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Bike-maker Harley-Davidson churns out commuter machines in the 100-200cc range to strike big in India

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Almost five years to the day India and the US swapped regulations allowing large motorcycles into India in exchange of mangoes getting into the States, American bike major Harley-Davidson has finally bowed to the inevitable. It has designed a whole new range of motorcycles dictated by the market scenario played out in India. In fact, the writing was always on the wall because the smallest Harley-Davidson motorcycle on offer was the 883cc Sportster which was considered way too huge for emerging markets where the bulk of the bike industry churns out commuter machines in the 100-200cc range.

Even then, for Harley-Davidson to think small marks a radical about-turn for the Yankee bike maker which has built its name, reputation and profits on bikes based on the classic vee-twin big cruiser format. At Milan today, Harley-Davidson finally took the wraps off its first all-new bike base in over 14 years – its Street 750 and Street 500 cruisers. These two are the smallest capacity Harley-Davidsons in over three and a half decades and surely mark a significant step in the Milwaukee-based bike maker’s attempts to change for growth and survival though it’s a thin line that separates the two at the moment.

And all the growth it needs to ensure survival is to get into markets where it has been absent for the better part of a century and that includes almost all of the South-East Asian markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and of course India, markets where commuters rule and even 500cc is considered big. However, there is a sweet spot in the market for enlightened bikers where the financial outlay of around Rs 5-6 lakh for a decent sized bike in the 500-750cc displacements is something which bike makers like Triumph and Harley-Davidson are hoping to cash in on. In fact, Bajaj and Kawasaki plus also Royal Enfield are, however, well entrenched in this segment and have been doing rather well with their blend of both ultra-modern mid-sized all-round bikes and neo-retro classics, respectively. For Harley-Davidson and Triumph, which has targeted a late November 2013 launch in India, however there would be the need to differentiate in configuration and performance while matching prices and reach of Bajaj-Kawasaki and Royal Enfield.

Harley-Davidson intends to assemble the Street 750 and Street 500 bikes in India beginning mid-2014, but they would be seen early next year at the India Bike Festival in Goa and then at Auto Expo in Delhi in January and February 2014, respectively. Harley wants to move over 7,000 to 10,000 units of its smallest vee-twin motorcycles in 2014, not all of them to India of course, but then it has also said it is planning local assembly and maybe engine manufacturing in the country.

When this project was in the concept stage two years ago, a price point of Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh was the designated target, but the exchange rate then was Rs 42 to one US dollar and today it is anything but that. How this detail will be sorted out is another factor that will weigh majorly on the minds of Harley-Davidson’s India management because without a seductive sticker tag, getting a scaled down small-engined version of the real Yankee bent iron will not make the tills ring as loud as it hopes.

“Both the Street 750 and Street 500 were designed with thousands of hours of input from young adults in cities around the world,” said Harley president Matt Levatich at the unveiling in Milan.
“This input guided both the attitude and capabilities of these motorcycles,” he added.

Also while we are at it, Triumph has a small bike project of its own under development, prompted again by being able to offer emerging bike markets a “small capacity” machine. In Triumph’s case, this could be a 350cc to 500cc offering and it will be more in the conventional style rather than Harley’s trademark cruiser configuration, which again is an acquired taste.

This small Triumph is about at least a year away, but the British bike maker would roll out new machines from later this month from the Rs 5-lakh price point.

And amid all this high-flying action from Harley-Davidson and Triumph, perhaps the best placed of them all could be our own home-grown stalwart Royal Enfield which will launch its first all-new bike in over 50 years later this month. The new Continental GT is brand new from the ground up – chassis, suspension, styling, cycle parts, performance and it is only the engine, which yet retains a symbolic link to the Bullets of yore.

However, this also has been tweaked massively with new internals, a pumped up displacement that goes up to 535cc and a character unlike any Royal Enfield before it. The Indian company is right up there in the mix, aiming at the classic neo-retro market where some models from Harley and Triumph reside and it intends to dominate this segment which is worth almost 800,000 units globally per year. That the Continental GT is a smashing motorcycle, what sweetens its chances even further is that it would be available at a price point near Rs 2.5-lakh when it goes on sale from this month end.

Historically these three represent the oldest bike makers in the world and for them to re-engage in battle over all-new geography marks a big turning point for motorcycle enthusiasts globally.

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