Harley-Davidson announces 2017 India line-up, new Milwaukee-Eight engines
All bikes to get ABS, new Roadster and Road Glide Special models added
Harley continues to be one of the most powerful large-capacity motorcycle manufacturers in India. With their impressive CKD (assembled in India) lineup, they’re able to keep prices competitive and have a huge community of riders behind them.
For 2017, Harley-Davidson has introduced ABS across all their motorcycle families in India. They’ve also added a new Roadster model and a Road Glide Special touring motorcycle to the range. With the latter, we also get the new “Milwaukee-Eight” engine, which is the ninth generation of Harley’s big twin. In the Road Glide Special, there’s the Milwaukee-Eight 107 (1745cc) twin with four valves per cylinder and oil-cooled heads. Harley continues to stick to tradition by keeping as much air-cooled as possible. They’re claiming more power, smoother throttle, and a “purer sound”.
There’s an even more advanced Milwaukee-Eight 114 (1870cc) motor with proper liquid-cooled heads available, but that’s only in the CVO Limited model.
On to the bikes: The Roadster is the newest member of the Sportster family, and comes in at Rs 9,70,000 ex-showroom, Delhi. Harley pitches it with “minimalist, fastback styling”. We think it has all the stuff Sportster buyers are attracted to: blacked-out paint job, short, aggressive seat and bars and that big-twin sound. We also like the new alloys and (shocker!) upside-down front forks.
The Road Glide Special is for the “high mileage warrior”, though at Rs 32,81,000 ex-showroom, Delhi, we suspect that’s not the demographic that’s going to be buying this bike. The afore-mentioned Milwaukee-Eight 107 motor is present, as is an all-new touring suspension setup that allows more preloud at the back and hydraulic preload adjustment via a simple knob up front. The fork is a Showa SDBV unit and Harley claims it performs much better now.
Harley also announce the availability of Screamin’ Eagle hop-up kits for the new engines, as well as the availability of ABS for the 2017 Street 750.
