Harley-Davidson Street 750: PH2
Harley style with modern manners - can the Street 750 win over a whole new audience?
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)
Yes switchgear is poor and perhaps the top yoke doesnt look that great in the writers mind. However can I just say again how chepa this bike is!
For city riding a smooth engine is helpful when filtering and the riding position would also help.
I think that a lot of younger bikers and hipsters will buy a fair few of these.
Its not a bad review all in all.
Can't say id be interested even as a commuter, but there are many who will be.
Be interesting to see a comparison between this and the 2016 Kawasaki Vulcan 650S, ok its not a V-twin but I'd bet its probably a better ride at similar money with ABS.
No matter what you think about it, the price is extremely competitive - cheaper than the Japanese competition and will most likely depreciate less
It would be a cheap commuter bike to own and run but it doesn’t look that comfortable!
But I do think the Japanese alternatives look nicer and going by the reviews are better bikes to ride
http://products.vanceandhines.com/store/2015/47937...
Also the reviewer was quite complimentary on its performance and riding dynamics (did I say that in relation to a harley?!). His critisim seems to be it too refined, which is hardley a critisim. Loud pipes is probably all it needs to bring it to life.
Doesnt look like a bad bike and good on Harley for bringing a cost effective product into the market.
Cheap as blinking chips and perhaps a decent alternative to the competition in its 5.7k price bracket.
I hope the quality of the materials doesn't mean the bike will desolve in the colder months. Probably needs to be bathed in ACF-50.
Still like it.
Yes, lots of it.
I wouldn't have one in a million years, but I do understand it.
It's accessible. It has the correct badge on it. How many non-bikers can tell one HD model from another? Hell, I'm a motorbikeist, and I can't get my head around the current range at all, never mind the decades of variations. Without getting up close, I wouldn't know this from any other HD. Hipsters won't care, and the general public won't realise it's a plastic, subcontinental abomination of a thing.
These will sell well, I predict.
This is a nasty, horrible, cynical thing.
Don't like.
typical Harleys and other cruiser like bikes are more like 260-400kg
Yes, lots of it.
I wouldn't have one in a million years, but I do understand it.
It's accessible. It has the correct badge on it. How many non-bikers can tell one HD model from another? Hell, I'm a motorbikeist, and I can't get my head around the current range at all, never mind the decades of variations. Without getting up close, I wouldn't know this from any other HD. Hipsters won't care, and the general public won't realise it's a plastic, subcontinental abomination of a thing.
These will sell well, I predict.
The bike was designed by Harley. It was designed, pre built and tested in the US.
What the hell has where its put together got anything to do with it? Being assembled by a US worker or any other?
By this logic, the Ducati Scambler isn't a Ducati. The Bonniville isn't a Triumph. KTM dont build all their bikes in Austria.
Porsche sell cars that are made in other countries. They are still considered Porsche.
We live in a global community now... this sort of thinking is redundent.
I'm pointing out that in the very short list of reasons to buy a Harley, this one hasn't got one of the key reasons that they've traded on previously. There's no way they'd sell at top-end model, fully customised, if it didn't wear the Made in the USA badge. Buyers would run a mile. At this end of the range though, it doesn't matter, hence I think they'll sell loads.
The difference is that Porsche, KTM, etc have products which are good when compared to rivals. HD have image and that's pretty much all as far as I can tell, so where it's made is a much greater part of that image than in other products.
Side note: As I type this, one just went past my office window and set off a car alarm.
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