Maybe the better question is – can the new (2027) Sprint 440 save Harley?
As you may already know, Harley is hardly making any money – selling bikes, that is. The bulk of its earnings come from financing them, which is something like using a heart-lung machine to keep a body alive. Eventually, you’ve got to figure out a way to get the body working on its own again. The core problem for Harley is that Harley’s bikes cost too much – for most younger buyers – and the older buyers who can afford to finance them are getting old. The typical HD owner is well into his 50s. The thing is, motorcycle riding is – fundamentally – a thing for younger buyers. Many stick with it into middle age but inevitably, the ranks thin in tandem with the appearance in the mailbox of AARP cards.
Harley badly needs under-30 buyers who have another 30 years of riding (and buying) left to go. Enter the Sprint 440 – which is a new, entry-level, single cylinder bike that stickers for $6,000. That’s a bike almost anyone can afford; it’s a bike many won’t even have to finance and even if they do, the payments will be less than half what they’d be to finance a Harley that costs twice-plus (or more) than that, which is most of the rest of them. (The next-least-expensive Harley is the Nightster – which stickers for $10k to start.)
Of course, there’s a catch.
The Sprint 440 isn’t exactly a Harley – if you define a “Harley” as having an engine made by Harley Davidson. The Sprint 440’s single cylinder engine is made by Indians – not the ones in Spirit Lake, Iowa (where Indian motorcycles are assembled). The ones in India. Harley struck a deal with Hero MotoCorp to buy the latter’s air-cooled, four-stroke singles. It’s more than just the engine (and transmission) too. The Sprint 440’s frame is also also made in India – not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. The Indians also made the Royal Enfield, which appears to be a fine bike as well as an affordable bike. It looks British, too. It doesn’t seem to matter that it isn’t. 
Maybe it won’t matter that this “Harley” is made in India.
Harley says it will be produced in America, which is a little bit disingenuous because it implies manufactured, when the reality is the components already made in India will merely be put together in Pennsylvania. Older Harley owners probably aren’t going to accept this; many are likely to sneer at the Sprint 440 in the same way that – back in the day – many sneered at the AMF Harleys.
Especially the Italian-made Aermacchi “Harleys.”
But that was a long time ago. The Harley Guys who sneered at the AMF/Aermacchi bikes back in the ’70s and ’80s are now old guys. They can afford to be purists but Harley can’t. It’s sad that Harley can’t (apparently) cost-competitively manufacture its own entry-level bike in the United States because this is not Harley’s fault. There’s no legitimate reason why a single cylinder, entry-level bike ought to cost so much to manufacturer here that it’s not cost-competitive is perhaps a better way to put it. Thee is nothing inherently expensive about an air-cooled single cylinder motorcycle engine or a tubular steel bike frame. The expense arises from making those things here in the USA.
Obviously, it’s not a problem for the Indians to manufacture such a bike and not only that, to ship it to the United States (which adds cost) and sell it to Harley at a price that’s low enough that Harley can “produce” the bike (i.e., Harley can assemble the parts) and still sell it retail at a price that low enough to be affordable and still (we assume) make a profit on the transaction.
It’d be better, of course, if manufacturing costs were lower here, so that Harley (and not just Harley) could make things cost-competitively here, but that would take taking a hatchet to the regulatory regime (EPA, OSHA) and that’s as likely to happen as carbureted big block V8s coming back.
Nevertheless, the 440’s a good-looking bike – and it looks like a Harley, which is important if Harley wants to maintain itself as something other than what everyone else is selling.
It’s also simple (air-cooled, so no radiator) and that makes it like Harleys used to be. It also has some modernity, such as an analog-looking (but LCD) speedo/tach and ABS brakes and even a USB port for charging phones and such. Its 440 cc engine only makes 27 horsepower, but the bike only weighs just over 400 pounds, which means it’s got enough power to have fun on (not unlike my ’75 Kawasaki S1 250 two-stroke triple, which makes about as much power as this four-stroke single).
The main thing is that it’s accessible.
This is the kind of bike riders in their 20s who lack the finances of riders in their 50s and 60 can afford to throw a leg over. That could save Harley – so why would anyone who cares about Harley bitch that this Harley is made in India?
Maybe bitch at the government that effectively forces Harley to buy the guts of this bike from the Indians.
. . .
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