Harley-Davidson unveils Street 750 and 500

The news that Harley-davidson is planning to develop a small displacement motorcycle for the Indian and other emerging markets have been going around for a long time with few images of the bike being tested on the outskirts of Gurgaon also doing the rounds on web. At the on-going 2013 EICMA Motor Show in Milan, Harley-Davidson put all speculations to rest as it unveiled its two new cruiser offerings, christened the Street 500 and Street 750. According to the American motorcycle manufacturer it is the first “new” motorcycle platform developed by them in the past 13 years. 

Visually both the bikes remain in sync with the traditional Harley design language and has labelled  as  “dark custom” styling by the designers. Powering the Street 500 and 750 would be the new liquid-cooled, V-twin Revolution X engine, which seems to be a move to adapt the bikes to hot Indian weather conditions. Both the bikes would be built in India at Harley’s production facility at Bawal in Haryana and Kansas City, Missouri in USA. The motorcycles are a result of necessity for Harley-Davidson as it wanted to expand its reach in the Indian two-wheeler segment but had hit a bottleneck owing to the exorbitant tax structure.

Harley hasn’t divulged any details on the bikes pricing for the Indian market but we estimate the Street 500 and 750 to be priced around Rs 4 lakh and 5 lakh respectively. It would be possible for the American manufacturer to price the motorcycles so competitively as to cut costs it has localised most of the parts. Both the bikes would make their Indian debut at the 2014 Auto Expo, where other details like pricing, commencement of deliveries and other particulars would be announced. So all you Harley aficionados who desired to be an owner of the iconic brand but couldn’t afford them, well it’s time to rejoice!