H-D had to do something to address the smaller displacement market so I think its a good move.
Harley DID address the small bike market with the Buell Blast thumper. It was a bizarre bike that fell apart just looking at it, and even Eric Buell starting doing bizarre things like crushing them (then people wonder why Harley shut him down).
No motorcycle manufacturer spends less on racing and R&D than Harley, so it's good to see them going towards water cooling, 6 speed transmissions, likely ABS soon. They still suffer from low power and high weight, as well as bad brakes and crap suspension. Even their own marketing list features like:
Locking gas cap!
Single caliper brakes!
Narrow front Wheel!
"Easy lock to lock sweep" -OOOoooo..the bars swivel!
..and that's it.
Aside from the copious amounts of typical HD bullsh8t, I see a very basic bike in line with 1980-90s bikes from elsewhere. It's 30 years out of date, which is better than the 50 years of their other bikes. But, they cannot sell their crap big twins in Europe, due to Euro3 and Euro4 regs, Ditch the cheap little plastic fairing and put a decent tail on it, put on some clubmans or clipons, some decent shocks and brakes, you could have an interesting bike. I note they are targeting women, which is a huge mistake, because even women don't want chick bikes. Like every Harley, the reviews with be tongue-biting, and stress the value.
Price is in-line for what you get, $6700-7500, taking advantage of the low US dollar and the high yen. Like most Harleys, you have to spend another $3-4K on aftermarket items to make them ridable. Although at $6700-7500, I wonder aloud how many Chinese parts are on that bike, and this may be a good thing, as the Milwaukee parts are nothing to be proud of.
Why they are doing this: sales of the big price Harleys is way down, because the typical target demographic is the hardest hit by the economy, and they are feeling the pinch of insurance, too. Lots of big Harleys make the rounds on used sales, as there really is no good reason to buy a new one. The poser blue collar professional market has dried up to to age demographics.
In a few years, a used Street 750 might make an interesting project bike.
I agree..more choice is good, and one day I would like to buy a decent bike made in North America.
