemed to be more like quantity over quality as owners and magazines felt Harley was producing low-quality, unreliable machines. Motorcycle.com goes as far as to claim that AMF-era Harleys were so unreliable that dealerships rebuilt engines under warranty and classified listings made sure to point out when a used bike was “pre-AMF.” AMF also got plenty weird with Harley, slapping the Bar and Shield onto vehicles like golf carts and even snowmobiles.
The Sprint was discontinued in 1974, and Harley’s Aermacchi experiment ended in 1978 when the brand was sold to the Castiglioni brothers of Cagiva fame.
The Aermacchi Harleys used to be deeply unpopular, leading to the Aermacchis tending to be some of the cheapest Harley-branded bikes that you can find for sale in your local classifieds. However, these old bikes seem to be gaining a bit of a fandom nowadays. Maybe that’s why Harley isn’t afraid to use the name again for the new bike.
Sadly, this is all that we know for now. Harley has not released images, projected specifications, or any details like that. But I do like the idea that Harley is going to have a bike that costs around $6,000 that will still be fun to ride. I cannot wait to see what it looks like. Riders have been begging for an affordable Harley for a while now. Let’s see if the Motor Company can deliver.
Top graphic image: Bring a Trailer
The salesfolk used to say ‘and when you are ready for a real bike we will give you what you paid for this on trade in’ when I would look at a Sportster. I’m sure they’ll be just as eager to sell a smaller bike, only without the trade in option. No thanks.
I should come up with a new handle as I think I am just about over motorbikes.
I’ve held a motorcycle license endorsement since 1970. I got it riding a friends 350 Sprint. He had it decked out as a “MiniGlide” with saddle bans and a windshield. It was a fun bike but that 4 stroke 350 single was a shaker and the torque pulsing at low speed made taking the pylon test challenging. Also – the dry clutch required regular maintenance.
Here’s another non-story about how Harley is finally “reading the market” and going to “build a gamechanger” motorcycle. It’s just the same PR bullshit Harley periodically shovels out for writers to swoon over. No pics, no details, no specs, nothing nothing nothing. Harley is toast and everyone knows it. Nothing will save Harley. For God’s sake, just die already. And give cops the ability to write tickets for straight pipes.
From their BMWs, which seem to be the cop bike of choice by agencies these days. There was a Honda ST1300 blip in there somewhere… but now it’s all BMWs. CHP, WSP. I did see a Gold Wing in San Antonio about ten years ago. I talked to the officer, and he said they got to pick their own bike and then the department would figure out how to put the lights, comms and sirens on it.
I was curious about the street series when they launched so I went to a dealer to check them out. The sales guy kept trying to hard sell me on some chromed out 30k monstrosity while not answering any of my questions about the bike I was actually curious about. I left after 15 minutes and never gave the street series another thought.
Why do I have a feeling that’s what’s going to happen here…
You get those sales people at every brand. I was at a BMW looking at a g310gs and the sales person couldn’t wait to talk me into something bigger.
When I was buying my first bike, I was thinking about a Suzuki 450 two-cylinder and the sales guy said, you are going to be bored within two months with that. He sold me a 550/4 which actually did fit my 6’2″ frame better and served me well for 40K miles until I sold it to my younger brother in law. It was a fun bike to ride and the only big thing I had to do was replace the exhaust system after one side rusted off and I just junked it all and put a Yoshimura manifold and muffler on it. Man! that was ~45 years ago! Wow.
It seems like I see a comment like this every time that Harley introduces something new – “I was interested in the ___________, but the salesperson belittled my masculinity and tried to make me buy a traditional bike.” I agree, that’s exactly what’s going to happen here.
This is how you have to handle the Harley dealer:
“Look, I’m planning to come back in a month to get a Fat Boy. So creative that it is named after a combination of the names of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is that still considered a portmanteau if it’s two words?
But right now I need the lame small displacement bike that woke, communist Harley is forcing you to sell. I’m trying to get my three year old riding without looking like some sissy on an electric balance bike. No, not the Sportster, the even smaller one, come on, she’s only three.
Cut me a deal on some of your made up fees and I’ll be back in a month for a real Harley.”
Yup. Their own dealers will be the biggest obstacle to the success of any attempt to build a smaller, sportier or more affordable Harley. I think the only way to succeed would be for them to spin this off into a new line with a new name, and sell it through other dealerships.
Also, a reminder for people who have not dealt with powersports dealers, $6,000 is like $10,000 out the door. Harley dealers are probably worse, especially since they probably don’t think they should be selling anything under $20,000.
Not into cosplay and I can’t stand the sound so HD is not the brand for me. Sorta wonder how they get around this, or even if they can. The brand is pretty tightly linked to the image
No one walks into a Harley dealership looking for a small bike. That’s the problem. Well, that’s one of the problems anyways.
Harley has also lost market share because too many new and existing riders are seeing the brand associated as associated with biker gangs and thugs. Which is probably the same reason that most of the people who I know that wanted a cruiser have all bought Gold Wings instead. And, anecdotally speaking, the Hondas require far less maintenance saving time and money too.
I’m pretty sure the cheapest bike out there will require far less maintenance than any Harley would.
I hope it’s a re-badged import bike. I don’t think HD can make good cheaper, smaller bikes.
Harley-Davidson has thus far missed out entirely on the biggest trends in the motorcycle industry.
By “thus far” you’re referring to the last 60+ years, right? To be transparent, I absolutely despise HD, consider that as of the last time I looked at one they used screws from Ace Hardware, and an engine design over 100 years old. When you compare the offerings from HD, to a comparably priced Ducati you have to wonder why the Harley is 25-30K.. No carbon fiber, titanium, little light alloy at all, not built in a factory in Italy, so no overseas shipping and so ultra liberal work policies.
By all rights an HD should be under 15k.
To be fair, a tiny bit of the reason Harley’s are expensive is because they are built in the US by union workers. Moving that labor to Italy wouldn’t really be a cost increase.
I figure only $319 difference, (higher for HD) simply based on average salary X number of employees / number of units manufactured. So a Harley should be $15,319. I can’t find out what Ducati pays (their job posting don’t say) but average skilled worker in Italy makes 52K
400cc market is super hot right now. Triumph will have a 3rd variant. BMW will debut a 450 twin. Small bore to me is under 250. Groms, Navis, TW200s. I dont know what to call 300-400cc bikes. Small middleweights? American Small bore?
Harley has the X440 in India with Hero, and the X 350 and X 500 in China with Qianjiang, but it seems like this always fails because Harley riders don’t want those kinds of bikes, and people open to those kinds of bikes don’t want the Harley baggage.
“The Harley Davidson SS-350.
Sets you free.”
Hmm. SS…sets you free…
Something about that sounds kinda familiar.
Sounds about 1% familiar. And definitely on brand.
I was sitting in The Star in Elco, NV once and having a steak the size of my head (garlic on the side, which is awesome), eating family style at a long table and struck up a conversation with two part time pilots, who obviously loved their lives, and one was talking about flying an injured Harley rider who’d been in a terrible accident to a Denver for treatment who most likely wasn’t going to make it. And Elco is a whole lot of open space but when you crash on a Harley it rarely goes your way.
So, I will recognize my limitations and stick to four wheels, because motorcycles are stupid dangerous.
And if going to the Star, I highly recommend the Porterhouse medium rare and it’s a good deal too because you’ll be taking half of it back to your hotel room and eating it cold for breakfast and it can’t be beat.
Elco? Not Elko?
Sorry Elko, you are correct.
But do go to the Star. Worth the trip just for that.
If they build it in America, I’ll be genuinely interested
If, and this is a big “IF”, Harley is able to develop a bike that looks good, rides well, and is available from dealers at these prices then they’ll have a winner on their hands in the Midwest. The problem is that Harley culture is engrained into the $20-30k bikes and their owners. If you want to be apart of that culture, you’re better off buying an 8 year old, used and modified Bagger before you step up to the dealer and let CVO rake you over the coals for an off grey Road King with Apple CarPlay.
Harley won’t ever lose the biker image, and that’s OK. There is a new age of young men who want to feel and show off their masculinity and Harley is right there to re-affirm to them that they are “ALL MAN!” when they go down the road. The problem is if the culture rejects this new cheap bike, then they won’t sell any of them. Getting folks to realize that the Orange and Black shield is good no matter what bike is the key for Harley success into the future.
Some people will buy them if the price is competitive. They still have brand recognition, and whether you are a poser on an expensive bike or a cheaper one, you still get the satisfaction of ‘riding a Harley’.
“Harley won’t ever lose the biker image, and that’s OK. There is a new age of young men who want to feel and show off their masculinity and Harley is right there to re-affirm to them that they are “ALL MAN!” when they go down the road.”
Nope:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDmsxQVxIM
Good one
Ironically the same folks who would buy a Harley find South Park “offensive”.
Bold to announce this staring down the barrel of India tariffs.
I looked up Harley’s sales figures for 2024 and I’m absolutely shocked to learn they sold 150k bikes. I would have guessed something like 50k. I bet <20% of their sales were to people under age 30.
In the US (and most “developed” countries, I would guess) motorcycles aren’t viable, year-round transportation. They’re amusements. Times are tough, and not many people have $8k (out-the-door) to spend on an amusement. Also, most of the younger folks of my acquaintance don’t know how to shift a car and don’t see any reason to, so who’s gonna shift a motorcycle? And if someone wants to (or needs to, for financial reasons) commute on 2 wheels, they’re buying e-bikes or electric stand-up scooters, which require no registration, or insurance, or special license.
I see fewer and fewer gas motorcycles on the road with each passing year.
I don’t hate motorcycles per se, but I hate the noise of motorcycles. I wish them all gone until someone does something about that.
I like motorcycles and have owned many, but I agree that their soundtrack is obnoxious. These days, I would only ever get one that was as muffled as possible.
Thank you for doing so. I know I’ve heard muffled motorcycles, and wondered why that is the exception and not the rule.
It’s the “Loud pipes save lives!” contigent. Which, no. No they don’t.
+1
The best solution is to mandate that all motorcycles be electric at some point in the future.
“I see fewer and fewer gas motorcycles on the road with each passing year.”
And I’m happy about that because of the much more lax emissions standards motorcycles have… not to mention all the idiots with straight unmuffled pipes that they “need” for “save their lives” when they ride like complete jackasses.
I’d like to see the entire motorcycle market go electric.
“It’s that it’s hard to sell a rider on a new bike when a used one often has low miles for a fraction of the price of new.”
This right here. SO many people buy a bike, then discover they don’t like riding when it’s cold.
Or hot.
Or raining.
Or when there’s traffic.
Or…
And the bike sits. Then it needs a new battery and the fuel system flushed and the tires replaced, even though it’s only got 2k miles.
Why would I buy a new bike for $10-15k when I can buy a nearly new one for a third of that (plus a few hundred in parts)?
I think a lot of people participate in a culture where new things are a status symbol, and anything used is “old”. For those with no mechanical inclination, the whole device is a monolith that wears out and simply becomes bad forever. They hear “the shocks are blown, but the bushings are good for another 5,000 miles” as “the bike is broken now and will be broken again in 5,000 miles”.
Most people don’t see maintenance or repairs as value-added processes, and don’t want to think of their device as a collection of parts. $200 on a suspension overhaul for a bike you bought for $20,000 and has since depreciated to $8,000 isn’t seen as $200 of new suspension on a $20,000 bike, it’s $200 wasted on an $8,000 bike.
This cultural approach draws a hard line at some number of years or miles where it becomes “worthless”, and considers any amount of years or miles already used as “taken” or “lost”. As always, truth is somewhere in between, it’s probably smart to buy used if you don’t mind a bit of preventative maintenance, and it’s also not a terrible idea to buy new if you plan on keeping something for a very long time, that way you can oversee every single oil change and parking lot ding from the showroom floor to the scrap heap, that peace of mind is worth a lot to some people.
It’s kind of funny but this used to be true in say the 70’s where a car literally wouldn’t make it to 150K no matter the repairs, but people didn’t have this mindset back then and kept wasting money keeping something afloat. Now that most cars if maintained (and aren’t Stelantis or VAG:) ) should be able go past 500K, people have this mentality that it literally falls apart around 60-100K and will replace it out of fear when something minor goes bad. It doesn’t help hearing about all the expensive repairs on BMW’s, Audi’s, and Mercedes that are $10K for timing chain component failures that spontaneously fail well before a timing belt would, or something relatively minor like replacing shocks and then thinking the same probably applies to their Crosstrek even though it’s probably only about $800 to do all 4.
In the end this isn’t all bad though, except for the times something gets sent to the scrapper that doesn’t deserve it and SWG isn’t there to intervene. Less informed customers will do what they think best to appease their mental sanity, they’re more likely to buy new, when they get under financial pressure they’ll hopefully do a bit of research and start making smarter decisions. That both keeps the manufacturers busy and the used car market healthy. After all, only in China do they manufacture used cars straight from the factory, everywhere else someone has to have bought it first.
“Now that most cars if maintained (and aren’t Stelantis or VAG:) ) should be able go past 500K, people have this mentality that it literally falls apart around 60-100K and will replace it out of fear when something minor goes bad.”
Which can make them a bargain as a just out of warranty used car for us DIYers.
The biggest problem is that you’d still have to buy it from a Harley dealership.
I’ve owned a few bikes over the years, and had plenty of interest in a few of their products, but the issue has always been that for better or worse, you’re buying into a culture. And definitely for the worse, part of that culture (if you want a new bike) is going to a dealership and getting told that you’re a ‘pussy’ if you so much as glance at anything other than the biggest, loudest, most expensive Harleyest Harly they sell. “Only chick ride those litte bikes” is a phrase I was told more than once, and I don’t want to be made to feel like shit because I don’t want to ride around on a loud couch. I just want to like what I like
Second hand? Maybe depending on the bike, but I would never go back into a Harley dealership to buy anything
Yeah, I forgot about how an a$$ on the sales floor can ruin the shopping experience.
It amazes me how poor car salesmen can be at their job. I’m currently car shopping, and unless the exact car is in their lot and you drive it ASAP, they lose interest.
I commented the same thing above. Went in to check out the Street series when they launched as I wanted to see this new thing they were doing. I rode in on my Ducati, a bike that could have spanked anything in their lineup. The sales guy would just keep redirecting me to some gigantic, chromed-out, Boomer biker wannabe wet dream. He didn’t answer any of my questions. I was so turned off I left and never gave those bikes a second thought.
“you don’t wanna be seen on one of them little girly bikes, do ya?”
That’s what I got told for looking at a Sportster a zillion years ago, and when I went in to look maybe 10 years later, nothing changed. “Real men” apparently care only for ass comfort and not what a bike actually feels like to ride
I got the same damn sexist line about any of the the sportsters.
BTW, the resurrection of Triumph motorcycles is one of the more amazing successes in business history.
Harley isn’t really a motorcycle company as much as a lifestyle brand. That brand is 100% dependent on heavy, loud motorcycles as props. Like in every other case in modern history, HD will attempt to make something else, and it will fail.
Ha! So true. I remember walking into HD of Orlando and realizing that there wasn’t a single motorcycle for sale in it, but I did have a choice of like 100 different t-shirt designs.
A person who graduated from design school a few years after me got a job at Harley and designed a bunch of trim/graphics packages that looked great. Harley used them in their ads to attract younger people to the brand.
The issue is that once new, young folks bought the bikes, they ended up being a part of an established culture of Harley riders who thought they were terrible designs and weren’t shy about letting everyone know their opinion. The new designs just ended up being a scarlet letter.
Harley culture is the problem, and new products won’t fix that.
You beat me to it.
I would love to have a motorbike, but they aren’t compatible with USA roads and drivers..
ask any ER doctor.
one of my high school friends had a Zundapp 50cc and I was so envious..
In some regions I would agree, but not for the most part. I have ridden over 10k miles, and in several different states. I honestly had less issues on the bikes than I have in my Miata. Yes you have to ride carefully, but if you make efforts to stay out of blind spots and are attentive to drivers around you it’s really overblown. I stepped out of the motorcycle game when living in San Antonio because it’s too hot, and the roads and drivers there were bad, but I’m getting another one soon now that I’m in Virginia where most drivers are better.
I’m sure they can and will produce a bike that’s around the $6k mark, but whether it will be any good, and/or be an actual motorcycle and not a very expensive scooter remains to be seen.
My question is whether or not today’s (younger) entry-level demographic will want anything to do with a good HD, especially as there will be background scoffing that “It’s not a real Harley!”
They never have before, and they won’t now.
This is the first time I’ve had more than passing interest in a Harley-Davidson. If it’s decently well-made, with features held back instead of quality, and mostly built in North America, I think it’ll be a hit. A simple, light air-cooled single isn’t exactly unheard of, but at least Harley will be participating in the market instead of sectioning themselves off. Even if they fail to beat imported competition, at least they’ll be competing, and we may see some new interest in the brand. I’ve never cheered for HD’s downfall, but it has seemed all but inevitable for a long time. Maybe this can save them. All I know is, another loud cruiser named after horrific acts of war certainly won’t.
I highly doubt it will be built in North America, to be honest. Almost all Triumphs, all Ducati Scramblers, and almost everything from KTM are built in southeast Asia (usually Thailand). That’s where all the affordable bikes come from.
Yeah, that’s my expectation, but I hope to be proven wrong. If they do that, it’ll just get labeled a “fake Harley” and completely fail to capitalize on the tariffs that are so lovingly destroying our economy. Nobody will respect it, and HD will continue to be the maker of slow, loud bikes for retired children.
There’s no way they can profitably build it in the US with a $6K MSRP. No existing HD customer will be interested in a furren hog, but it’s not meant for them anyway.
Honestly of all the vehicles I’d be likely to buy with a ICE it would be a motorcycle. Hopefully this is close to the Honda Navi but higher speed.
I’m imagining a Suzuki T250 more so than a Navi, but that certainly would be cool.
I just like the cable brakes, steelies, and air cooled engine of the Navi.
For sure, the Navi is really cool, I just struggle to picture Harley making something like that. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong.
the sad reality is I bet a lot of Harley Owners also own RVs and SxS and whatnot, sellling them a grom or navi type product that they could easily put in a hitch based carrier should be a no brainer but marketing is probably too scared it would cannibalize sales that they won’t allow it.
Just a hunch.
You make a good point, a runabout small enough to go on an RV and practical enough for groceries would be a great offering that might bridge the gap between retirees and youths living in apartments with scant parking spaces.
The easiest customer to sell to is someone that’s already purchased. Sell them another motorcycle but smaller.
Like what the kayak fishing industry is doing. Lots of kayaks and stand up paddle boards on racks next to docks with boats every time I visit a lake.
Oh you like boats…here’s a different boat kinda thing. I think it would work with motorcyclists as well.
I mean the air cooled engine wouldn’t be out of place, and with how overpriced regular Harleys are it wouldn’t surprise me if they cut costs by going with steel wheels and cable brakes
I can see that happening. It’d be a pretty neat package. Would also be a very “reinventing ourselves” move to fit a beginner-friendly CVT.
I’d personally prefer a manual but fair enough.
Me too, the CVT is more of a speculation than a wish. My real hope is that they’ll make something nimble with a small frame that can be spun off into roadster, cafe racer and scrambler versions with minimal R&D (basically seat, tank and wheel differences) to cater to all of the ongoing trends.
New rider with a TU250X here. It is such a perfect little bike; everything about it is very simple and sturdy, and feels high quality in the same way that the switchgear on an old Miata does, very mechanical and clicky. It’s just a happy little bike that wants to get out there and ride.