HARLEY-DAVIDSON isn’t exactly renowned for balancing on the razor edge of technological advancement but the firm’s latest new model is the simplest, slowest two-wheeler it’s ever created.
It’s a replica of a bicycle that the firm sold back in 1917.
Just 10 of the machines are being handmade for Harley-Davidson by Heritage Bicycles in Chicago. They’ll be sold via the Harley-Davidson Museum at around $4,200 each. And if that seems a lot for the sort of vintage-styled pushbike that can surely only appeal to the most bearded of hipsters, it is. It's still the cheapest new H-D though...
Funnily enough, that millennial market is the very one that Harley has struggled to make its motorcycles appeal to.
It’s a beautifully-made thing, of course. Details include ‘H-D’ lettering formed in the spokes of the front sprocket, green paint and hand-applied pinstripes. Heritage has based it on the original 1917 design, but enlarged the frame slightly to make it more useable, since Harley riders of the 21stcentury are a tad bigger than their WWI-era ancestors.
An online reservation system is planned to let customers put dibs on one of the limited run of bikes.
At the moment there’s no word on whether you’ll be able to get your hands on one if you’re outside America, but at least this is one Harley that won’t fall foul of the new EU import tariffs on US-made motorcycles.
