Harley-Davidson Street 750: PH2

Harley style with modern manners - can the Street 750 win over a whole new audience?

Sometimes a Harley-Davidson product launch can be a confusing affair. One time I spent two fairly fruitless days in America attempting to discover which of the bikes we were riding was actually new, only to be told it was the paint that had changed! This time there's no confusion - the Street 750 is a ground-up new bike.

Oddly enough, the Street 750 has actually been around for most of 2015 in Spain, France and Italy. Why not the UK? Apparently it has taken this long to get the mph speedo homologated. But it has been worth the wait as the 2016 models arriving in the UK are actually a higher spec than the 2015 ones and come with Brembo calipers some of the ungainly wiring tucked away and tidied up.

So what is the Street? It's a Harley built for young riders, and there are a lot of them out there.
According to Harley-Davidson half the world's population is under 30 and the proportion is likely to increase, especially in the emerging markets the Street is aimed at. This is an entry-level Harley aimed at urban riders and, as such, a very different prospect to the traditional air-cooled bikes.

Priced to tempt
At £5,795, the Street is not only the cheapest Harley in the range, it is also designed to be very frugal to run. The 749cc, water-cooled Revolution X engine has cam chains and water cooling instead of air cooling and push rods, but retains the four-valve, single-cam head. Inside the motor, wet-liners make re-bores very cheap while thread and lock-nut tappets (and a clever angled head design) make valve shim adjustment a 35-minute job. There are a few sacrifices in the name of cost, namely no ABS (at the moment) and no alarm or immobilisor, but overall the Street is a very frugal machine to buy and run. And on Harley's finance package you can own one for £79 a month after a £999 deposit. But would you want to?

When you first sit on a Street you are hit by two things - the pegs put your legs in an odd and very high stance and the switchgear is hideous. It's proper plastic 'my first bike' stuff and gives a terrible first impression. Get the V-twin engine going and its sound is very muted and the bike lacks the kind of vibration you expect from a Harley, but at least it performs.

The Street's engine has a reasonable turn of pace as well as a nice slick gearbox, unlike the air-cooled machines. But it does feel a little sanitised. If I was blindfolded I would assume this was something like a Kawasaki VN or Honda VT.

On the go the Street is a very pleasant machine to ride. Weighing 229kg it is a light bike (relative for a Harley) and the small wheels - 17-inch front and 15-inch rear - make it agile while the 710mm seat height is reassuringly low. As a town bike it is very accomplished and, although lacking ABS, would be an ideal A2-licence machine (Harley sells a restriction kit). On the back roads it's also good fun, happily blatting through the bends, but you do need to be slightly wary of its lack of ground clearance. Unlike the larger bikes, you don't get a nice metallic scrape to warn you the limit is near as the pegs are rubber coated.

Not for a discerning buyer?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Street 750. It's light, manoeuverable and runs very nicely so would make a great town bike. But will discerning UK buyers go for it? Without the traditional air-cooled vibration and thump it lacks that traditional Harley soul and - whisper it - feels very Japanese in its smoothness.

Harley will point out it is a very cheap bike to own, but this shows up in some aspects of its build, notably the horrible plastic switchgear and slightly suspect casting on the yokes. And you always know it has been built in India, not America. Harley will say the sub-£6,000 price tag is a selling point, but nowadays riders look at the monthly figure rather than the headline amount and for £99 a month - just £20 more than the Street - you can get an 883, which is a 'proper' air-cooled Harley.

But maybe your correspondent doesn't meet the target audience, being over that 30-year-old threshold. We wish the Street every success and with the Harley name behind it the chances are high it'll do well spreading the word. But for that extra 20 quid a month we'd stick with air-cooling and do it properly.

Harley-Davidson Street 750
Engine: 749cc, Liquid-cooled, Revolution X V-Twin
Power (hp): N/A
Torque(lb ft): 43.5@ 4,000rpm
Top speed: N/A
Weight: 229kg (wet)
MPG: 41mpg
Price: £5,795 Vivid Black (Colour Edition £5,995)