One trip to the Sturgis Rally in the last 10 years was enough to convince just about anyone (besides Harley-Davidson, apparently) that the iconic American motorcycle brand was in trouble. Commonly, the Harley riders at the event were in their 70s, barely able to throw a leg over a bike, and rapidly losing any credibility whatsoever when it came to rebel role-playing. Bandannas be damned.
When your target demographic is literally dying off, what do you do to save your business?
EICMA was the scene for the unveiling of two new Revolution Max-powered models, including the 975cc Bronx naked and the 1250cc Pan America adventure tourer. Harley says both of these bikes will “launch in late 2020 extending the iconic brand into new market segment [sic].” Too little too late?
Although the claimed horsepower and torque figures for this new engine platform are impressive (see details in the press release below), Harley is sticking with a relatively narrow angle for the new v-twins (60 °), while embracing liquid cooling. The narrow angle poses significant challenges when it comes to controlling vibration at the higher rpm levels these horsepower claims will require. Quality components include Brembo brakes and Michelin tires.
Here are the details from Harley:
- 2021 Harley-Davidson Pan America™ adventure touring and Bronx™ streetfighter models available in late 2020
- New Harley-Davidson 975 cc and 1250cc Revolution® Max – the powerful all-new liquid-cooled V-Twin engines
- Horsepower and torque range announced
- New partnerships with Brembo® and Michelin® support middleweight development
Displayed for the first time publicly at EICMA in Milan, Harley-Davidson® is showcasing two all-new middleweight motorcycles, including the release of information surrounding the latest signature Harley-Davidson® V-Twin engine – the Revolution® Max. The powerful all-new 60-degree V-Twin has been designed for a new range of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in two different guises – 1250cc in the new Harley-Davidson Pan America™ and 975cc in the Harley-Davidson® Bronx™. Harley-Davidson® first announced expansion into new segments including new middleweight offerings in its More Roads to Harley-Davidson® accelerated plan for growth in July 2018. These exhilarating new models will both launch in late 2020 extending the iconic brand into new market segment.
Pan America™
The Harley-Davidson Pan America™ is an all-new advanced adventure touring multi-purpose motorcycle equal parts campfire, wanderlust, and grit. The Pan America™ is a two-wheel multi-tool built to endure, designed to explore, and engineered for the unknown.
Bronx™
The new Harley-Davidson® Revolution® Max powertrain is also at the heart of an all new Bronx™. This middleweight streetfighter model rolls with an unapologetic attitude and performance to match.
Powering both the new Pan America™ and Bronx models is the new liquid-cooled 975cc and 1,250cc Revolution® Max engine. Created to power a range of new Harley-Davidson® models, the Revolution® Max is designed to offer flexible performance with a broad powerband that builds to a surge of high-RPM power. Minimizing weight and maximizing performance, the Revolution® Max provides a narrow powertrain profile that is integrated into the motorcycle as a stressed member of the frame to enhance center of gravity and handling. The fully balanced powertrain has an internal counter balancer that mitigates primary engine vibration to enhance rider comfort and improve vehicle durability. Its design is bold and contoured, classic and contemporary, strong and svelte – a representation of Harley-Davidson® performance and style.
Revolution® Max 1250 Engine Performance Targets
- Displacement 1250cc
- More than 145 horsepower
- More than 90 ft. lbs. peak torque
Revolution® Max 975 Engine Performance Targets
- Displacement 975cc
- More than 115 horsepower
- More than 70 ft. lbs. peak torque
Revolution® Max Engine Technical Features
- Liquid-Cooled V-Twin Architecture
- Since 1909 the V-Twin engine has been the centerpiece for legendary Harley-Davidson® motorcycles. This lineage continues into the middleweight performance space with the Revolution® Max engine.
- A 60-degree vee angle of the cylinders provides space for dual down draft throttle bodies that maximize air flow and increase performance.
- Liquid cooling maintains a controlled engine temperature for consistent performance in changing environmental and riding situations.
High Performance Development Collaboration – Braking and Tire
To optimize performance of the new Pan America™ and Bronx™ models, Harley-Davidson® tapped into the expertise of world class component manufacturers to deliver bespoke solutions for braking and tire performance. For braking, Harley-Davidson® collaborated with Brembo® to create a new radial monoblock four-piston caliper that combines sharp edges with softer curves designed to create a style that complements the personality of the bike and delivers outstanding braking feel and capability. For tires, Michelin® and Harley-Davidson® have worked closely to develop co-branded tires for each motorcycle model that optimize performance, feel and grip in all conditions.
See more of MD’s great photography:
I agree with the youth problems mentioned below. HD needs to test market many new bike designs with very young riders. Otherwise the older riders (me) would simply guide them to make old-style bikes that no young person will want. Harley, we wish you well, and keep hanging around the young riders. When you start offending us old bikers, you’re doing the right thing!
My current ride is a 17 model 1290 super Adventure R. Honestly, the more i look at the Pan America, the more I like it. There are a good number of “better” pictures of the thing floating around out there, and I will say that the side view that everyone has panned is the least flattering of them all. I would much rather have an ugly, but interesting and distinctive bike than a bland boring one. The Pan American is growing on me! do I expect it to be in the same league as my KTM? no. But I can say that this bike is far ad away the most interesting Harley ever built, to me, and I could see myself buying one. Ugly is in!! for me , anyway
I’m curious about the Pan Adventure as well…however, there is the Norden concept and existing MotoGuzzi V85TT and 1200 Scrambler which are gorgeous adventure bikes which look old school. Still like to give the Harely a test ride, but initially I was also naysayer on the looks. Puzzling since Harley really needs to make a good first impression on younger riders who don’t shop for cruisers/bobbers. Just saying it would have been cool to give it some round headlights with a Buell tribute nood or something that looked like a 60’s scrambler put together with modern tech & suspension. Really hope Harely can sell these and they are priced somewhat affordable. Otherwise, I’ve been eyeing leftover KTM 1290 Adventure R’s…
Went to the Long Belch show yesterday and I saw people whose ages ranged from teens to 70s. I saw these people at every manufacturer’s display including Harley and Piaggio. Guess what I saw? Enthusiasts. Motorcyclists. People that ride all kinds of bikes, scooters, trikes and even those 4wheeler off road toys.
I also heard them talk and more than a few times I heard their concerns about how much the hobby, this passion of theirs is getting too expensive, especially for the younger folk including those that looked to be 30 to 40 years of so of age.
So Dirck? You’re not entirely wrong but you’re sure as he’ll aren’t near to being right. The whole industry should be concerned. Older folk like me have the money but not always the ability to ride as much as we’d like. Young to middle age people have young families that have needs and bikes are really just “wants”.
Kids need to get off their phones.
Ok blowflakes. Scribble away. 😀
Looking at the right side of the motor, it appears that to remove the clutch/primary drive cover one would have to remove at least the rear exhaust header (maybe both), as it appears to block access to the cover screws. Maybe could get at them behind the pipe, just can’t tell from the pics available. Styling over serviceability?
One of the lads awhile back mentioned HD had an ‘unfixable problem’, which got my brain skull a thumping. What would tickle my fancy to invest in HD ? Two items, and only two, are image/style related using HD semi past. Their flat track history style is theirs alone and worth emulating in a new road design IF it could be kept light and with a similar looking new engine. The other design should be an American Vincent looking road burner. Big, but light and quick like a bunny, in the open plains and mountain passes. Smile if you can imagine.
This comment has been pre approved by me.
The Bronx has a lot of potential. The Pan Am has zero potential. That bike is going to land like a lead balloon with riders.
I like the Bronx design, I loved the cant-get one-here Yamaha bulldog, the Bronx looks related, i’d love to see one in the flesh and the h2o cooled twin is the only way to go for Harleys future. Build it!!
With the Bronx at least, I hope HD realizes the game has moved forward. Not only more horsepower but lighter weight and a reasonable price.
There are many bikes in this category that I’m sure will put Harley in their place.
As usual.
As a new design, H-D needed a home run or, at least a standing triple, to move the needle. Didn’t happen.
And you can tell this by these pictures?
Could HD enter something like the PanAm into a Paris-Dakar race to gain a little street cred? Or in this case, dirt-cred?
They don’t make anything in the 400cc max displacement category for motorcycles, so no they could not enter Dakar unless they built a 400cc enduro type bike. Even then it would not directly reflect on these bikes.
I assumed Harley to be a dead company when they screwed up the styling on the XR1200. If ever there was a chance for a bike to turn heads, perform like a Buell while paying homage to their heritage, that was it. And they styled it like a dog’s breakfast. All they had to do was lift the looks of the Mert Lawwill street tracker and they were home free.
I would have bought XLs that looked like either of these:
https://www.bikeexif.com/harley-xl1200#disquus_thread
https://www.bikeexif.com/sportster-bobber#disqus_thread
The word “beautiful” doesn’t exist in their design department, and their mechanicals are nowhere near good enough to make up for the shortfall.
You don’t need to rely on Harley to build those bikes in your links. A low mileage used Sportster, a catalog, a few hand tools, your perception of “beautiful” and you’ve got what you want. It’s been done that way for decades. Keep the tradition and enjoy the experience
Hell no rebel.
Not a bad first stab (again). I like the Bronx more than the PanAm. You can see they’re trying. I would like to see a little more “trick” mechanically. And as long as they’re not abandoning the true Harley rider by always giving them what they want, I think giving a new audience some high-tech would be a good way to go about it.
I say give HD the doubt not because they’re HD, but because they’re the most “American” big volume producer out there. Too bad they don’t fit into Wallstreet’s global vision of unification, control and automation. Then they would get tons of free money to waste away like all the other Silicon Valley ventures.
Gen Y is looking for “hacks” in everything. There was always a cheaper and easier way to do things popping up in their perspective. Motorcycling is satisfying, frees the soul and is exhilarating. Motorcycles are not easy or comfortable.
For now, I think HD will need to focus on gaining market share – this is a good start. Don’t know what generation Z will do. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back. As a life of no work and all comfort can lead to a lack of purpose, which leads to apathy and depression. Which is why pop culture is always trying to build self-esteem in certain segments of our population.
One word answer…. No
I don’t see anything that stands out beside the HD symbol. Seems like they are fishing for a path forward but the creativity just isn’t there. Seems to me it would be better for them to downsize and stick with what got them strong which is a strong v-twin cruiser. I love the v-rod. That was a path forward but that cant carry the conglomerate that is HD. They need to model themselves after Ducati. Downsize and build on their strengths.
Hardly a conglomerate. One company. One brand.
chaps are a separate division
Only the “assless” ones, the ones that commemorated Elton’s 100th Anniversary performance. Seriously, I have to wonder if Seger was busy that week, or if E.J. was really their first choice?
Ducati has done anything but downsize. They are in about as many product categories as Yamaha at this point, with multiple cruiser options even.
He is talking about its history… what Ducati needed to do to save themselves from extinction like all the other great Italian and British brands (save MV Agusta and Triumph). By the 90’s, Ducati was a specialty motorcycle maker that almost died. It downsized, created the Monster and started making a profit. The company’s IPO was in 1999. It took them 20 years before they could branch out in many different product categories. Dan is suggesting HD do the same.
I won’t comment on Harleys history and heritage because I’ve never been a part of it. With the Pan Am however, they are playing in my sand box now. Their cache has no currency what so ever in this segment. This bike, for me at least has to competitively priced, no HD premium because it hasn’t earned it, be stone ax reliable and just be a good travel partner. It for me doesn’t have to be the best at anything but it must not fail me or let me down, for when I get the opportunityI ride many a mile and my bike has to be bullet proof.
If I were an investor I’d say it’s time to dump HD stock. The money days are over!
Do you even have the stones to work and invest in anything? Another “NEVER HD!” chimpster.
No wonder motorcycling in general is tanking. Those who claim to “love” to ride don’t buy.
“The money days are over!”. Talk about chimping out. Snowflake.
Okay, boomer!
Well, good thing you’re not an investor. 🙂 You would have needed to dump the stock 5 years ago.
I personally applaud their efforts to evolve, even if they are 20 years late. Still wouldn’t bet on the stock yet, though.
I resolved the problem with aging boomers by buying a trike, a free wheeler. It looks like a classic, and rides down the road like a dream. The other issue with Harley owners is that they usually have a short inseam. The cruiser style is the only motorcycle that they can ride. Because of that, these taller bikes will not appeal to them. Put that motor on a cruiser or trike and it may sell.
Read the article. These bikes are not meant for typical Harley riders. Did the word ‘demographic’ throw you off?
Read my post. Did the words “short inseam” throw you off?
Short inseams is what throws many people off of adventure bikes.
That is why there are cruisers, Like H-D..
I think it is patently wrong to assume that Harley owners “usually have a short inseam.”
Harley already has bikes for short people. They want to make bikes for other riders.
“That is why there are cruisers, Like H-D..”
Adventure bikes are certainly challenging for shorter riders but if a guy with a short inseam can’t fit on the adventure bike that he likes, I can’t see too many choosing a cruiser instead, functionally or aesthetically. These are very different motorcycles.
I think just the opposite is true. I’m a tall guy with a 36” inseam. Cruisers are the only bikes that give me adequate leg room for longer rides. On other bikes the seat to peg distance is just too close and my legs end up being extremely and uncomfortably folded up. Adventure bikes may be high off the ground but when I put my feet up on the pegs my legs are still folded up. The Vrod was uncomfortably small for a tall guy and so were the later Buels. You rarely see tall guys on sport bikes. We primarily ride cruisers because that’s all that fits us…
HD is in trouble and these bikes are a sort of Hail Mary pass play to save the game. My local HD dealer in Temecula has recently taken on BMW as a way of staying in business. Outside are lots of new Harleys but when you go inside it looks like a BMW dealer with lots of bikes on display and all the HD clothing and such in the back, didn’t see any new HD’s inside.
For a company with a long history of motorcycles, these new designs look like they come from a company thats never built a bike ever.
Yeuuuchhhhh!
Keep it up and you wont survive Harley.
Cut them some slack. They haven’t designed many bikes in the last century. Give them time to catch up with the rest of the industry.
Ouch!
FFS, the whiners here that hate Harley are legion in numbers save that of individual IQ. So who copied HD’s style because their own crappy “cruisers” were so freakin’ fugly that only “Never HD” types, those that couldn’t (yet) afford them and the terminally retarded whiners here would buy them?
Answer: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha.
It’s been said before and I doubt the mod here has the stones to post this but buying and riding a fake Harley is like dating a drag queen.
Harley will be fine. All brands are in the crapper here in America sales wise. You crybabies bitch and moan about every marque’s offerings usually prefacing your torrid tantrums with “I’d buy one tomorrow if only it had}… Or the ever popular “I LOVE it, but”…
When someone makes a valid comment on fuel economy, range, maintenance or insurance costs, these same children go and chimp out with the now ubiquitous, “ok boomer”. 😉
I see more Harleys on the road than even Goldwings, which come in second in that regard. Even the mighty Wing isn’t selling well now. Why? Because the latest generation to reach puberty and the age at which they can be issued a license to drive still hasn’t the balls to speak to a woman in person let alone do something as “risky” as riding a motorcycle.
No one wants to change the diaper that is their mind. It’s full of themselves, in other words FOS.
Text-Monkeys.
And Dirck. My brother goes to Sturgis almost every year and he told me he sees plenty of 30 on up riders. GFG, talk about being disingenuous in order to appear “woke” or “hip”.
Whatever.
drum roll please…ok boomer
Wow. This rant demonstrates quite well the nature of Harley’s image problem and why it will be so difficult to fix.
Have to agree Jeremy. That’s it in a nutshell.
Well said Salvatori!
ok boomer…
“riding a fake Harley is like dating a drag queen”
I don’t know what a “fake Harley” is but, if that’s the case, then riding a real harley is like being a drag queen.
“You crybabies bitch and moan about every marque’s offerings usually prefacing your torrid tantrums with “I’d buy one tomorrow if only it had}… Or the ever popular “I LOVE it, but”…”
That is the silly part. I just bought an HD. Never bought one in decades of riding because I liked bikes with more cornering clearance. HDs always seemed to have more problems than avg too.
Anyway, now that we’re on the 3rd yr of M8 production, it seemed to me that they made the changes to fix their bugs. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The bike is a magic carpet in every respect.
It’s about the ride people. All that tech gadgetry will be soon be forgotten after the thrill of demoing it. What’s left is how you feel after a day in the saddle. My Road King leaves me feeling really dang good.
You kids go ahead and wait for next year when maybe they’ll bring out a 16″ ipad strapped to the handlebars that you can play Crazy Birds on.
The 2-tone Pam-Am looks horrible in that color scheme. The mono-chromatic paint job is much better. I actually believe that these new bikes are a good start to (hopefully) a new future for HD.
So HD is reintroducing the Yamaha MT01 and calling it the Bronx?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_MT-01
Of note in the Wiki article “But Yamaha Motor Corp. USA declined to import it to the United States, citing a small market for this style of bike.”
Living in Canada, I rode of these. Interesting bike, unique and impressive styling, but was top heavy and reluctant to turn. Lots of low end torque, but it was basically, and quite obviously, a cruiser engine in a sport bike chassis. The result? A slow and awkward “sporty” bike. Do you think HD can build a better version of this? I doubt it.
Aside from the fact both have two wheels, they look nothing alike.
The issue is a little more complex than boomer aging. Without getting in to a political issue, there are studies by Ford and the motorcycle industry which point to the fact that the younger kids don’t have the money to buy toys do to low wages and or student loan debt. Let face it motorcycles are toys in this country for most people. Keep in mind when Henry Ford was asked why he was paying his workers above the industry average his response, so they can purchase the cars they are manufacturing (I paraphrase).
The industry can redesign, bring new models, bring smaller beginner bikes, etc. but it isn’t dressing a bigger issue. Keep in mind the last couple of decades many of the boomers were buying the bigger more expensive models because they no longer had mortgages, kids in college, etc.
Harley would have been best advised to enter the Adv market with a splash by emphasizing functionality over brand vamping with a HD equivalent of an old Honda Deauville. If they emulated a KTM Super Adventure then they might have been taken seriously, the currently proposed styling exercise is too bland and too strange at the same time. Fail
Age is the issue, and effects All Makes & Models….
I preferred Gold Wings for our 2 up riding. Cross Country multiple times on 1200 and 1500 Wings. Early 1800’s didn’t have knee room… Bought a 95 Ace for around town. By the time Indians were good enough to consider, my knees wern’t! I could afford whatever I wanted… But my Knees suggest it is simply not in the cards anymore….
Sold my Wing and Ace 2 years ago…. I still look at bikes in parking lots and remember the good times… But after 54 years, I’m an observer, not a rider….
You might want to consider changing the name of this site to simply – okay, boomer.
I agree with those that say motorcycles in general don’t seem to interest the younger generations the way they interested us Boomers. I see riders on all brands of bikes and most of those riders could probably qualify for AARP cards. You certainly don’t see as many young guys zipping around on crotch rockets like you used too. To me it seems the issue is not that the young guys aren’t riding Harleys, it’s that they are not riding anything at all… Unfortunately I see the motorcycle market in the US shrinking across all brands.
On a side note, one thing that I’ve always loved about Harley is their excellent service documentation. I’ve owned other brands and nobody else has service manuals that even come close to what you can get for your Harley. Makes it really easy for someone with a little mechanical aptitude and a few tools to do most if not all of the scheduled maintenance and whatever infrequent repairs may be needed.
It’s much easier to compile a repair manual for something that doesn’t ever change. Imagine having to write a manual every couple years for something that might not ever need to be repaired. My Duke owner’s manual does have all service details, procedures, and specifications so I don’t need to purchase a repair manual unless I want to overhaul the engine.
That’s a valid point about something that doesn’t change much from year to year. I’ve never owned a KTM but if the owners manual is as complete as you say, that’s great.
Eric Buell where are you? Actually, he was a brilliant designer, not a great marketer. Harley was a great marketer, below average designers. I loved the simple, tourque rich, good handling bikes. My Ulysses is one of the best riding bikes in the garage. They missed their chance to expand their market when the current market aged out.
The whole industry is heading towards a spot in history. I just took a tour of a few Colorado dealerships. People are staying away in droves. I’m a dinosaur and not looking forward to being in a country with no new riders. But such is life.
Harley Hipsters really are drying up and blowing away. It’s almost tearful sometimes to see what’s riding around. But all motorcycle sales are down, it isn’t just Harley. The in-crowd wants Teslas.
The good news is that Harley motorcycles are so much more beautiful, involving and fun to ride than everything else, and high quality too for several years now, that all they really need to do is modernize with liquid cooling and lighter weight and they’ll probably do better than the industry generally.
I’d suggest the 1250 Revolution engine in something like a BMW R12500RT, RS or R. I’d much rather have a Harley.
If Harleys were more beautiful, involving, and fun to ride than anything else they’d have some customers who weren’t blindly loyal 74 year-olds who don’t care about any aspect of performance. They don’t, which is why they are smartly trying to break free of the legacy/lifestyle shackles they’ve been happily wearing since 1983 or so.
I sincerely hope that these new bikes are great, well-received, and sell reasonably well.I don’t want HD to die, but if this fails, they’re not going to have too many more chances I don’t think. Not _no_ more, but precious few.
H-D will ‘save itself’ IF it can morph from a company endlessly recycling the certain V-Twin ‘biker’ image to an expanded heritage American manufacturer that offers an American take on the various classes of motorcycles they can expand their business with. Not unexpected that these new models may seem a bit derivative (and they’d hardly be alone in the ‘me-too’ business), but as a departure to a new style and outlook, this could be the start of new, good things.
Stick with the same old same old, and prepare to become another used-to-be like steam locomotive manufacturers, or at best, a much smaller niche builder. Believe me, this is the twilight of leather vests, no-finger gloves, chain wallets, and dog-bowl helmets.
Harley has had their own niche market for years and every attempt to break out of that has failed. I don’t know what they need to do to change that but these bikes are not it.
Why not? I think they’re exactly what is needed. Were you thinking they need to build some road racing/sport bikes? That market is dying a slow death, and has been for years. A 2019 GSXR600 is barely different from a 2008 model…not endogenous money in it to spend the big re-do dollars.
To the contrary, sporty nakeds and ADVers are on the upswing, being the two fastest growing segments in the US and abroad. That being the case, why are these bikes ‘not it?’
I would guess that they need to find another niche market and not try to compete with other brands. Not saying they don’t make a great product but they are too late to the party to compete with them.
Not a Harley fan, but the first impression of the Bronx is terrific. Let’s give it a cheer! (Couldn’t resist) 17″ wheels with sporty rubber, radial brakes, decent horsepower, good torque. If the weight is reasonable, and the price in line with the market, this could be a winner. I loved my SV1000, and this looks to be cast in a similar mold. High hopes for the Bronx.
I was going to make a comment on the looks of the Pan America, but then realized “It doesn’t have a beak!” All is forgiven. I suspect that there are a number of riders who love HD’s and want an adventure bike, or vice-versa. Again, depending on weight and price, this bike could do quite well.
No idea whether these bikes will save H-D, but I applaud the effort. Unless they cost $30k like the LiveWire.
I _so_ want the Pan America to be good, and reasonably priced. Can’t wait to see these in the flesh
Interesting pair. I gotta say, I like the pan America. lotsa power, unique lines, and best of all, no bloody beak.(yay!)
Both these bikes are perhaps priced a little steep, but if they prove to be reliable, they could find a corner of the market. I look forward to some reviews good or bad.
Just like the >ndia made 500cc and 750cc. And the electric blunder these will be to. Just lower the prices on there current models instead of raping people with outrageous prices they’d be surprized. The look like cheap 80’s Japanese models. Blunder number 3!!!!!
Apparently, my comment yesterday did not pass moderation on this open forum. No problem, as everything I wrote has been covered already. Hope the Bronx is normal weight for class and not Michigan Miracle Metal per 100 years HD, when it is available in two model years.
This comment is now approved by me.
I think HD has an unfixable problem. They have (1), loyalty brainwashed their demographic for 100 years, beyond any possibility of change, which leads to (2), no one will EVER think differently about HD’s, so (3), any money spent for future hail marys is just financially digging the hole deeper. Hey HARLEY! Here’s an idea worth investing in. Keep making your current models, but lighten each one by about 200 lbs, make them RELIABLE, and LOWER THE PRICES. Better to take a 20 year hit than to swing wildly at fences that you don’t even know the distance to. The internal combustion engine for bikes will be around a LOT longer than cars, so you have time to PLAN things long term. I think I have a viable thought.
The sanest comment I have read on this website in years. Adding to the list 4) as a public company, HD is under pressure to announce vaporware like this to keep the stock price from entering a death-spiral…
It isn’t vaporware…these bikes are in the process of going into production right now.
Also, Making the current bikes 200 pounds lighter is literally impossible, and would do absolutely nothing to draw in a new consumer demographic. I don’t have any idea if this will work or not with these new bikes, but it either will, or the company will be in serious trouble.
Making the same bikes they already have somehow marginally more attractive because they perform better is a fools errand. People who want Harleys buy them. What they need is different people to want Harleys, and this is the way to do that.
On a side note, the bikes are mostly fine reliability-wise. That hasn’t been a deal breaker for many years.
‘target horsepower’ = vaporware. Not too many riders will want to alpha-test these things…the whiff of desperation is a buzz-kill on the showroom floor.
Its comical to watch troops of bloated boomer-pirates rumble down the road. Buells were cool because they were radical (like Erik himself). These contrived, half-baked, hail-Mary duds will get clobbered.
This may keep some consumers from going elsewhere for an Adventure bike and Streetfighter. However it’s still McDonald marketing. MickyD sells pancakes and nuggets. When will they sell buffalo wings? My prediction is: HD will try anything to stay in business!
The Bronx is a good looking bike and could do well within its market segment. Unlike others here, I think a 975cc engine is a good place to be and 115hp/70 ft-lbs is a strong/competitive engine for that size. The bike has great lines. If the engine has (good) character and the weight isn’t a problem (if it’s over 500 pounds – there’s a problem) I think this bike will do well.
The Pan America looks like a mistake.
Here is my concern for Harley. When the Live Wire was announced HD had an amazing buzz. People were truly excited that HD was gonna lead the way with an electric bike. The press was giving them great coverage and it looked like with their investment in Alta Motors they were committed to defining and growing a new market segment. It appeared that they couldn’t screw it up. Competitive e-bikes were selling for $12,000 to $16,000. All they had to do was price it right and have a smooth roll-out. They did neither. At $30,000 they actually pissed people off. And then just months into production, production stopped for a technical reason. And beloved Alta…gone. They completely f’ed it up.
They’re gonna do it again with the Bronx and Pan America. Let’s look at the Bronx. This class of bikes includes the Z900(~$8,500), FZ-09 (~$9,000), Street Triple (~$10-11,000), KTM Duke (now) 890 (my guess $12,000), Ducati Scrambler ($13,000), Suzuki Katana (~$13,500). Whether you agree or not this bike will compete with the FTR1200 (~$16,000).
The Bronx will be priced around $20k. Why? Because in their current line-up the antiquated Softail line sells for $14,000 to $20,000. This bike has less technology and competes in a hot market segment.
At $10,000 the Bronx is competitive with the market. At $12,000 they are at the mid to upper end – and the bike might be good enough to support this price. At $16,000 they are priced out of the market…and that’s why they’ll be at $20,000.
At $16-20K the bikes will sell at low volumes and HD will not recover their investment. At $10-$12 they will be competitive a steal sales from Ducati, Triumph, KTM and Victory. I don’t see HD competing, or even wanting to compete with, the Asian brands.
Well said! If only H/D could see that the single-track world is round and doesn’t revolve around Milwaukee anymore.
Copy and paste your post to the wall over the urinal in the HaDa marketing department.
In contrast, the Guzzi V85 TT Adventure just looks the part – very economical. This one looks like a a 70’s MZ ES250/2.
https://www.scribd.com/article/393024306/Mz-Es250-2
You gotta know what you are going for and when to put the paint brush down.
There are a lot of Wisconsin jobs on the line. C’mon!
Title Q: No. “Too little too late?” Yes. Starting in the 80s, San Francisco’s City Bike newspaper predicted HD’s demise loudly and repeatedly for years. They were a little early, but it looks like the writing is on the wall.
Maybe if HD released these bikes 25-30 years ago, but it’s a little late now. IMO, in the period from the 80s-90s, HD was swimming in so much cash, re-releasing the same GD bikes over and over again, for ever inflated prices, that shareholders would have forbade HD from spending the cash (during that period) required to invent new bikes like those featured in this article. Investors would have just screamed, “Why shoot our golden goose?” And HD management (idiot MBAs) were too lazy to point out the fallacy of the investor lack of vision. The MBA managers just took the easy way out and chose to not upset the apple cart.
I just noticed a strange, potential full circle: in the mid-50s, a hood like James Dean’s character in Rebel Without A Cause wanted and could afford an HD Knucklehead. Such bike helped the character project his “rebellious” nature.
Later, HDs became so costly that the Hells Angel owner of an Oakland HD dealership said he hated the only people that could buy his bikes: lawyers and doctors (City Bike covered that pre-web story in depth). Now, as our intrepid reporter stated, those old codgers die off, with no replacements entering the fold. The strange thing is that used HD values likely plummet, as the brand swirls down the drain.
Eventually, HD bikes might become so cheap that regular working people can buy them again, at least used models. But is there any price that makes them desirable to young people? Me doubts it.
The fairing on the adventure version reminds me of a 50s Buick or Oldsmobile, not a good thing IMO (that’s 1950s, not 1850s). The Bronx looks OK, maybe better than OK, but mixed feelings about the name.
I think a lot of people either forget or never knew that Buell (HD Buell) motorcycles were based on Sportster engines. As good as some Buells were, the engine was designed in 1986 and based on one from 1957. These new bikes are in no way even similar to a Sportster based Buell motorcycle.
Yes, the dealers helped to screw up Buell as a brand, but that was at a time when Harleys were selling faster than they could make them. The dealers are now suffering with the company, so I’d bet on a completely different dealer attitude.
My Buell Ulysses was the most over rated POS I ever swung a leg over. The engine is the most useless pile of junk of any bike I owned (an embarrassingly large # I won’t admit and don’t exactly know anyway).
At one of my earliest track days, probably 2002 or so, a guy showed up on a Buell S3 Thunderbolt. It looked enormous and very primitive compared to the gaggle of sport bikes. Tech was not impressed but the bike checked all the boxes so they let him on track, at the beginner’s level.
He made two (slow, instructional) laps before breaking down on-track. They had to shut down the track while they got it off the track, and the instructors were pissed that anyone would even show up on such a POS.
It sounded interesting, though, that twin in the midst of all the inline 4’s, triples, and one or two Ducs.
That is my Buell story.
I used to run track days. The early Buells broke down before lunch for many years (belts, head gaskets, etc) prompting the riders to ask me for some credit forward to next event.
I told them I would issue some credit IF you return on a different bike that does not shut down my program and piss my customers off before lunch! Started telling Buell riders don’t ask me for credit anymore if your bike breaks down before lunch.
Finally, years later, the watercooled models showed up and they would finish a day without too many problems, but they were touchy/twitchy to setup, about equivalent to a good 600 performance-wise on the track.
My Ulysses: molded into the windshield were little arrow shaped male parts that simply plugged into a rubber grommet (in the cowl IIRC).
The first time I took my Ulysses up to freeway speed, the phreaking plugs detach from the grommets, the windshield flies off and hits my helmet, then continues flying off to parts unknown. Took me 15 minutes to find it.
If the Ulysses had lighter fork springs and damping there’d have been criminal charges.
I’m surprised fasteners don’t fly off and blind people at idle.
I upchuck a little in my mouth every time someone describes Erik Buell as a “brilliant engineer.”
I disagree with you. I liked my two Buells, 2003 XB9S and 2006 XB12Ss Long. Out of the two I preferred the 9S’s 984cc engine character over the 1203cc. The 12Ss dog-ring transmission (2006+ Buells) was a big improvement over the 9S. The engines were far from useless and made the bikes pretty fun to ride. I’ve owned a lot of bikes as well. I believe you either had a lemon, or exaggerate. What drove me away from Buell was not a bad bike, but consistently negative dealer attitudes like others continue to tell.
Honestly, I am not exaggerating how much I hated my Ulysses. I sold it after 3 weeks.
No sarcasm, I’m glad you like yours, as do a lot of other owners.
“I think a lot of people either forget or never knew that Buell (HD Buell) motorcycles were based on Sportster engines.”
I think most everyone knows that. The engine seems to be the main reason the market ultimately rejected Buell.
I agree most dealers will have a different attitude towards these new bikes. They can’t afford not to.
It also failed because of a toxic dealer network, and the fact that HD shut it down. Think of where they could be now with a 10 year head start.
JC is quite correct. If you were to ask 100 people at random “What engine was the basis for Buell motorcycles?”, you’d probably get 10 correct answers or less.
Hard-core motorcyclists knew/know, but we are a small segment of humanity.
Having owned one I disagree. Most riders I encountered knew it was a Sportster-based engine, or at least an old-school Harley engine, and typically had something negative to say about that whether they had actually ever ridden a Buell or not. Was the knowledge base for that kind of info in my locale typical? I don’t know, but it was a huge metro area. So I’d think it was a pretty good sample size. In any case, readers of this site or of the motorcycle press in general are likely all very much aware.
The “What’s that?” line of questions typically came from cruiser riders, which is understandable since Buells were outside of their genre.
Why are we talking about Buells anyway?
I don’t know what intrigues me more. These two bikes or the comments about them. Having owned a few Big Twins(8), this direction by Harley is both interesting and needed. No new ground broken here but that could be said about any company that isn’t the first one to the party. The styling for the Bronx is good for a modern bike. It looks right from a modern point of view. The Pan America on the other hand, I haven’t made up my mind yet. While the headlight is certainly different, it won’t be mistaken for another brand, and the rest of the bike has a cleaner design to it, unlike a lot of bikes that have a swayback/insect/origami/drawn by a drunk eight year old look. Hears looking beyond the stereotypes and wishing Harley well with this new direction.
Great looking bikes! I like them both.
So basically, H-D has decided to revive the Buell model lineup. Oh, except they’re going to walk away from all of the paid-for engineering and market research and start from scratch. Sounds efficient. H-D has had their head buried in the sand for decades; I just hope that they’re not too late to save the future of the brand. This is what happens when you let the accounting department run a motorcycle manufacturer.
I have a sneaky feeling you never rode a Sportster-powered Buell.
The Sportster Buells weren’t fantastic motorcycles, but they got a new demographic into the dealerships.
The original Corvette had a low power 6 cylinder that was designed in the early 40’s, and a two speed automatic. They managed to build some excitement, update the car, bring people into the showroom, etc. It has a become one of the better perfoming cars in the world, at an extremely low price (compared to the other cars in its category).
HD could have gone somewhere with Buell that didn’t end in a dumpster fire.
Actually, I think this – HD branded and flavored products for other market segments – was the way to go all along.
Actually Provologna, I did own a 2000 Buell M2 Cyclone for several years. I thought it was a fun streetbike in its element, but the vibration, oil leakage, and awful transmission got old quickly. I thought that Buell did a pretty good job of making due with outdated technology, but when Buell tried to design a modern liquid-cooled powerplant, H-D hijacked the design to fit their V-Rod, making it unusable for a sporting platform in the process. Buell was just starting to make real progress when H-D pulled the plug, seemingly out of nowhere. I thought this was a huge mistake at the time, and it looks like H-D might be proving me (and many others) right.
I’m hoping the work Harley is doing will save the company, I really am.
I like the Bronx styling a lot, but the weak engine is a no go for me. It should at the very least be competitive with other “street fighters”. Okay, maybe if it sells for around 8-10K it would be a winner but to anemic for my liking.
The Pan America might be okay but the ugly styling, I don’t think I could get past that and I’m a KTM guy. KTM’s are hard on the eyes also but their performance sells me every time. I would love to ride an American bike but so far in my life time I haven’t seen anything that works for me. Buell was very close, but we all know what HD did to him.
I’m thinking the ship is sinking. Maybe they’ll just become a boutique bike manufacturer.
Me thinks the only way HD gets a convert from KTM is to threaten bodily harm and mean it!
Kudos to HD for putting these out. I don’t know how well the Pan-Am will be received, but I have hopes for the Bronx. Ideally (for me), in a couple of years they’ll evolve the platform from the initial offering and stick the 1250 in an upscaled version of the Bronx, with fully adjustable suspension and other modern amenities. I had high hopes for the XR1200 when it was announced, and what was brought to market was a complete dud. I contemplated gray market importing a Yamaha MT-01, but it was just not reasonable to do in California. For years I’ve wanted an American motorcycle that wasn’t a cruiser, and this year Indian delivered. I love my FTR 1200 S, and wouldn’t hesitate to park a Big Bronx next to it.
Wow, has to be a comment record, but news flash………Not going to help Ha/Da. My age just hit Gronk’s favorite number and riding my last bike, a ’97 Monster, unless I find a used 999 for almost nothing. Mic says a record number of bikes registered, but my experience is that most are ridden less than 500 miles/year, garage jewelry. Expensive toys are not going to bring back the magic.
The front end of the Pan America screams “AMF.”
+1, ow
+ 2
Actually, that’s a rather perceptive way to put it. There has to be free-lance designer out there who could pen a better look.
Naaahh,…look again.
That is a Monkey Wards riding lawnmower front end (that can’t mow a lawn.)
In the mid 90’s when the Harley thing exploded with the aging boomers and dealers were charging above list price sometimes I predicted that the top was in. I figured their slow steady increase of production would slake the thirst. OK, I was 20 years off.
Harley will never sell non Harley’s in decent numbers. You know what I mean. A Harley is more than a motorcycle. It is a fetish, a religion, a way of life. Idolatry and worship could fit in descriptions of Harley people. Harley is an ideology. It’s far more than a motorcycle. Harley isn’t really selling motorcycle. They are selling entre into a culture. No Pan American will do.
It’s an odd almost unique story of branding. Harley is among the most recognizable brands in the world. That has been it’s blessing and now it’s curse. Harley will never die. It might reorganize and be taken private someday. The brand is almost priceless. The stock, not so much. Actually it being a publicly held corporation has been bad for it.
Most importantly, a Harley is a cruiser/bagger. Harley has pretty much defined itself that way. And they’re pretty good at making those. Honestly, if you want a cruiser, until recently there was H-D, and a bunch of pretenders.
But now H-D is moving into the role of pretender, trying to take business from companies who have well established reputations for producing high quality, high value, high performance bikes.
Outside of cruisers, I don’t thin the H-D badge has much pull on the typical buyers of other types of bikes. Maybe some Americans will be attracted to a “made in America” option, but enough to make a difference? They’ll have to be competitive on value, and honestly I’m not convinced that H-D’s corporate culture really understands how to compete on value.
I think the “Turn-about is fair play” rule applies here, remember when all the Japanese companies started producing cruiser variants when HD was dominating in the 90’s? If people quit eating chicken for some reason, you’d probably see “Kentucky Fried Hamburgers” signs start popping up.
HD and Coca-Cola are both seen by Americans as US as the US Flag.
But Coke has done far better Worldwide as it has marketed itself as an International Company that co incidentally just happens to be US owned.
That’s the big difference away from the USA.
HD’s Ownership model is physically in the Old Folks Home, BUT Coke has 2 year old’s to whatever age as their market, and has been swiftly releasing new non sugar product to keep Customer base.
Which US Company got it right ?
As HD keeps choosing to wrap their Image (I am not referring to the 2 models here) around their past, I’ll buy more of those dearer Coke share’s.
Motorcycles in general aren’t selling. There’s still new 2018 Japanese bikes on floors across the country. Same with European bikes. And Harleys.
Some people hate just plain HATE Harley-Davidson. They’re not buying anything. The truth is few are buying motorcycles and while some companies can say their sales are up compared to a year or two ago, that’s kind of like when Victory would say something along the lines of “…sales are up 100% from last year” when the sad truth is if you only sold 100 bikes and then you sell 200 including units that have sat on floors or in warehouses, that’s just being disingenuous.
These HD bashers are usually the same whiners that claim (when it comes to just about any model of any Japanese or European bike) “if only it…”
Bikes are expensive to buy and maintain. People can sit here furiously typing about how the “love” the new Honda/Kawasaki/Ducati/Suzuki/Yamaha/KTM but they sure as shinola aren’t buying them. “Love”. Yeah, right.
Because when it comes time to actually pay for something these folks ain’t puttin’ their money where their foot is. Which is a BIG reason why Buell keeps going under.
Very well said and very accurate!
Totally agree.
Sal speaks da troof.
Lack of general interest in bikes is killing the resale market. For those who aren’t made of money, that makes it even harder to move on/up to a new bike. I’ve got a 5 year old Yamaha Fazer 8 at home that I tried to sell last year. The only offer I got was a lowball offer at $2500. For a bike that retailed for $11300 in 2013 (I bought leftover in 2014 for $8300). I’d almost sooner burn it than sell it for that little.
I don’t think it’s general disinterest, I think it’s a flooded market. There are literally many thousands of used bikes for sale in my area right now. If you want to compete with all these sellers for a relatively small number of buyers, how desperate are you?
The Pan America adds nothing to the ADV touring market. It will be a first year problem child, and priced at the high end of the market, due to H-D tax. The dealers will have trouble with the concept of bth bikes, since they aren’t traditional Big Twins.the uybig public considers H-Ds to be “old guys” bikes, quite rightly.
The Bronx has a nice look, but the Pan American is fugly. I have owned ADV bikes and my heart runs to BMWs so I am not immune to paying premiums and loving fugly bikes. But H-D had a chance to introduce something truly new in the language of design, and missed it.
The Bronx seems to be a little too much “me too” with styling that appears to be lifted straight from the design studios of the European makers. It’s nice, but a little too familiar. The Pan America on the other hand is polarizing to say the least. It reminds me of Street Hawk from the 80’s t.v. show, with a retro style toaster for a headlight housing. Some designs have grown on me, but this I guarantee won’t. If it doesn’t have some real performance cred, I doubt that it will succeed.
I think this an example of too little, too late. Power figures are a huge selling point in both of these categories, and both bikes are low in power compared to the market. This is no doubt to their adherence to the narrow V engine design. Pricing is a big ?, but I assume its going to be high. I consider myself an optimist, and get excited about new bikes pretty easily and I am not a fanboy of any particular brand. These bikes just don’t do it for me though.. The Bronx is “ok”, but the Indian FTR1200 seems like a better choice here in this style.
I think the Bronx looks great. My concerns are that it’ll be too heavy and too expensive. If it’s competitive with the Triumph Speed Twin, Yamaha XSR900, and Ducati Scrambler, and if the dealer don’t totally screw things up like they did with Buell, I think it could be a winner.
I think the Pan America looks ugly and will have a really rough go of it with its existing competition.
Wishing HD the best, but I have concerns about their ability to market these new entries in the US. In my experience, many HD owners and riders (and some dealers) are a unique breed, and some seem to believe that the brand has been annointed by God to reign supreme on Planet Earth. My attorney, in his 60s and never having straddled a bike, informed me last week that he was buying a Harley. I advised against it, but said if he was determined to take the plunge, to get the smallest, lightest offering in the showroom. Unfortunately, for me, looking at a Harley is like looking in a mirror; antique design, outdated technology, overweight, underpowered and lacking ground clearance. Hopefully the latest from Milwaukee will break that mold.
It still amazes me how people just don’t get that riding needs to be learned and a large heavy bike for doing so is a really terrible idea – there’s no way this guy will get the smallest/lightest because a) Pose Factor nonexistent, and b) obvious build quality issues. They don’t sound like Harleys either (I saw one in the wild and was actually shocked when I figured out what it was). If H-D had the reputation for more than one basic bike, these forays into other territory would work better, but even if it’s not too little too late they’ve got a long steep hill to get up at this point.
I think the Streetfighter looks great. Depending on price will determine how well it sells. We’ll just have to see if HD can compete in other types of markets. They do have great “cruisers “ though. They’ll be at the show November 20-22. We’ll see then.
I think Harleys have to be cool. They don’t have to be fast, cheap, light, or anything else. They have to be cool like Jeep Rubicons are cool. Rubicons are dramatically over-priced and pretty much suck everywhere except crawling over boulders, but people love them because of what they represent. Are these bikes cool? Not to my eye. They look like they were designed by focus groups, not a guy who restomodded his own El Camino and has a dog that everyone thinks is ugly.
I am actually fairly excited by these two bikes. The ADV bike looks good in the dirt but if I bought one I would make it a point to NEVER walk around the front of the bike for fear of being caught off guard by the sheer hideousness. The Bronx is pretty good looking so far, from distance, in dark photos. Price and build quality will be everything. I’m just not sure Harley can build a quality bike and have an acceptable price while still making money.
Goodness, the cynicism in many posts here is as thick as the middles of most still-existing H-D riders.
Yes, the company’s short sightedness and perhaps arrogance kept them from developing these models 5-8 years ago as they should have. But, better late than never. I look forward to seeing them in all their non-chromed glory.
I hope the build quality is better than the Street 500 & 750.
Those things are junkpiles.
And overpriced relative to comparable bikes from other makes. Or under-spec’d compared to comparably priced bikes from other makes.
Harley Davidson Really needs to get back to customer Service skills. Whatever you but, be it new or used the customer shouldn’t have to be made to feel like they made a Bad Decision
First they blew it with token support of Buell. Harley under funded and dealers did not know how to sell a more modern not-a-Harley bike. These bikes will suffer the same fate with nothing to distinguish them but the Harley name. Agusta was another missed opportunity. Survival now will mean cutbacks/layoffs. Hopefully future products will appeal to their customer base. I would suggest a Trike (or Quad) with features that far surpass the aftermarket versions out there as a first step. Indian is doing what short sighted Harley management should have done years ago. Focus on the next quarter’s profit is not long term planning.
I agree with Jim. Dealer support, competitive pricing and competitive products will sell some bikes. I don’t see the ripoff. I owned a MT-01 and don’t really see a comparison. It did have a single gauge, but many bikes have for many years. The big V-Twin was a Harley thing long before Yamaha ever built a motorcycle, so I’m not sure how it is a rip-off. Either way though, either people like it or they don’t.
Now, cue all the traditional HD riders, and lifelong HD haters so they can tell us how they hate these bikes.
HD is entering two very competitive segments of the motorcycle market. If these bikes measure up to the competition, are priced competitively, and supported by the dealers I think they will sell. They don’t need to be the fastest or lightest, just competitive.
HD has dealers everywhere. If the dealers show some enthusiasm about these bikes their network gives them somewhat of an advantage. I own a KTM and Triumph. The Triumph dealer near me went out of business years ago. There is a KTM dealership close by, but their support is a bit spotty. So far I have discovered they don’t stock spark plugs, oil filters, and tires for my bike. This is not unusual and are factors in HD’s favor if they play their cards right.
Very obvious styling from behind the bars straight rip off from the Yamaha MT01 and the V4 motor look that bike inherited from the big 1700cc Warrior cruiser.
Looks OK back from the bars (Yamaha), but ugly HD dual light set up is no go for me.
Last gasp from HD, non appealing to both Brands of Rider in looks and corporate styling.
I like the styling of the Bronx, but from what I can see, the rider’s leg will be straddling that rear cylinder head, which might get a bit warm. I salute H-D for finally making a non-cruiser design, but it seems that I can have that as long as it comes in the form of a big V-twin. I’ll stick to my Triumph triples and Kawasaki fours.
And, as others have stated – I’d bet my next paycheck that these will be priced out of the reach of those interested in buying one.
I like the looks of the Bronx despite its odd name. I suspect most any 10-15 year old bike in the same category will out perform it. As far as the ADV bike, HD has managed to introduce a machine into a category of ugly bikes and make them all look a lot better.
Many readers here have expressed what I have seen for several decades now reference the ignorance and arrogance of HD dealerships. Just this last summer I visited a local HD dealership looking for a gas cap on a 77 Sportster I am restoring (not my bike). I didn’t really expect they would have the cap in stock but was naive enough to believe they would order one. The tattoo covered oaf behind the desk wouldn’t even open a book, just looked at me in contempt and told me to go to the local hardware. I guess the fact I was dressed very un-biker like and lack any ink on my skin was bad enough, but him selling me a $12 gas cap rather than a few grand of chrome accessories and t-shirts was simply not worth his time. Never mind I was the only customer in the store.
HD needs to fix too many things for these two bikes to have much of an impact on their future.
Yeah I have had it with H.D. service, it is the worst to deal with, and have had it out with my dealer on several occasions, the last time ending with the salesman telling me I needed to leave , worst service ever,and attitude towards customers that have spent tens of thousands of dollars, service prices are unreal, and work poorly done,I felt like I got bent over every time.
I actually find this story, with all its embellishments, hard to believe.
Here is the bottom line on the new H-D models: (1) No matter how good the bikes might be, they won’t sell. (2) You can bet, with probably 100 percent certainty, that these bikes will be more expensive, weigh more, and underperform their rivals. H-D is spending $800 million in developing these lines. They would need another huge amount for the advertising campaign. So what happens? Chapter 11, in less than four years. But the silver lining is this: Indian will bring similar models to market, which will be bought, at competitive prices and performance. Watch Indian sales double in the next five years, while Harley gets bought by a Chinese or other Asian company.
Anyone else think the more powerful engine should have gone into the Bronx road bike and the less powerful one into the off-road bike? What are you going to do with 150 hp off-road? And in what universe is 115 hp enough on a street fighter? That’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight. OTOH, 150 hp in a 500 pound motorcycle would get you some cred.
Hypermotard and MT09 have similar power, and they are plenty fast. The BIG question is, will the Bronx come close to the weight of those bikes?
Hypermotard is light and has the Ducati “cachet”, which counts for something in that class, unlike the H-D cachet.
MT-09 is cheap as chips, and also pretty light.
I don’t see either of those as the natural competition for the Bronx.
Wow the new Klim Badlands Gore-Tex assless chaps and wife beater line is going to look fantastic on that adventure bike.
I think its great that HD is FINALLY trying to stay relevant. I like the look of the Bronx, the Pan..not so much, but style is personal.
While HD is at it, why aren’t they fixing the Street rod 750? By all accounts the engine is adequate, but the frame/ ergonomics are terrible. Maybe that’s why you never see one an the street (that plus it costs too much$$$)? Fix the ergo’s, give it decent cornering clearance and it would have a chance. New riders are NOT going to pay a premium for the HD name until these bikes prove themselves on the street.
The livewire is a dud. they can’t afford another one or its over for HD, the GOV isn’t bailing them out again!
in a word? nope. the japanese big four offer better products for fewer bucks.
in a word? nope. mhofwiw……………..
honda, yamaha, suzi, kawi offer much better stuff. again, mhofwiw………………..
The harley diehards buy nothing but big twins, didn’t harley try this experiment with the Street 750 and 500 models that I never seen one the road yet?
I saw one the other day. It had a ‘For Sale’ sign on it.
The Bronx looks a bit generic to me, but I love the unique looks of the Pan America.
The Bronx is a solid styling statement. Way to go HD !!! Nice !!
The Pan Am doesn’t fly to me (John Deere meets adv bike), but then again, we ALL thought (or still think) the BMW GS is a wonky looking Bill the Cat sorta thing…. but I love mine !!! Wouldn’t trade it. So if the Pan Am works, then maybe goofy looking-bike buyers that don’t want a BMW will buy it !!
About 30 years ago I went into a Harley shop to see about getting some work done on my ’42 Wla. They said they don’t work on old Harleys. I have owned a ’93 Sportster for around 15 years. I won’t take it into a Harley shop. Guess I won’t get one of these.
Well that’s sadly pretty standard fair for most shops now regardless of brand. You kind of have to seek out the major dealership shops that will service a bike oustide the 10 year old wall. Alot of times that kind of work is better done by the little mom and pops shops that aren’t major brand linked.
We live in such a disposable world now. Most products aren’t intended to be serviced like they were 15-20 years ago.
How many TV repair shops do you see now a days? LED flat screen goes bad after a year, get a new one at Walmart for a reasonable price.
Was a major one. Uke’s Harley in Kenosha Wi Famous shop. I won’t set foot in a Harley shop anymore.
Finally, a pair of interesting Harleys break cover in 2019 but sadly they are a generation too late to make much of a difference in the fate of the Motor Company. These will not be cheap bikes and the market for $15k and up bikes is shrinking by the minute as the geriatrics (like myself) who can afford them leave the scene. We have come full circle almost and bikes that are under $6k is where the shrunken market lives in any volume. Inflation wise that would correspond to spending $700 back in the 60s which bought a nice bike then but still well above the $350 entry level tiddlers we started on. These look like pretty good bikes but they will be too late at too high a price.
So it’s sorry Harley, it was good while it lasted but you made some bad choices in the past and they are coming back to bite you.
it’s funny how there is always someone that criticizes HD for getting rid of Buell. The dealers gave up on Buell long before the company did there was no point in Harley continuing to produce the Buell line.
Then the question should go to the dealers. Why did they not support Buell? V-Rod got the stink eye from dealers as well. Whats going to happen with the Live wire or these two new models? If these fail, was it the dealers, the lack of model interest or HD corp giving up on them?
I think the question is irrelevant. Buell is long gone.
The way HD dealers seemed to not support the Buell line is more the telling part of the future for other non main HD lines.
> Whats going to happen with the Live wire…
Stopped production, that’s what.
Several people here have nailed it. Millenials and younger are the target but most have something in common: massive tuition debt and/or mediocre jobs! If they can afford to purchase a bike at all, it’s likely to be $7000 or less. That should be Harley’s range. And the LiveWire ain’t it! I’m 66 and own a 2006 Sportster 1200 and a 2007 Yamaha C3 scooter. Both bought used. And I have a ton of fun on that scooter! It’s frugal, practical and perfect for commuting all over town. If I was a millenial I’d be looking at a ~ 500cc bike, a scooter, or the used bike market. Craigslist is full of them! Hey Harley, how about a barebones 883?
F*** Harley Davidson. Sick of lining ignorant cuts pockets that price gauged their customers.
Lemme order a revolt from India, gimme better options, cause Harley sucks!
Several people here have nailed it. Millenials and younger are the target but most have something in common: massive tuition debt and/or medSeveral people here have nailed it. Millenials and younger are the target but most have something in common: massive tuition debt and/or mediocre jobs! If they can afford to purchase a bike at all, it’s likely to be $7000 or less. That should be Harley’s range. And the LiveWire ain’t it! I’m 66 and own a 2006 Sportster 1200 and a 2007 Yamaha C3 scooter. Both bought used. And I have a ton of fun on that scooter! It’s frugal, practical and perfect for commuting all over town. If I was a millenial I’d be looking at a ~ 500cc bike, a scooter, or the used bike market. Craigslist is full of them! Hey Harley, how about a barebones 883? iocre jobs! If they can afford to purchase a bike at all, it’s likely to be $7000 or less. That should be Harley’s range. And the LiveWire ain’t it! I’m 66 and own a 2006 Sportster 1200 and a 2007 Yamaha C3 scooter. Both bought used. And I have a ton of fun on that scooter! It’s frugal, practical and perfect for commuting all over town. If I was a millenial I’d be looking at a ~ 500cc bike, a scooter, or the used bike market. Craigslist is full of them! Hey Harley, how about a barebones 883?
> iocre jobs! If they can afford to purchase a bike at all, it’s likely to be $7000 or less. That should be Harley’s range. And the LiveWire ain’t it! I’m 66 and own a 2006 Sportster 1200 and a 2007 Yamaha C3 scooter. Both bought used. And I have a ton of fun on that scooter! It’s frugal, practical and perfect for commuting all over town. If I was a millenial I’d be looking at a ~ 500cc bike, a scooter, or the used bike market. Craigslist is full of them! Hey Harley, how about a barebones 883?
It’s a good idea to read what comes up after posting.
51 replies in two and a half hours. Must be controversial.
I’ve never read a manufacturer release with as many registered trademark items.
In 50 plus years of always visiting a Harley dealership when looking for a new bike, just to include an American brand in the search, any Harley that had normal foot peg placement and adult seat height failed on weight and Quality Assurance engineering. A dyna came close and Buel too, but no sale, especially after getting the salesmans smug attitude. I wish HD good luck in trying again but will not bet money on success. Pee Sss – the limited rpm range demanding short shifts all the time was bothersome, also.
Here’s a nice video on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqKCqmh7k_8
If the Bronx rides as good as it looks and is priced comparably to whatever Ducati’s equivalent is, it’ll do well. An important question is, how many bikes does it take to qualify as “well”?
I think it looks fantastic, maybe the best looking standard to show up in many years. No superflous design elements, just a good looking, well proportioned, bike built around a big brawny looking engine. for my money, I’d have liked a little bodywork on the subframe to match the red on the tank.
Harley doesnt seem to get it. They want to appeal to a younger market but they don’t understand the younger market. Harley makes great cruiser type bikes. Stick to that. Be the best in that market. With that being said best or not, this younger generation is not going to spend 15-30k on a bike. They dont see the value. Take a hint from Ducati who is killing it with their scrambler line. They built very affordable bikes and the younger generations are eating it up. They did over 128 month financing, they made their product affordable.
The best thing to happen to HD is Polaris taking over Indian and creating competition. The worst is HD dumping Buell. I would love to see HD produce competitive bikes in all segments, but I don’t think they do their homework. They need to know their market, perhaps a few joint ventures would help.
I don’t know… That’s certainly a better looking naked bike than Buell ever produced. It’s a good looking naked bike period. The Adventure bike looks class-correct funky and had impressive specs. I’d say they did their homework.
It is a good looking bike, IMO not as good looking as MV’s Brutale. Is HD shooting for a performance level or a price point or something in between?
Good question. I’d guess something in between. As a premium brand, they can’t go price point. It would probably be prohibitively expensive to get into an arms race with the likes of KTM.
I think the goal for the adventure bike is probably just to make a very competent machine for the class. That is a category that doesn’t have to have the best handling, most powerful option get get a piece of the pie. It needs to be functional and competent at everything.
The Bronx, I’d guess, is going to be more Ducati Monster-ish. I think H-D wants buyers to see the Bronx as an option offering a combination or good performance, brand status, and panache as opposed to shooting for outright performance domination.
The Pan America looks like something that should be listed in the Heath Kit catalog.
In a word, no. HD seems to have a strategy of throwing everything against the wall to see what will stick. From EV bicycles to adventure bikes to custom tourers, HD is scrambling. Their survival is still largy dependent on profits dependent on sales of over priced parts, service and accessories.
I don’t care one way or another what happens to Harley-Davidson. Maybe the company has outlived its usefulness and it’s time for someone else to set the pace for motorcycling’s future. Those new engines look dorky, too.
I would love to see options for the Bronx such as a fairing, integrated luggage etc to make it a viable sport tourer.
I think a V Twin sport tourer would be a very desirable and versatile bike .
Right on! I’ve always thought Harley might be able to get some regular customers with a Dyna based sport tourer. I rode a Dyna Convertible back in 1995 and could hardly believe it was a Harley. At speed it was a really nice bike (but of course it jumped like a Mexican jumping bean at idle). If that had been a normal ergo sport tourer instead of a cruiser, I’d have probably bought one.
Harley needs to install the 1250 into the Bronx, not the 975
You got that right.
Harley dealers don’t even want to talk about their own Street 500/750 twins. Around me, 2 HD dealers are now selling Royal Enfields too, but hide them in the back and begrudgingly will show them if pressed.
Can you blame them for hiding the Street 500/750s? They’re an embarrassment to the company that made them, IMO. Poorly finished, marginal braking, handling, and power. You’d have to be some kind of masochist, or really, really into the H-D brand to take one of those over, say, a CB500, or MT-07, or something like that.
Consumers will have more choice. Good on HD for broadening out their product line. Best of luck.
Not bad looking bikes either. The motors lack stylistic character in my opinion. They look too Japanese-ish for an American brand. I think Indian has their motor aesthetics nailed down in comparison.
HD finds itself in a really bad spot. It’s trying to claw its way back in an industry that is slowly circling the drain. There is so much competition out there in the ADV market, it makes me wonder why they even tried to build and ADV bike. The Bronx is the only bike that has a chance but even it isn’t enough. I wish them luck, but they are going to have to pull a bigger rabbit out of the hat than these two bikes.
More like an elephant.
I wonder where they are produced. Are they made by Harley or sourced by Harley?
That’s kind of a trick question anymore. What does “made by” mean? Who designed it? Who’s hands assembled the parts? Where the parts came from and where those parts were designed? If HD owns and operates a factory in another part of the world did “HD” still make it?
Oh please. You don’t have to look far to find a post about the KTM 390s being made in India do you?
Are these new Harley engines made but Harley Davidson employees in Harley Davidson plants or are they not? How about the frames? Where are the bikes assembled?
Harley has rebadged a lot of garbage in the past. It is a valid question.
It doesn’t matter any more. I operated a brand new John Deere combine this fall, their were 8 countries of origin stamped on to its various components. Harley is no different. Italian brakes, Japanese suspension, etc, etc.
Those “Italian” brakes and “Japanese” suspension parts were likely manufactured in China and/or India. Don’t forget all the other Taiwanese and Korean bits in there too.
On the good side, these both look like great bikes. Decent looks and performance, people might actually want these. On the down side, those same people (who likely never thought of owning a HD) will at some point realize that they have to go to a Harley Davidson dealership to see/test/buy these bikes. It is then that they will question if they should go to a Harley Dealer or if they should just get a different bike somewhere else instead.
I’m one of those customers they ran off back in 2004. Wanted the new Buell CityX at the time and the local dealer would not talk to me. Called and left voice mails for 4 days and no response. It would have been a cash deal, easy sale. They blew me off so I stayed will Kawasaki buying a new leftover 2003 Z1000 for a trade and TT&L.
HD showed me what kind of culture they have with that whole ordeal.
One thing I find interesting: The Bronx has a belt drive. How well does a belt hold up to 100-plus HP? I’ve ridden a few belt drive Harleys over the years and love the way a belt smooths power delivery. Just not sure how long it will hold up under higher HP.
All big twins put out a lot more torque than this bike and use belts such as Victory, Indian. Belts have run past 100,000 miles without problems.
Rear wheel torque is what matters for the final drive. Not engine torque. And rear wheel torque is a function of engine power, not engine torque.
I love seeing the belt drive there. Harley will never compete based on spec sheets, but no maintenance hydraulic lifters and low maintenance belts could be a real USP and part of the brand identity for the new models vs competitors.
“Low maintenance” is in the eye of the beholder. I’m assuming you have to remove the swingarm to replace the belt … something not necessary with a chain. Here’s hoping that this is not a frequent event.
Hopefully better than they held up on the Buell Ulysses
Seemed to work OK on Buell’s sport bikes.
If by OK, you mean they don’t last as long as a chain and cost 50% more.
I know a few people who had them. None of them ever described anything like that.
I had a 98 S3 & 06 Uly, never had any belt issues with either. Actually,vcontrary to common belief, both both were very reliable.
Never described what, the fact that they don’t last as long as a chain or that a belt cost 50% more than said chain? I have a couple of riding buddies that can confirm them not lasting 20k miles and cost $200 with tax for the belt.
Apparently you were at a different Sturgis Rally, 70s Really? The average age was 45-60, and several 30 and 40 year olds on Harleys.
Harley is 15 years to late to the party only for the diehard brand loyal harley owner. Harley should invest on a wheelchair company as that is the next “ride” most of their owners are looking at.
To succeed:
1) They have to be competitively priced.
2) They MUST be reliable
2) The need to make competitive HP
4) The esthetics need to be spot on.
If they fail to meet any one of these items listed their boat is sunk!
When Honda released the 350 in 1968 it was almost as fast as a British 650. What happened? BSA folded, Triumph struggled and Honda sold hundreds of thousands of 350s. Now there is the KTM 390 Duke for the European buyers (though it’s made in India) and Kawasaki 400s for the Asian buyers. They are fast, fun and affordable. I don’t want to see HD go away but to refer to 975s and 1250s as middleweights isn’t encouraging.
I hear ya but what is a lightweight, a medium displacement and a large displacement these days? If you think about it between 0 and 2300cc (Triumph Rocket 3), divide that by 2 and the median..or middleweight would be 1150cc. Or for Harley between 0 and 1800cc the median..or middleweight is 900 cc.
KTM calls their 890 a middleweight.
The rocket is 2500 now…..
Much lighter as well. Looks pretty darned cool, this time around. More like a Valkyrie on steroids, than a mini Boss Hoss.
While there’s a lot of gray area in the light/middle/heavy discussion, I don’t think the existence of a 2,300-2,500cc anomaly slides the scale.
Sorry to nitpick but don’t you mean Honda’s CB450 (aka “Black Bomber”) introduced in ’65 that just may have bested the traditional 650’s performance? It was the Suzuki X-6 250 two-stroke twin 6 speed introduced in ’65 that was nearly as fast as the British 650 twins. Those two bikes were the first to cause serious injury and draw blood, and the CB750 and Z1 were two big nails in the coffin.
the answer: no. They will weigh more and offer less performance and refinement than their competitors, domestic and foreign. Boomers will not buy and the rest will go elsewhere. The only time I ever go to HD is to get my bike inspected (never a line). I feel silly just waiting in there for the 15-20 min whereas I can spend an hour+ kicking the tires in any metric shop
I’m a Boomer (60+) and I would consider a performance bike from Harley. Probably the only sporting bike from Harley I could get past the wife! “It’s a HARLEY honey…”
One of the major unknown factors affecting the success or failure of these new models (and perhaps HD overall) will be pricing.
The natural competition for the Bronx would seem to be the slightly retro sport standards like the Speed Twin, XSR900 and Z900RS. I don’t think it quite compares to the lighter, sportier bikes in that range, like the Street Triple, MT-09, Z900 or Duke 890, but I suppose it could compete with those also. That’s a pretty crowded field of bikes to compete with, and I’m not sure the HD logo will convince many people to pay a premium price for an untested design.
They might find it a bit easier with the Pan America. The majority of the competition (especially from BMW and KTM) is already quite expensive with…ummm…somewhat dubious reliability. If they can undercut those two on price, even just a little, they might win some converts.
Personally, I like what I see so far. The performance and feature levels look to be in the ballpark and the bikes are at least as (un)attractive as the other bikes in their segments. Also if the bikes have some teething issues, parts and service availability should be excellent, which is the one area where HD should be able to dunk on the likes of BMW, KTM and Ducati.
I have a Yamaha cruiser. Additional bike will be a Yamaha Tenere. Change the fluids, tires and sparks and just keep riding. I don’t have time to deal with BMW, Ducati or KTM and I don’t want to spend the extra money for an H-D.
’13 Super Tenere here, bought new-old. Literally as you say – change fluids, tires, brake pads, plugs. 0 stoppages of any kind. It’s invincible.
If it gets pranged, there is 0 chance I’d replace it with a BMW, KTM, or Ducati, regardless of price. H-D has even less chance than those. I’d simply go out and get the best price on a Tenere I could find, and I’d get the updated clutch basket and cruise control as added bonuses!
Why do the Japanese make it look so easy?
Because making mechanical excellence is what they focus on. Not all manners of weird stuff.
I’ve descovered a fine line between Japanese and Amercian motorcycles over 22 years of riding as a owner and having extended opertunities to test various brands.
I recently had the chance to test Honda GL1800’s in both DCT and standard trans versions.
After a few hours on the GL’s I felt like they were “too perfect”. The way I described it to the other guys was it felt like a pallet jack on two wheels. Odd description but thats the best I could come up with at the time. No faults oher than a lack of feel or personality.
The 10 Kawasaki’s I owned felt kind of the same way. No soul. It was never anything I focused on until I started getting a feel with the Indian brand starting in 2014. My 2016 Scout has major attitude, more so after major engine upgrades.
The Japanese make bikes like fine time pieces. Precise and spot on. For me that translates into boring I guess.
To each their own…
Is that Pan America built with Lego’s?
Oh and the answer to your question in my opinion is no way.
Twenty years ago, when they were flying high, H-D certainly didn’t care about having me for a customer. And now that they are dying, I’m suddenly supposed to care about them?
Good Luck with that.
Wow a real motor in that 1250.
I love the looks of the Bronx. The other … not so much.
“riders at the event were in their 70s, barely able to throw a leg over a bike,” geez that almost describes me lol, yet I manage to ride a CB1100 and FJR 1300 pretty well still I think.
I’ll certainly go have a look, maybe test ride the Bronx (man what a stupid name). It’s got really good numbers for a streetable bike 115 hp 70 lb ft torque. Should be narrow with the V twin, but probably not light since it’s a Harley.Might be a fun bike and since I’m a duffer that can afford it, like Tommy D says, why not?
Good for Harley for stepping out of their comfort zone and producing something other than a cruiser. Something we have been asking them to do for a decade or two.
As long as a slightly longer wheelbase is acceptable/desirable, a VTwin is a nice engine format for an uprighteish street bike. It puts the heaviest weight (crank or thereabouts) right where a deadlifter puts the bar at the start of a lift, rather than a foot forward and a bit higher; the way wider engines do. Harleys have always ridden “smaller” in parking lots and tight goings like Sturgis parades, compared to similar weight Gold Wings for that reason (More RT than ‘Wing, to be honest). Ditto VStroms vs most other Advs. Once you’re moving, it’s no big deal, but when muscling a heavy bike around, it’s nice not to have the mass center well in front of you.
Sad fact is that Indian produced the FT1200 and they sit in showrooms. I would have hoped they were move faster than they did but they aren’t. The reason? Only duffers like the H-D demographic have money for these expensive motorcycles. What is selling to that demographic is low cost new motorcycles that have cred. The sub $7000 dollar range is selling. The ADV crowd is older duffers like myself that aren’t into H-D’s. They tend to go after the top rated bike and spend all the money for it. I hope the Pan is light and comes with all the bells and whistles. Maybe then people will overlook the front end plastic overload in the same way they do with the KTM headlight. I’m more into the Husky 901 concept front end.
The bronx looks and sounds promising, the only HD product that has caught my eye. The adventure tourer will have to go against everyone in the industry. But ugly seems to count for something in that class, and it has that. Without competitive pricing i can’t see either succeeding. A long way to go and a short time to get there.
The real question is, will the dealers support any new models that the factory releases that are not part of the traditional HD “culture”.
Good point. They certainly didn’t want to deal with Buell customers, and probably drove a lot of potential Buell customers away..
I’m one of those customers they ran off back in 2004. Wanted the new Buell CityX at the time and the local dealer would not talk to me. Called and left voice mails for 4 days and no response. It would have been a cash deal, easy sale. They blew me off so I stayed will Kawasaki buying a new leftover 2003 Z1000 for a trade and TT&L.
HD showed me what kind of culture they have with that whole ordeal.
Similar experience when I went into the HD dealer to purchase a Buell. The dealer didn’t want to sell it and I would assume support it. The HD culture is killing the company.
The opulent temples of Harley sales floors are creepy to me. I grew up going into bike shops that were old dilapidated structures, staffed by characters who loved anything 2 wheels. HD dealerships have become boutiques that cater to only the (obviously) faithful. I used to have a friend I rode with a few years ago and we rode up to a HD dealership on our Japanese adventure bikes. We walked through the dealership for 45 minutes without any acknowledgement of our presence. That left a bad taste but it wasn’t really a surprise. Harley’s marketing of a rebel image has alienated many folks.
I like these bikes and I hope Harley sells a lot of them but I’m afraid it’s too little too late. Adventure bikes, in fact all bikes, have become too damned big. I think a new category of bike should be the “explorer”, where you can set off on the highway, jump to a gravel road and turn onto a trail. I need to be able to pick it up after I dump it. I want the gas tank to be bigger than my bladder and I want it to weigh no more than twice my weight (don’t go there).
Indian dealerships generally see everyone as motorcyclists. Harley still only wants to deal with their “bikers”.
I’m happy to go from my Kawasaki’s to my Scout and soon a Challenger. The only brand I don’t want to deal with is HD and thats their own doing.
Have a pal who is a BMW guy at heart (airheads). Worked at a HD shop before getting his dream job at an older established BMW shop. Asked how the new job was, he said “I’m so glad I don’t have to call everyone ‘Bro’ anymore!”