Harley-Davidson teases new Sportster, coming mid-April

[advrider]

Harley-Davidson is teasing a new Sportster launch, coming in two weeks. See the video below:

So. What’s coming?

For a long time—almost 70 years—the Sportster has been one of Harley-Davidson’s lowest-priced models; in recent history, it’s generally been seen as the entry point into H-D scene. There were other cheaper models that came and went over the years (the Aermacchi-built machines of the ’60s and ’70s, the Street lineup of the 2010s), but the Sportster was a classic model and remained true to its original formula for decade after decade. Harley’s designers slightly repackaged it over the years; it went from a roadster in the ’60s to a cruiser in the ’80s to a low-seated beginner bike in the ’90s, but take a step backwards and squint, and you’d recognize the overall shape—a stripped-down bike built around an air-cooled V-twin.

That’s changing. For years, there have been rumors that the Sportster was on the chopping block, as it’s an old-fashioned air-cooled big-piston engine, and such engines are hard to push through modern emissions regulations. It’s a credit to Harley-Davidson’s engineers that they’ve been able to keep this design selling as long as they have, by carefully re-designing what needs to change while keeping the overall formula more-or-less the same.

Some saw the liquid-cooled Street lineup as Harley-Davidson’s plan to replace the Sportster. Whether or not that was the case, the reality is the Street 500 and 750 were axed, and the Sportster’s still around—but, last summer, we saw the first indication that major change was indeed coming, when the MoCo released the Sportster S. The S is built around Harley-Davidson’s Revolution Max engine, the same liquid-cooled V-twin that’s used in the Pan America adventure bike.

Now, we see H-D advertising more big changes to the Sportster lineup, coming on April 12. We’re promised “The next chapter in the Sportster legacy begins 04.12.22. Join the reveal and be the first to learn what the future holds.” Uh, that sounds like a bit more than another single-model release, like last summer’s Sportster S. We’ll know the full story in two weeks!

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