Harley-Davidson’s new sportsbike revealed
After design sketches revealed during a promo photo-shoot were spotted, we can now see clearly what the bike could look like
THE much-rumoured Harley-Davidson sportsbike might just have been revealed by Japanese magazine Young Machine.
While this is an inhouse rendering created by our friends in Japan, it isn’t just the normal kind of finger in the air doodling and is based on a series of intentionally leaked images from within Harley-Davidson’s design house.
The news that Harley-Davidson could be working up a sportsbike of their own, along the lines of the old VR1000, has been around for some time now.
The news first ‘leaked’ out after Harley-Davidson included some promotional pictures accompanying their new model information that showed an early design sketch tucked away in the background.
The foreground of the shot also featured a design worker shaping a full-size clay model of a faired Harley-Davidson, with the old VR1000 sportsbike nosing its way just into the shot.
Then some blueprints were unearthed that showed the Milwaukee factory had patented some sportsbike/café racer fairings that looked almost identical to the ones shown being worked on in the design studio.
Is the Harley-Davidson VR1000 about to return?
After taking all of this in it’s fairly obvious that Harley has planted the pieces of the puzzle together in full view; a sportsbike from the iconic brand is surely on the card and if it looks anything like this rendering it’s going to be one of the most striking sportsbikes currently available.
To create the image, the team at Young Machine has taken the sketch seen in the early stages of clay modelling, flattened it out and embellished it with some sensibly accurate additions.
While no official word has come from the factory regarding the bike, its name or its specs, we can assume it uses the underpinnings of Harley’s latest naked, called the Bareknuckle, as a basis. With the engine, swingarm and frame all looking distinctly familiar – it is also sharing a poster board with that Bareknuckle which is a fairly big clue!
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
