Hog out Harley-Davidson plan rush of new metal
Harley-Davidson plan to launch 50 new models in next five years
Motorcycling in general is struggling to attract new riders and Harley-Davidson are painfully aware of this. To achieve the sort of growth they want, they’ve said they’ll need to put two million bums on saddles over the next 10 years, and the only way they’ll do that is by bringing out plenty of new bikes that appeal to new riders. Part of attracting new riders to the brand is going to involve bringing younger riders into motorcycling, which is why H-D are spending lots of time and money on new entry-level bikes such as the 750cc Street Rod. Harley are also going to have a push on new big bikes too, which will be fuelled by their new Milwaukee Eight engine – their first new engine in 17 years. So what do 50 new models look like? Well, replacing what remains of the big twin Evolution engine in the range would replace 17 models, so we expect to see the Dyna, Softail and S range will all be updated. Also longing for an update is the Sportster range, which is effectively running the same Evolution engine that first launched in 1986. That still leaves us with 27 new models to fill, so if we were going to place any bets we’d expect an expansion of the water-cooled Street range into larger displacements to compete with Indian – and who knows, we might finally get the electric Livewire, too.