Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson celebrates 50th anniversary of XR750

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The 2020 season marks the 50th year since the debut of the XR750, a motorcycle raced, wrenched on, and beloved among the American Flat Track (AFT) paddock to this day. To celebrate the anniversary, Harley-Davidson Super Twins and Production Twins bikes along with the Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines NHRA Pro Stock motorcycles will feature the historic colour of Harley-Davidson competition motorcycles, Jet Fire Orange, along with team haulers, uniforms, and branded accessories. “The XR750 is the winningest motorcycle in AMA Pro Racing motorcycle history,” said Jon Bekefy, general manager of brand marketing at Harley-Davidson, Inc. “Harley-Davidson is taking its 50th anniversary as a moment to reflect on the legacy and individuals who have designed, engineered, tuned, and raced the XR750 during its years of competition, and to celebrate Harley-Davidson’s 2020 racing efforts.” Born in 1970 with the advent of the new AMA Racing equivalency formula, the XR750 was created by Harley-Davidson’s race team manager Dick O’Brian and team to replace the highly successful outgoing KR750. Using a Harley-Davidson Sportster-based engine, the XR750 utilised modified cast-iron heads and cylinders, a magneto instead of generator, and improved oiling. In 1972 a new, more powerful all-aluminum alloy XR750 engine was introduced. The perfected machine dominated flat track racing for decades to come. Between 1972 and 2008, the XR750 would go on to win 28 of 37 AMA Grand National Championships. The XR750 racked up more wins than any other motorcycle in AMA racing history and earned the description of being the “most successful race bike of all time.” In addition, the XR750 became a cultural icon with legendary stuntman Evel Knievel at the handlebars. Evel Knievel began jumping an XR750 at the height of his career from 1970 to 1976, and alongside the exploits of the racing versions of the XR750 inspired […]

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The Top 3 Best Motorcycle Brands in 2020

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Did you know that the ownership of motorcycles in America has increased by 2.5 million since 2009? This isn’t all that surprising since motorcycles are a fast and fun way to commute. Maybe you already know the joys of owning a motorcycle, or perhaps you’re looking to buy your first. Below, we’ll give you a list of what we believe are the top three best motorcycles brands in 2020. By the end of this post, you’ll be headed to your nearest dealership to test-ride one of these 2020 motorcycles yourself. 1.) Harley-Davidson When you think of top motorcycles, Harley-Davidson most likely comes to mind. This iconic brand is the Mustang of motorcycles and has been a top brand in the industry since 1903. They are one of the only motorcycle brands (along with Indian) to have survived the Great Depression, which has got to say something, right? Harley-Davidson is recognized for being an all-American brand that produces high-quality motorcycles that are ideal for long rides across the country. Their motorcycles redefined the industry with their heavy-weight chopper-style bike, and their smooth, durable engines. 2.) Yamaha Yamaha Corporation has been around since 1887, making it one of the oldest brands in the world. Although they originally started as a piano and reed manufacturer, they now offer a variety of automotive products and services. These Japanese motorcycles are one of the leading and most recognizable brands in the industry and are widely known in international racing for their rugged sportbikes. Unlike Harley-Davidson, who is notorious for long-distance riding, Yamaha motorcycles are built for speed performance and are great for riding on trails and technical terrain. In fact, they were the first motorcycle brand to introduce a trail bike in 1968 and have been the best in the business since. If you’re looking

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Stripped Down Harley-Davidson Muscle Bike Is the Treat to Wait for in 2021

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com/ Despite the fact that it is probably the world’s most famous motorcycle brand, Harley-Davidson seems to be struggling to come to grips with the realities of the age. Plagued by financial problems, Harley recently lost its CEO, and more stormy weather seems to be looming ahead. There are however plans in place for a turnaround. These plans cover everything from new models to the reinvention of the dealership network. As far as new products are concerned, we already talked about the two new motorcycles Harley plans to launch by the end of this year. Both – the Bronx and Pan America – are built on a new middleweight platform and use new Revolution Max family of engines. But perhaps more exciting than anything is the return of the bike maker to the custom scene, with a yet unnamed motorcycle announced for 2021. Previewed at about the same time with the other two, the custom machine is described as one with “a muscular stance, aggressive, stripped-down styling and 1250cc of pure performance.” Officially, that’s about it when it comes to this product fom now, but by the way it looks (see in the gallery above) and given the fact that the Pan America will use the same 1250cc Revolution Max engine with 145 hp and 90 lb-ft of torque, we expect the specs on the custom to be even more extraordinary. All the bikes we mentioned here are part of a plan meant to reinvent the company by 2022 and increase the number of Harley customers by 1 million by 2027, for a total of 4 million in the U.S. alone. “The bold actions we are announcing today leverage Harley-Davidson’s vast capabilities and competitive firepower – our excellence in product development and manufacturing, the global appeal

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Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle LiveWire creating buzz at Daytona Bike Week

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The Harley-Davidson LiveWire’s cool factor seems undeniable among Daytona Bike Week testers, but if you have to buy cool it comes at a $30,000 price. This is one Harley-Davidson you won’t likely see around town during Bike Week. At least not yet. And it’s one you definitely won’t hear. Harley’s new LiveWire, just now winding its way into the market, is a mystery to many, as well as a culture shock — “A Harley without the rhythmic thumping?” This thing sounds more like a sewing machine. But so far, if first impressions mean anything, the LiveWire is also a hit. Test rides at Harley’s demo station — outside Daytona International Speedway — are producing one group after another of impressed bikers who, briefly, unsaddled from their traditional Hogs for a proverbial ride into the future. “As I was riding it, I was thinking this might be my next bike,” says 71-year-old James Lamoureux, a longtime biker from St. Johns County. “Harley, they took a long time, but they did a great job. This thing is cool.” The cool factor seems undeniable, based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews from testers. But if you have to buy cool, it comes at a price. The LiveWire sells for about $30,000, roughly $10,000 more than you’d pay for a traditional Harley Softail at Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Harley-Davidson. “It’s very impressive. Everything about it,” says D.J. Richter, part of a group of Indiana visitors who tested the LiveWires as a group. But at $30,000? “Thirty?” Richter replied. “It’s not that impressive.” But the LiveWire, five years in the making after its 2014 conceptual introduction, wasn’t designed to flood the market. At that price, it has no chance to help Harley attract the much younger demographic the manufacturer — and industry as a whole — needs

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Harley-Davidson Cosmic Starship Is Now World’s Most Expensive Bike

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by Elena Gorgan from https://www.autoevolution.com Like with everything else in this world, there are bikes and then there are… bikes. The Harley-Davidson we’re going to talk about today falls in the latter category, of machines that are so expensive they are more like objects of art than actual rides. Whereas most luxury cars and motorcycles remain practical, this one is less much so. Many rides cost a fortune either because of one-off customizations or the fact that they’re limited edition, or simply just that awesome. This Harley-Davidson is pretty much the same as it was when it left the factory, but coated with a new layer of paint. Make that more than 37 of them. This is the Harley-Davidson Cosmic Starship, also known as the Million Dollar Harley-Davidson or artists Jack Armstrong’s bike. It’s actually a 2002 V-Rod that has been painted in Armstrong’s Cosmic Extensionalism style. In other words, this Hog is a rolling, roaring piece of art, a painting on the move. If you can afford to risk damaging it by actually taking it on the road, that is. As of the time of writing, the Cosmic Starship is back on the market, with an asking price between $15 million and $30 million, since it’s a one-off. It’s been listed for sale by its current owner since 2017 and, should it ever find a buyer, it will go down in history, officially, as the world’s most expensive motorcycle. Even if it doesn’t, based on the last price it changed hands for, it is still among the top five most expensive bikes in the world: $3 million. So what’s the deal with it? Why is it so pricey? As noted above, there is nothing outstanding about the bike itself. It’s a V-Rod without any modifications, chosen because Armstrong, a

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New from Harley-Davidson in 2020: the Bronx

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Because we chose to dedicate this month to Harley-Davidson, we’ve been keeping you up to date with all things Harley ever since the beginning of March. Most of our coverage focused though on what was and what is, and less on what’s coming from probably the world’s most famous motorcycle maker. There are three major projects in the works in Milwaukee, and two of them will be released by the end of this year. The three are the Bronx (2020), the Pan America (2020), and the uber-exciting and yet unnamed custom model that will see daylight in 2021. This piece here is about the Bronx, a bike built on a new middleweight platform that was shown for the first time at the EICMA show in Milan last year. The Bronx will be Harley’s first product to be fitted with the 975cc version of the new Revolution Max family of engines. Although the official specs have not been announced, the 60-degree V-twin should develop 115 hp and around 95 Nm of torque. The bike will most likely use a new braking solution from Brembo – one that should make its way on all Revolution Max-engined bikes, as well as dedicated Michelin tires. There’s no official date for the release of the Bronx yet, but we should have it detailed sometime in the near future. The bike is part of an expansion plan cooked up by Harley that would see over 15 models being developed on the new middleweight platform. This is one of the ways Harley is using as a means to meet the target it set for itself: 1 million new riders by 2027, bringing the total to 4 million in the U.S. alone. “We’ll continue to fuel all aspects of the riding experience and

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The Harley-Davidson Ride Home Is How You Properly Celebrate Freedom

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by Elena Gorgan from https://www.autoevolution.com/ Ask anyone about Harley-Davidson and probably the first word you’ll hear out of their mouth is “freedom.” This is what the Ride Home is all about. Even for those who don’t ride or have little knowledge of the Harley-Davidson brand (or bikes in general), the image of the Harley-Davidson rider is that of a man’s man (or woman’s woman, in the case of female riders). Throughout the years, the brand has cultivated this image of the rugged outlaw, of the rebel who forsakes the urban environment for the open road and the sense of ultimate freedom. While the “outlaw” image has been turned into a cliché by the Hollywood machine, the rebel label still holds water. And it’s for and by these rebels that the big Ride Home was born into reality. The most recent edition, the 2018 one, solidified the event as the biggest of the kind in the world – and Harley-Davidson’s status as a leader in the biker community. All motorcycle groups and gangs have that brotherhood / sisterhood approach, but it is only Harley that can boast such a loyal following as to go on a cross-country pilgrimage every 5 years, just to honor the Harley-Davidson spirit. The Ride Home is a tradition that started in 1988, when the company celebrated its 85th anniversary. To mark the occasion, management rented out the front half of the Milwaukee SummerFest grounds, and the city of Milwaukee welcomed bikers from all over the world. They had no idea what to expect or how this event would snowball into something this impressive. As you probably know, Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by the Davidson brothers and their friend William Harley (with some help from another friend, Henry Melk). It is one of

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Harley-Davidson’s 2020 Mid-Year Model Lineup

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by Jason Marker from https://www.rideapart.com I hate Florida. Hate it. I hate it with the furious passion of a million burning suns. Years ago I swore that I would never step foot in the Sunshine State again, a promise that I’ve kept religiously. Florida: Not Even Once. That said, when Harley-Davidson calls you up and personally invites you to Daytona Beach to ride brand new bikes and you haven’t touched a bike in three months because Michigan winters suck, well, if you’re me you find that even your most rigidly held beliefs are negotiable. The Friday before Daytona Bike Week dawned cool and cloudy. I’d rolled in from Orlando International the previous evening around 20:00. After a lovely dinner with the Harley team and my colleagues—among whom was legendary MoJo and RA alum Peter Jones—and a good night’s sleep, I was ready to ride some bikes. We convened for breakfast and the tech briefing, and after a fair amount of drinking coffee and dicking around, we piled into the hotel shuttle and off we went to pick up our bikes. Now, this wasn’t going to be a typical press ride. We weren’t all going to be riding the same bike all day. Not today. No, we were riding three different bikes—the new Softail Standard (which I can’t stop calling the FX Softail), the 30th Anniversary Fat Boy, and the hi-po CVO Road Glide. The plan was for the four of us to trade bikes on and off all day so that we got seat time on each model. Kind of unorthodox, but I was into it. I mean, I hadn’t touched a bike in three months due to winter and moving to a new house, so I was down for anything. After an impromptu tour of the greater Daytona Beach

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Here Are the Three Stunning Harley-Davidson Pickup Trucks Available Right Now

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com At the turn of the millennium, Ford introduced a special version of the F-150 dedicated to another American icon, Harley-Davidson. Called Harley-Davidson Edition, the run of special pickup trucks lasted from 2000 to 2011, and most of them are still around today, selling for big bucks at auctions across the U.S. But there’s another breed of Harley-Davidson flavored trucks presently on the market, much newer and even more hardcore than what Ford itself made before. And they all come from a company called Tuscany Motor. The American customizer has been around since the end of the 1980s, and has grown since in a behemoth specialty vehicle manufacturer with a soft spot for making GM and Ford trucks really stand out from the crowd. Tuscany’s Harley-Davidson line now includes three trucks, two from the Blue Oval and one from rival GMC. And all three of them are like nothing you can see on the road today. Tuscany says all “were created to give motorcycle enthusiasts the opportunity to once again enjoy classic Harley-Davidson design cues in the top-selling vehicles in America.” To meet that goal, a lot of modifications had to be made, mostly visual, for both the exterior and the interior. Usually, the exterior elements on the trucks that are inspired by the American bike builder are the special front grille, the wheels (that come on all models as Fat Boy-style milled aluminum pieces), the exhaust, the fender vents, and the tailgate applique. In all cases, orange is used throughout the builds, but the most impressive piece of visual tuning is the huge Harley-Davidson logo and shield imprinted on the tonneau cover. On the interior, the presence of the bike maker can be seen on the leather seat covers, the gauges, the pedals, the floor

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This 1937 Harley-Davidson UH Is the Best You’ll Find Anywhere

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com/ Decades-old motorcycles are not as widespread as cars. Whereas in the world today there are countless four-wheeled machines, in better or worse condition, going back perhaps a century or so, not the same can be said about two-wheelers. That essentially means that when we come across a bike as old as the one we’re going to write about here, there’s reason to gloat. Especially because we’re talking about one that was built, in very limited numbers, in the years before the start of the second world war, but runs just as good as it did back then. What’s being displayed in the gallery above is a 1937 Harley-Davidson UH. It is one of just 185 made in 1937, just a few short years before all civilian bike production would be halted to make room for the WLAs requested by the U.S. Army in the years that followed. Of the 185, this one here is probably the only one that (still) looks this good. And it owes its looks to a restoration process that tried to stay as close to the original as possible. Part of the U model family, the UH is powered by the same 80ci engine that was fitted on it back in the day. It runs, as it was rebuilt while keeping all the innovations brought by Harley to the U that year, including the recirculating oil system instead of a total-loss one, and dry-sump lubrication. The engine sits inside the original frame of the bike, and so is that era’s dash, Parts of the bike hiding beneath the blue and white bodywork may seem a bit different, but that’s because many of the original parts have been chromed during the restoration process. When the bike was made, it sold for a

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