For decades, Harley-Davidson has fostered a reputation for being one of the first stops for the rider who wants to ride a La-Z-Boy down the highway. Aside from curiosities like the Pan America and the spun-off LiveWire brand, you have to look elsewhere if you want a Harley that isn’t a cruiser. But the Motor Company recently teased a future where, maybe, it could try something different again. This is the Harley-Davidson RMCR concept, and it’s a stunning café racer from the last brand you’d expect to do such a thing. Now, Harley just needs to put it into production.
Back in 2021, Harley-Davidson launched a production engine with incredible potential. The all-new clean sheet 1250 Revolution Max, or “Revmax” V-twin engine, was a technological leap forward for the Motor Company. This engine has a peak RPM of 9,500, dual counterbalancers, variable valve timing, scissors gear primary drive, independent hydraulic adjustment for the roller-finger valves, and an impressive amount of weight reduction.
There’s more, as the Revmax sports single-piece aluminum cylinders with nickel silicon carbide-surface galvanic coatings, forged pistons, plus rocker covers, camshaft covers, and a primary cover made of magnesium. I’m still not done with this engine yet, as the Revmax’s crankshaft connecting rod journals are offset by 30 degrees, and it has a 90-degree firing order.
At 150 horsepower and 94 lb-ft of torque, Harley’s Revmax even made more power than the Indian, BMW, and Triumph engines that Harley was angling to beat. The company then pointed out that it did all this in-house without help from Porsche — as it did with the V-Rod’s engine — or anyone else.
Unfortunately, Harley did all of this work, but hasn’t really let the engine live up to its full potential. As of present, the Revmax lives in the excellent Pan America 1250 adventure-touring bike and the beefy Sportster S muscle bike, while a smaller version inhabits the Nightster cruiser. All of these bikes are well-reviewed and largely beloved by their owners, but it seems that Harley-Davidson hasn’t yet found the apex of this engine. Well, that was until now.
Sporty Harleys
Harley-Davidson has frequently flirted with the idea of having sporty motorcycles behind its shield. Any fan of American two-wheelers might be able to recall Buell’s old relationship with Harley-Davidson. Then there was the time when Harley acquired MV Agusta in 2008, just to blow it up in 2009 during the global recession.
Even those times aside, Harley-Davidson built the XR1200 street tracker-inspired Sportster from 2008 to 2013. In the past, there was also the VR1000 superbike of the 1990s and the Harley-Davidson XLCR 1000 café racer of the late 1970s.
Many of these efforts eventually failed or were discontinued, but Harley has never really forgotten about them. Back in 2018, Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich championed the “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” that, among other things, sought to breathe fresh life into Harley by entering motorcycle markets it traditionally didn’t operate in. More Roads was ambitious and called for a future where Harley’s bread and butter big cruisers would be joined by a vivid lineup of café racers, sportbikes, streetfighters, adventure bikes, mopeds, electric motorcycles, and standards.
We caught a glimpse into that future with concepts like the Bronx, the VR1000 Café Racer, the Custom 1250, the Pan America, the electric scrambler, the light electric dirt bike, and more.
Unfortunately, when Jochen Zeitz replaced Levatich in 2020, he scrapped pretty much the entire initiative, keeping only the projects that were near completion. That’s why we have the Pan America, LiveWire, and the Sportster S. Zeitz was so serious about canning More Roads that, as I personally witnessed, Harley-Davidson even deleted social media posts associated with the initiative.
Harley Teases America With A Café Racer
Zeitz’s plan was to play the hits and keep slinging big cruisers while pushing t-shirts and other merch. He also wanted to build fewer bikes at high prices to make them feel more exclusive. As Cycle World notes, this worked for a couple of years as income stayed high while tens of thousands of units sat unsold. Zeitz’s strategy eventually backfired as both income and sales spiraled. In 2025, Zeitz left his post and was replaced by Artie Starrs. Now, Starrs is an interesting character because his previous roles weren’t with motorcycle companies, but with Topgolf, Pizza Hut, and Rave Cinemas.
It also seems like Starrs doesn’t believe in turning Harley-Davidson into the Ferrari of motorcycles. So, his version of Harley-Davidson has changed course on a few things. As ADV Rider claims, Zeitz allegedly rarely communicated with dealers, rarely attended dealer meetings, and supposedly issued orders without much consultation. So Starrs changed that right away by asking dealers what did and didn’t work in the Zeitz era.
Then he tackled pricing. 17 Harley models entered 2026 with the same names they had in 2025. Of those 17, six models had their prices reduced through the reconfiguration of options. I’m not talking by hundreds of dollars, either, but by thousands of dollars. Only two models saw price increases this year. The rest of the nine returning models stayed the course on price. Allegedly, Starrs is even trying to convince people to buy the Pan America, something that Harley did a poor job with during the Zeitz era.
Now, we’re seeing what could be a promising future. In February at the Mama Tried Motorcycle Show, Harley-Davidson teased the RMCR (Revolution Max Café Racer). In March, images of the RMCR finally made it to the press, and it’s a stunner.
This bike, which reportedly rides on the Pan America 1250’s platform and sports the 1252cc Revolution Max V-twin, takes much of its inspiration from the XLCR. As the story goes, famed designer and third-generation Davidson family member Willie G. Davidson had a knack for the café racers that frequented the London biker hangout, the Ace Café. In several decades past, Brits stripped down their BSAs, Nortons, Triumphs, and others down to the bare minimum, attached low bars, and raced from café to café. In the 1970s, people started giving Japanese bikes the café racer treatment, too.
In the mid-1970s, Davidson started tinkering on his own Harley café racer, which later became a whole company team effort. When the XLCR hit the market in 1977, it wasn’t just the coolest Harley built until that point, but it was just as fast as it looked.
Sadly, Harley’s typical clientele didn’t bite on the $3,600 XLCR, and neither did the guys chopping up Japanese bikes. Harley moved barely over 3,000 units over only three model years. The XLCR might have been a flop when it came to sales, but today, it’s highly collectible and often used as an example that Harley really can build more than just cruisers. Cycle World said, “As a motorcycle, the XLCR has not much merit. As an adventure, the XLCR has no equal.”
That brings us to the RMCR. This motorcycle, which Harley-Davidson says is inspired by the XLCR, pretty much replaces the Bronx concept that was canned with More Roads. But it also seems to take some inspiration from the More Roads concepts that Harley decided not to produce. The RMCR’s fairing looks like the one from the VR1000 Café Racer concept, and the swingarm looks awfully similar to the one on the Bronx.
This new concept is drenched in carbon fiber, sings from Akrapovic pipes, sports 17-inch wheels, rides on Öhlins forks, and has its dinner plates of brakes chomped on by Brembo calipers. I suspect it probably weighs a good deal less than the 542-pound Pan America that it’s based on.
This is easily one of the best-looking bikes to come out of the Motor Company in years. I won’t go as far as to say it’s as hot as an Indian FTR1200, but it sure feels like I’m sweating right now just looking at this thing.
Unfortunately, Harley-Davidson is being weirdly quiet about the RMCR. It was rolled out without any announcements, press releases, or anything like that. Motor Cycle News says that Harley has confirmed to it that it currently has no plans to put the RMCR into production.
Harley Should Build It, Anyway
Of course, that could change depending on how people respond. Then again, now would be a tricky time for Harley to try jumping into another market, given trade tensions, global conflicts, and the current uncertainty around oil prices.
But it would be sad that Harley would put in so much work to make an awesome motorcycle just to do nothing with it. We don’t need a repeat of the More Roads bloodbath! If anything, I do think that this bike is a sign that Starrs does want to have fun with the Bar and Shield, and that makes me excited.
I sure hope that, one day, when things get a bit easier, Harley-Davidson takes a chance and puts the RMCR into production. This is easily the coolest-looking machine to roll out of Milwaukee in years. I have no idea if it would have a chance of selling, but I bet I’d ride it with a smile wide enough to span Lake Michigan.
Top graphic image: Harley-Davidson
Prety sure the FTR is dead at indian, though I did like it, the Diavel makes more HP, so it would still compete there, sadly this still is not even close tto he end of the line V-Max, but I suppose if it handles like it looks it should be interesting none the less.
It would definitely compete with the 180 HP rocket three for me though. I would I suppose have to ride both to compare. maybe the revmax is enough, it sure feels good in the Pan-Amera, but the rev max sporty is not nearly sporty enough to me.
https://www.triumphmotorcycles.com/motorcycles/rocket-3/rocket-3-storm
I give 1/3 of a burp about cafe racers or sportbikes that are hell on my wrists. I’ve aged out I guess. I am happy they’re doing more things with this motor, but they may as well badge it as a limewire. Or livewire. Or whatever. They’ll sell dozens the first year then less after that.
I just watched Black Rain again for the first time in decades and was still blown away by the previous Harley CR from the movie. I can’t believe that this is dropping NOW! They should help fund a remake with the new one driven by the rebellious hero cop to kickstart sales. If you’ve seen the film, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Great Ridley Scott movie staring Michael Douglas Andy Garcia, and lots of motorcycles. One of the best villains ever and you’ll never forget Suega’s deep voice saying “blauck rain”.
Harley spent the last 35 years catering to a very narrow demographic that is now aging out of even the mobility scooter offerings. They actively shunned the idea of cultivating younger riders that whole time and now nobody looking for a bike cares about Harley.
If they’d lighten up on the seating position (slightly higher bars/lower pegs) I’d put my name on the waiting list now.
I like it, even maybe love, but I can’t see it moving any substantial units. The XR1200 and Buells as a whole were a sales blip comparatively. It would do a bit for image though, although I think the youths have moved on from the cafe craze to more tracker oriented customs. The neo Sportster and Nightsters seem to be sales duds though, so can’t imagine this will do better than those.
Looks-wise, the B side is at least slightly better than the pile of hoses and fasteners a lot of Revmax bikes are cursed with.
I think Harley Davidson had caused their own problems with their marketing, and refusal to move into the future. Selling a lifestyle only works if there are people who want to buy into that specific lifestyle. My brother who would be 68 now if he’d survived was your typical Harley guy, he rode with an outlaw biker club in Texas in his youth. About 15 years ago he sold his Harley, and bought an old BMW because he said he didn’t like being associated with the type of people who rode Harleys. He Identified as a biker, was a tattoo artist, owned his own tattoo shop, had a gun collection. He thought the whole “Harley lifestyle” thing was BS and didn’t want to be associated with it. He died about ten years ago, and after he sold his last Harley in the last few years of his life he bought an old BMR R/60, and Kawasaki Ninja that he said was the most fun he’d had on a motorcycle. Harley has kind of painted themselves into a corner with this heritage thing. This vintage café racer looking bike is a baby step away from the cruiser, but not much of departure from the sportster. Best of luck to them.
In yesterday’s article I stated HD has a problem of their own making. Traditionalists don’t want anything but a bagger or cruiser. Riders that want other types of bikes don’t look to HD first, if at all at least in part due to their high prices.
I think the All Roads initiative was exactly what HD needed to evolve the brand. It required full dedication for multiple years but I think eventually new, lower priced models could have built a new generation of customers. Heaven knows the Boomers and us GenX’ers won’t be riding that much longer.
To be fair, the average age of Harley buyers has been holding steady for a while now. So while sales are shrinking, they’ve somehow managed to find new buyers to replace those that are aging out. It’s been holding steady at 44~45 years old for over a decade now.