With diminishing sales, a CEO who just was fired or quit or something, and a super-expensive electric flagship motorcycle, Harley-Davidson is in the middle of a crisis that will determine its existence. But two new bikes caught in investor documents show some much-needed promise.
The new Livewire, Harley’s first electric motorcycle, is still a little too compromised for the price point, for what I see myself using a motorcycle for. In fact, most EV bikes are still just too compromised compared to a traditional motorcycle to convince me they’ll be the one to change everything.
So learning Harley-Davidson hasn’t put all of its eggs in the Livewire basket is nice, because the other stuff it’s working on actually looks pretty cool.
Investor documents from last year show two bikes in development we haven’t really heard about yet, including a black and gold cafe racer and a blue flat track design, via Autoblog. I know what colour they are because there are also images.
There’s not much detail beyond that in the documents, but it’s expected these two bikes are still likely in development and won’t come up again until after Harley debuts its upcoming Pan America adventure bike and Bronx streetfighter later this year—though all four new motorycles are expected to share the company’s Revolution Max engine, which is available as either 975cc or 1,250cc versions.
Will they save Harley? Maybe not. Will they look good doing it? Absolutely.