Harley-Davidson is on a restructuring blitz lately. The Motor Company has been reshaping its future, and fans of the brand have been curious where it’ll go. On January 19, we learned a bit more about Harley’s future plans, and not all of it is good. It just killed its cheap bikes, the Street 500, Street 750 and Street Rod.
Last week, Harley-Davidson hosted its first-ever virtual launch event. It included a lot of theatrics and a very high production quality, however, I must say it was disappointing — very little actual new stuff was revealed. But I did find something that was pretty surprising. Buried between the talk of paint colors and stories of Sturgis was news that the Street series is dead. Wait, what?
I knew that the Street models weren’t the most popular motorcycles, but I am sort of surprised they aren’t being given another chance or at least replacing them.
I reached out to Harley-Davidson and a representative confirmed the line’s discontinuation:
Yes, all Street motorcycles (Street® 500, Street® 750 and Street Rod®) were discontinued from the US MY21 lineup. We will continue to support H-D Riding Academy training dealers with Street 500 models.
The Sportster range was also consolidated to just three models.
The Street series of motorcycles went on sale in 2014. (Note that the models discontinued do not include the Street Glide, which is one of Harley’s big twin models.) The bikes featured a then-fresh Revolution X engine. These 60-degree V-twins were pretty modern, featuring liquid cooling and a single overhead cam. The bikes were capped off with reasonably smallish price tags.
The most recent versions of these motorcycles started at $6,899 for the Street 500, $7,599 for the Street 750 and $8,699 for the Street Rod. These bikes existed to attract younger riders and to build some brand presence in international markets. Alas, the ride has come to an end.
The cheapest Harley is now the Sportster Iron 883. At $9,499 I wouldn’t exactly call it entry-level, or cheap.
It’s not yet known what, if anything, will fill the cheap bike void. The Motor Company had no comment on future products.
I thought the Street models were pretty neat. To me they looked a bit like a modern interpretation of an old-school Japanese motorcycle but with some American muscle.