A lighter, cheaper Harley

According to a Reuters article (see Kneeslider blog) Harley is looking into building a lighter, cheaper entry level bike. Apparently there is not enough in it for them with the Sportsters. Well.... I would like to be among the first to suggest the perfect candidate for a historic remake of a once laughed at but now eminently collectable machine. Please no more Buell Blast but a modern version of this.

What do you think? Done right I would buy.

Buy an Enfield, then.

Cool bike. I would think they would sell pretty well in the $6000 - $7000 range.

I also think Harley is missing out on a slice of the market by not offering a dual sport/adventure bike. I'm not talking about another Buell, but maybe an HD badged mid-sized off-road Sportster.

I honestly think a big part of Harley's sales are from brand loyalty. The Buell just couldn't satisfy that. Whatever new markets they enter, the bikes need to have that HD badge.

Yes, the Bullet is a world wide sales success. Bullet owners will be standing in line, forking over their deposit to trade down. or is that up?

You knw, the only Enfield sales dealer in the entire state of Arizona is about 20 minutes away from me, and it's 2 hours from Phoenix and 4 hours from Tucson. I wonder if they have any new FI models on the floor.

They used to have a dealer in Phoenix, but evidently being a Moto Guzzi, Enfield, Benelli and Aprilia dealer isn't a sustainable business model. Who knew?

'Done right' is the biggest sticking point. What constitutes 'done right' for Harley? Probably not the single posted above...

Ground up redesign for the sportster. Keep the classic styling, keep the air cooled v-twin, but make it 100-150 pounds lighter. Give it some performance swagger to go with the awesome looks. Guzzi seems to have it figured out with the V7 classic, take some cues from them. Maybe its time for a unit construction motor thats more compact with the same displacement options? Add direct injection? Add balance shafts ? Go back to a chain or a more direct belt drive setup thats more efficient weight wise?

V7 has performance swagger?

Ummmm, no.

Good looking, yes.

How could a Sportster's belt drive be any more compact? IT'S ALREADY A UNIT CONSTRUCTION MOTOR.

The V7 has the weight and looks part, not the performance lol.

And I don't know how you cut the weight on the sporty motor damnit, I'm not an engineer, but my gut feeling from looking at the thing its a massive hunk of metal that can probably be made smaller, simpler, lighter, and more efficient.

The older sportsters were a lot lighter, and it was in the frame they saved weight.
I had an 86 883 in 86 and even with the 4 speed trans it was fun.
Light and nimble feeling to me.

Nothing like the new ones.
The rubber mounted motor system adds a lot of weight to the frame, since it gets no support from the engine which can flop around.

My dream Harley would be a pumper carbed 883 with rigid mounted motor, 5 speed trans, belt drive or O ring chain, room for 2 adults on a real seat, plenty of real suspension, mid pegs in the right place, lower handlebars, weight around 425 pounds.
Forget about selling the bike to dwarfs and midgets, make it fit a 6 foot person.

Nothing at all like the modern ones....

But I suppose you could get a 1986 and do it up....for cheap....

The version in the XB is as cut down as it gets...

Step 1 would be going to an alloy frame and ditching the metal fenders and maybe even gas tank.

A sleeved down, lighter sportster would be nice especially if it was faster and more nimble but it would probably be perceived as just an entry level copy of the more real thing. A supercharged (as an option) single would generate a lot of buzz and might exite someone who wants a Harley but doesn't want to be perceived as a bottom feeder. With Harley buyers image is almost everything.

If the 750 makes it into production and can come in under 7 grand, it'll sell like hotcakes.

This looks like something I would not mind buying at all. I just hope it has more guts than my ex500!

See? They did it once already now apparently!

(Moto Guzzi Breva 750)

That first bike, of course, is an Aermacchi,

http://www.aermacchi-world.de/

http://www.aermacchi.it/

They've moved on. So should HD.

Not a bad start. Now, make the forks a little more upright, raise the rear end for a bit more travel/sharper handling, and switch to a single rear shock. A 750 twin needs to make minimum 90 hp to be competitive. HD could do pretty well in the naked streetbike segment if they wanted to.

A 90HP 750cc Harley? :huh

Steep rake, high rear, sharp handling, mono shock. The anti-harley, hey that's what they could call it.

I'm honestly not that familiar with HD horsepower numbers. Are you saying that is too low, or too high.

I just threw out that number because my 750 v-twin makes 92 hp, and is considered slightly underpowered. It seems fairly zippy to me though, at 410 lbs. That bike looks like it could be under 475 lbs.

Other brands, such as Yamaha, make models that are very different, so why not? I couldn't think of two more different bikes than the R6 and the V-Star.

Here is the only article I can find about this bike, but it doesn't say anything other than that the "experts" think it will come in a 500 cc model as well as a 750 cc model. Designed by a firm in Italy, although of course the v-twin is a Harley motor (not that there is anything wrong with that). Article says it will be a Buell Blast replacement, and will be a more affordable entry bike to draw in a younger generation of buyers.

So long as the final product looks like this or similar and has typical Harley quality as of late (this will be made in India according to the article) I wouldn't mind buying it. Unless of course it is putting out 50 HP. That would be much too low in my opinion for a 750 cc bike. All speculation at this point though, unless Dakez or some of the other HD employees can shed some light on this without getting fired.

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/n...rce_motorcycle_production_to_india/index.html