Harley plans for the future
YOUR EYES DO not deceive you: it’s an adventure bike with a Harley-davidson badge. Called the Pan America 1250, it’s a glimpse into the broad-minded future of the American firm, whose range is about to expand dramatically. Along with this divisively styled dual-purpose machine, Harley also has a 975cc Streetfighter, a range of electric bikes and a sub-500cc model hiding up its sleeves.
For a firm that’s spent 115 years focusing on large-capacity customs and cruisers, this is a seismic shift. Harley is keeping the Pan America’s details quiet for now (it’s not due until 2020) but it appears to use a new water-cooled, dohc, 60° V-twin. The frame is also new while modern parts include radial Brembo brakes, upside-down forks, tubeless spoked wheels and an adjustable screen.
And it’s not alone. Harley says it’s part of ‘a new modular 500cc to 1250cc middleweight platform… that spans three product spaces and four displacements’. The three ‘product spaces’ appear to be adventure, custom and streetfighter models; the multiple displacements seem to be 500cc, 975cc, 1250cc and a fourth yet to be confirmed, but likely 750cc.
As well as this, Harley-davidson also wants to market a 250-500cc model by working with an Asian manufacturer, in a partnership that sounds similar to BMW’S tie-up with TVS (for the G310) and KTM’S deal with Bajaj (which builds its 125 and 390 Dukes).
But beating all of these future models into dealers will be Harley’s zero-cc machine: the electric Livewire. First seen as a prototype four years ago (and ridden in RIDE’S August 2015 issue), the finished production bike will be available to buy in August 2019. It’ll be joined over the following three years by additional electric models claimed to be ‘lighter, smaller and even more accessible’.