BREAKING: Harley Unveils The X440: Back To Basics

After giving us a glimpse of the upcoming ‘most affordable Harley-Davidson bike’, the American bikemaker has now unveiled the Harley-Davidson X440. This motorcycle is made in India, co-developed by Hero MotoCorp, and is aimed at young buyers looking for an affordable way into the Harley lifestyle. 

These are the clearest images of the roadster yet, which give us a much better idea of what the bike is all about. The single-cylinder air-cooled engine with an oil-cooler is clearly visible, and from the nomenclature, will clearly be a 440cc unit. With the 8000rpm rev ceiling revealed in the earlier pictures, we expect it to make around 38PS and 30Nm. This shall put it in the league of the upcoming Triumph-Bajaj bike, as well as the upcoming Royal Enfield Hunter 450. That said, the matte black exhaust sticks out like a sore thumb in our opinion. Oh, old-school fans will love the Harley-Davidson XR1200-inspired fuel tank design.

The engine sits inside a new double downtube frame, suspended on an inverted fork and twin preload-adjustable gas-charged shock absorbers. The front brake appears to be a 320mm unit with a Bybre axial caliper, and the rear uses a disc as well, with dual-channel ABS as standard. Another interesting aspect is the tyres: new MRF Zapper Hyke units, 100/80-18 up front and 140/70-17 at the rear. The machined alloys look properly premium too.

Also visible is the all-LED lighting, a TFT instrument cluster (although it's unclear whether it'll get smartphone connectivity), and premium-looking multi-function switchgear. The wide handlebars and relatively mid-set footpegs should offer a comfortable riding stance. 

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The American bikemaker will launch the H-D X440 on July 3, likely at an ex-showroom price of Rs 2.7 lakh. With this, Harley will finally be able to grab a share of the mid-segment pie thus far dominated by Royal Enfield.