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Could we see a Harley Davidson sport touring bike?

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56taskforce

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I am new.to.sport touring and come with loyalty and a love of American V twins unfortunately no one offers an American sport touring machine. My dream would be to see Harley Davidson mix the V-ROD motor with Buell DNA and throw in a little Road King to build such a machine.
Well hopes of seeing something like this may be closer to reality as Rumor Has It Harley has put in a bid to purchase Ducati.
 
A few years ago, Harley made a machine they called the Street Rod. It was based on the V-Rod, but was more a standard naked bike. It's a nice looking bike, with the V-Rod engine.
They make a new Street Rod, but it's based on the new 750, so not the same as the older version. Not too many around, but they're out there.
 
Maybe Indian could make one based on the Scout Motor.  I test drove one and it was very impressive, power wise.  I'm still hoping that they will come out with a Sport Scout.  I think a street legal version of their dirt track bike might have a market.
 
Uncle Rob said:
Maybe Indian could make one based on the Scout Motor.  I test drove one and it was very impressive, power wise.  I'm still hoping that they will come out with a Sport Scout.  I think a street legal version of their dirt track bike might have a market.
Click to expand...

The Scout being a powerful little water cooled has been on my radar as far as an American sport touring power plant as well.

BrianD said:
Grant said:
... unfortunately no one offers an American sport touring machine.
Click to expand...

https://www.motusmotorcycles.com/home
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That Motus looks bad ass for sure but thinking price looks to me like it would be north of a BMW, just out of the question for the most of us.
Kawasaki did it right with the Concours by taking something that was Elite and bringing it to the masses. Like I said the Motus is badass but affordability would have to come second to Quality in an American built sport touring formula.
 
Grant said:
Uncle Rob said:
Maybe Indian could make one based on the Scout Motor.  I test drove one and it was very impressive, power wise.  I'm still hoping that they will come out with a Sport Scout.  I think a street legal version of their dirt track bike might have a market.
Click to expand...

The Scout being a powerful little water cooled has been on my radar as far as an American sport touring power plant as well.

BrianD said:
Grant said:
... unfortunately no one offers an American sport touring machine.

The Motuses (Motii?) sound awful too.  I heard one at Barber two years ago.
Click to expand...

https://www.motusmotorcycles.com/home
Click to expand...

That Motus looks bad a** for sure but thinking price looks to me like it would be north of a BMW, just out of the question for the most of us.
Kawasaki did it right with the Concours by taking something that was Elite and bringing it to the masses. Like I said the Motus is badass but affordability would have to come second to Quality in an American built sport touring formula.
Click to expand...
 
They say the new Fat Bob is probably the closest to a sport bike. The 2018 Fat Bob running on the new and much improved soft tail platform, is vastly improved. I watched a review that had a guy that rides an FZ09 giving it very good reviews (called it a sport bike) I guess the suspension, handling, lean angles, brakes and power with the 114 motor is noticeably better in all aspects. Now I doubt it's going to run with an R1. But it looks really good to me.
 
Grant said:
...affordability would have to come second to Quality in an American built sport touring formula.
Click to expand...
That's the myth that doing a bad job or building a lousy product is cheaper than doing a good job or building a nice product.  Just imagine how much faster you can assemble an engine when you don't have to use a round file to get half the holes to line up.
 
get an XR1200 and outfit it for tour use.  here's a simple example with hard cases.  add a top case.  perhaps a top case.

I used to sport tour on my VX800.  loved the torque even if not hugely powerful.  This 1200 should be heads and shoulders above my old VX.

 

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Tour1 said:
Grant said:
...affordability would have to come second to Quality in an American built sport touring formula.
Click to expand...
That's the myth that doing a bad job or building a lousy product is cheaper than doing a good job or building a nice product.  Just imagine how much faster you can assemble an engine when you don't have to use a round file to get half the holes to line up.
Click to expand...


This is why I despise VW/Porsche. Now it's decades ago so surely things have changed, but I remember trying to put a NEW waterpump on a VW and the holes wouldn't line up - had to file them to get it to fit. Talk about crap.


I've seen similar problems with American cars through the decades - bolts/threads that strip when you first remove them, or subframes so weakly mounted that you can't maintain an alignment (lookin at you, Ford).
 
JimBob said:
Tour1 said:
Grant said:
...affordability would have to come second to Quality in an American built sport touring formula.
Click to expand...
That's the myth that doing a bad job or building a lousy product is cheaper than doing a good job or building a nice product.  Just imagine how much faster you can assemble an engine when you don't have to use a round file to get half the holes to line up.
Click to expand...


This is why I despise VW/Porsche. Now it's decades ago so surely things have changed, but I remember trying to put a NEW waterpump on a VW and the holes wouldn't line up - had to file them to get it to fit. Talk about crap.


I've seen similar problems with American cars through the decades - bolts/threads that strip when you first remove them, or subframes so weakly mounted that you can't maintain an alignment (lookin at you, Ford).
Click to expand...

You know the current owner of Ducati is VW. :great:
 
It's not whether or not they could.  But will they?  At the moment they don't need to.  Cruisers and tourers are their bread and butter.  And they do them extremely well.  So why try to bridge the gap for a niche market?
 
Bruce_Reafsnider_TN said:
It's not whether or not they could.  But will they?  At the moment they don't need to.  Cruisers and tourers are their bread and butter.  And they do them extremely well.  So why try to bridge the gap for a niche market?
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Because the cruiser and tourer market is dying of old age.
If the parents of today’s kids don’t ride, what will drive the future market?
They’re already clearing a spot in the museum for today’s ICE motorcycles.
 
problem is Harley riders don't want a ST style of bike.  they have tried other styles/types of bikes in the recent past and they have gone by the wayside.  it will be interesting to see if they try to build a future market base other than trying to draw younger people to the v-twin cruiser/tourer world.
 
There may be some hope here. https://amp.jsonline.com/amp/862271002 and if so I think it could start an American fist fight between Harley and Indian or even an all out brawl if Motus jumped in that has a chance of an American revolution.
I really like these Harley concepts but even more so what they have the potential to start.
What are your thoughts???
 
gotta give harley props for trying,  but theyre 15 years and  everyone who ever admired eric buell too late.  they are going into overseas markets trying to develop a customer base and survive all the boomer retirements that are upcoming. that fatazz (adventure) bike isnt gonna save them. they listened to the old guys too long and missed the next thing. i personally will not be sad to see them go. but it will hurt the rest of us A LOT when they go under or scale back to the vestige of what they were. as goes harley so go the rest of the american market, it practically is the american market with 50% of the marketshare.  Personally i will forever hold the demise of buell against them, they crippled the brand with harley only dealership restrictions and refused to allow development or use of anything other than milwaukee powerplants till it was obviously too late. and even when the rotax motored bikes were getting up to speed they pulled the plug, closed the doors crushed the bikes, refused to sell it to anyone (cause it was tied too closely to our brand,like anyone who ever rode a buell wanted to be associated with harley) and then sold MV agusta back to the castigolini family for a dollar after wiping out hundreds of millions of their debt, best thing ever for MV,  vs a death sentence for american sportbikes. no i will not be sad. the assless chap-wearing-pirate wannabees had their day and they are most likely done.  barring a miracle they will be at 30% of current volume in another 15 years or less.  thus endenth my harley rant.  PS the assless chap wearing butt pirates cant ride worth crap as i have to go round them on practically every decent road.
 
All they need to do is start building the older Sportster bike that was used in the "Then Came Bronson" TV series.  That thing could morph at will into everything from a highway road sofa to a hill climbing two-stroke at the drop of a hat.
 
Unless I'm missing it, the Motus still doesn't offer ABS brakes?  I like them a lot, and agree they are bada$$, but not sure I will ever buy a motorcycle without ABS. 
 
There was a Motus dealership in my county. The local Indian dealership carried the brand. It only lasted as a 6 month alliance. No sales in that time despite being next to a BMW dealer. Maybe it was the dealer (no test rides), maybe it was the bike or a combination of factors. I suspect that factory support was not there and the dealer said bye bye. But Motus still sells a lot of engines that are used in other industrial applications.
 
Grant said:
I am new.to.sport touring and come with loyalty and a love of American V twins unfortunately no one offers an American sport touring machine. My dream would be to see Harley Davidson mix the V-ROD motor with Buell DNA and throw in a little Road King to build such a machine.
Well hopes of seeing something like this may be closer to reality as Rumor Has It Harley has put in a bid to purchase Ducati.
Click to expand...

But...this begs the question:  Who would buy it?  They aren't going to sell it for $15000...it'll be more.  A couple hundred sales nationwide is not enough to justify production.  The Road King is the only bike mentioned that HD cares to sell...the other bikes mentioned have already had their run at success...and the HD crowd didn't care for any of them...I think they're going to have to look elsewhere...mainly because the people who buy their bikes have already spoken...with their wallets.  ;)
 
CRocker said:
Grant said:
I am new.to.sport touring and come with loyalty and a love of American V twins unfortunately no one offers an American sport touring machine. My dream would be to see Harley Davidson mix the V-ROD motor with Buell DNA and throw in a little Road King to build such a machine.
Well hopes of seeing something like this may be closer to reality as Rumor Has It Harley has put in a bid to purchase Ducati.
Click to expand...

But...this begs the question:  Who would buy it?  They aren't going to sell it for $15000...it'll be more.  A couple hundred sales nationwide is not enough to justify production.  The Road King is the only bike mentioned that HD cares to sell...the other bikes mentioned have already had their run at success...and the HD crowd didn't care for any of them...I think they're going to have to look elsewhere...mainly because the people who buy their bikes have already spoken...with their wallets.  ;)
Click to expand...
Things are changing with that crowd as well I even seen a few groups of 1%ers with a few metric sport bikes mixed in. If they can muster  up the will they certainly have the capability. I believe the market exists but I absolutely agree price will have to be competitive or that market niche will remain where it is at. The current Harley crowd who would buy my be small but there are many like me who ride metric for lack of choice even looking at the very expensive Motus knowing it is completely out of their price range.
 
That Harley ADV bike looks cool! So does the black sport bike. Are these concepts or bikes that are coming? The ADV market is big, big, big now, everyone is making one and the aging riders are looking to them more and more. Younger riders? I don't know.
 
Strawboss said:
That Harley ADV bike looks cool! So does the black sport bike. Are these concepts or bikes that are coming? The ADV market is big, big, big now, everyone is making one and the aging riders are looking to them more and more. Younger riders? I don't know.
Click to expand...

concept bikes... no physical resemblence to a production run.
which was said to be at least 2 years away from production..
wishful thinking on their part..
Harley is just "ad-porn fishing people", watching to read the comments actual ADV owners and others toss out, and sort out a reason to attempt to progress further, or completely ashcan the idea.
 
They way I look at Harley, perhaps it is a stereotype, but I would hate to see a Pan American on the side of the trail with an overheated engine.
 
Just going to leave this here. https://youtu.be/OTk-gVu45Uw

Don't get me wrong I love my Connies my C-10 was my introduction to sport touring and I liked it so much I bought a new C-14 but the fact is if the American market offered a comparable bike I would have bought it.
 
I highly doubt it. The sport-touring market is a relatively small niche to begin with. Harley needs to attract more youthful customers, and the ST market is not going to do that for them. 
 
Adv bike, yes, ST, don't think so.
It seems H-D got caught a little flat-footed with the demographics changes, and are suffering more than the motorcycle industry in general, but they are a capable engineering organization.
We often make lots of jokes about H-Ds, and they earned that, but their new bikes are pretty well made. Reliable, fuel efficient, and with each new engine, more performance.
I think they will be making an ADV bike, and I expect it will be a capable bike.
 
.
TJ said:
I highly doubt it. The sport-touring market is a relatively small niche to begin with. Harley needs to attract more youthful customers, and the ST market is not going to do that for them.
Click to expand...
HD had lost its chance to attract younger riders when they severed ties with Buell motorcycles in 2009.
 
RoadKillHeaven said:
.
TJ said:
I highly doubt it. The sport-touring market is a relatively small niche to begin with. Harley needs to attract more youthful customers, and the ST market is not going to do that for them.
Click to expand...
HD had lost its chance to attract younger riders when they severed ties with Buell motorcycles in 2009.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that played a part. However, they had some success with the XR1200, and then failed to build on it. They could have stuck the V-Rod engine in something resembling the XR1200, and taken it to another level.

They have had opportunities, and I think still do if they put enough focus into breaking into new markets. A Harley competitor to the Ducati Monster would be where I would start.
 
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