Harley-Davidson 4XX Emerges in India

[Hugh Janus]

“Leaked” photographs show the Hero MotoCorp–built 4XX. (Hero/)

The appearance of a Chinese-made Harley-Davidson in the form of the Qianjiang-made X350 has already made waves this year and now another small-capacity, foreign-sourced machine is about to join it in the form of the H-D “4XX” project that’s being teased by its manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp in India.

Unsurprisingly, given the stars-and-stripes, all-American V-twin image that’s associated with Harley, the appearance of small-capacity machines made thousands of miles away hasn’t been greeted with universal acceptance from die-hard fans, but there’s no doubt H-D has a solid business case for tie-ins with major manufacturers in Asia and India to create these bikes.

Like the Qianjiang X350, the Hero-made Harley has been in the pipeline for years. The Qianjiang project was announced back in 2019 as part of the firm’s “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” product plan, created under former boss Matt Levatich, and has taken until this year to reach fruition. The deal with Hero MotoCorp was announced in October 2020, when Levatich had been ousted and his “More Roads” plan was being rethought in the firm’s “Rewire” strategy under his replacement, Jochen Zeitz. The Hero deal was announced just a month after Harley said it was pulling out of the Indian market—one of the largest motorcycle markets in the world—after a decade-long attempt to get a foothold there.

Aimed at the largest motorcycle market in the world, the Harley-Davidson 4XX will most likely not be offered in other markets. (Hero/)

Harley’s deal with Hero gave the Indian company, which is one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers on the planet, a distribution agreement to sell and service Harley-Davidsons and Harley’s parts and accessories in India. More notably it included a licensing agreement for Hero to develop and sell “a range of premium motorcycles under the Harley-Davidson brand name.”

In other words, the bike that’s now being teased in India has little Harley DNA beyond its branding and some styling cues. It’s a machine Hero has developed, and one that specifically targets the Indian market. As such, its key rivals will be from companies like Royal Enfield, and because it’s an Indian-designed and -manufactured product it faces none of the hurdles to competitiveness that an imported bike would have to clear.

The chances of exports seem slim at best. While the Chinese-made X350 is being brought to the USA, albeit only for use in Harley-Davidson’s Riding Academies and not for general sale, the Hero-made Harley—dubbed “4XX” on its license plate to hint at a capacity between 400cc and 500cc—is likely to stay in India. All Harley’s recent investor-relations documents have said that the firm intends to “maintain a productive relationship with Hero MotoCorp as a distributor and licensee of the Harley-Davidson brand name in India” (emphasis ours).

So what is this bike? Well, the name tells us its capacity is somewhere in the region of 400cc, but it’s quite different to the 354cc motor used in the X350. Where the Chinese-made bike has a liquid-cooled parallel-twin design, shared with several Benelli models, the Hero-developed Harley uses an air-cooled single-cylinder engine. It appears to be a new engine, as while Hero has several air-cooled singles in its lineup, none are close to a 400cc capacity. Although Hero is due to launch a 421cc single later this year in its own range, that’s a liquid-cooled engine and appears to be unrelated to the one used in the Harley-branded machine.

Engine displacement is hinted with the 4XX moniker, but exact numbers are unknown at this time. (Hero /)

As you might imagine, an air-cooled 400cc single doesn’t promise a huge amount of performance, but that’s not what this bike is aiming for. The H-D 4XX is going for the jugular of Royal Enfield in the Indian market, and the RE Classic 350 is the bestseller in the country’s midsized class. That means the Harley only has to beat the Enfield’s modest 20 hp and 20 lb.-ft. of torque to have a performance edge.

Images published in India, which are styled as “spy” shots but have been provided to multiple publications by an unnamed photographer (almost certainly Hero’s PR agency; no real spy snapper uses grainy, black-and-white photography and no genuine testbike would sport “HD 4XX” on its license plate to give clues about its name), show several details of the new bike. These include the same headlight design we saw on the X350, with an LED strip splitting the traditional, circular lamp, and similar styling cues throughout the rest of the bike. It’s more flat track than cruiser, with relatively low, straight bars and a highish, fairly flat seat behind a quite modern-looking tank.

Black, alloy wheels with polished metal on the edges of the spokes give a look that’s been seen on various Harley models in the past. The rear is a 17-incher, with a 140-section tire, while the front is larger—18 or 19 inches in diameter from the look of it, with a 100/90 tire—carrying a single brake disc. That disc is grabbed by a four-pot ByBre caliper, and there’s an ABS sensor ring visible in the pictures.

Don’t expect to see the Harley 4XX in the States. (Hero/)

Another shot shows a close-up of the instruments, with a single, circular, digital gauge combining rev counter, speedo, fuel gauge, clock, and trip. The tach reads to 8,000 rpm, hinting that as well as a capacity advantage, the Harley will rev higher than the Enfield 350 it’s targeting.

In the long term, the strategy to let Hero produce Harley-branded bikes and sell them alongside the “real” things in Indian showrooms is a logical one, increasing awareness of the brand in India and enticing customers who can’t afford a larger, imported H-D. However, the chances that the Hero-Harleys will be sold in the States are vanishingly small.

Source

[XTreme]

Indian Harleys now? 

[Buckster]

6 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Indian Harleys now? 

Everyone in the world gets to benefit from the excellence of Harley Davidson.

[XTreme]

52 minutes ago, Buckster said:

Everyone in the world gets to benefit from the excellence of Harley Davidson.

Those fuckers don't even have a sewage system that works......they don't need any more shit!

[Pedro]

Hero made motorcycles that competed competently in the Dakar, similarly to that Chinese brand we were discussing a few days ago. I might be a racist because I mix up all the Asian brands.

A Hero was the bike Paulo Gonçalves was riding when he crashed and died in the Dakar.