Recently we have only had the Street 500 as our smallest bike, however, that is fixing to change as the “baby” Harley is ready for production and may launch in June of 2020. AMERiders goes over the smallness of this bike.
When the rumor surfaced that the company had a plan to seduce the Asian market with an even smaller bike, that definitely got out attention. Isn’t there something fascinating and utterly adorable about a small Harley? There is now a date on the model’s impending arrival on the Chinese market and the countdown is on.
There’s been talk of Harley-Davidson downsizing for a few months now. As the American manufacturer entrusts part of its production to China and increases its presence on the Asian markets, part of the plan includes the introduction of small-displacement bikes. It was already confirmed that the “baby” Harley would be offered with a displacement of 338cc. The model is now ready to hit the production line.
Harley-Davidson and its Chinese partner Qianjiang signed off on the design of the HD350 Project—the new model’s working name in December of 2019. The two companies came together for a ceremonial “Design Freeze Signing Ceremony” which translates to “we all agree on the design so let’s move along”. The small Harley-brand bike is now heading to the factory to begin production.
While the design was approved by the two partners, it wasn’t shared with the media. We have yet to see the look the production version of the bike will have. Interestingly, in the summarized calendar, the company refers to the model as the HD338 rather than the “HD350” it used during the design freeze signing ceremony.
As we already know, the new Asia-specific Harley 338 will use a Benelli 338cc twin-cylinder engine, heavily based on the existing Benelli 302S model. The two models are expected to share both an engine and a chassis, according to several sources. Other features such as the bodywork and the suspension should be provided by Harley-Davidson.
According to Indian media, the new HD338 is then expected to launch in India before the end of 2020. Until now, the Street 750 has been Harley’s best-selling model on that market, something the new 338 could be about to change.
The presentation also showed launch dates for a staggering number of new and updated Benelli models which include a new TRK800 ADV and a 600N/600RR model—likely a naked and fully-faired version of the same motorcycle.
The specific timeline has yet to be confirmed but a launch on the local market is expected in late 2020 followed by an introduction on the Indian market for 2021. As things currently stand, there is no plan to globalize the model and make it available outside of Asia. That being said, if the American market is open to it, I don’t see why a small-displacement Harley couldn’t be a hit here as well.
~And as always…
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
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Let AMERiders keep you up to date with information on the Baby Harley and it’s timeline.
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