In the build-up to the February 22 launch of the ground-breaking Pan America adventure bike, Harley-Davidson has unveiled its 2021 fleet, starring a punchier Street Bob along with equipment upgrades and fresh colors across the range.
Harley-Davidson worked throughout 2020 on the Rewire strategy, a plan designed to streamline its manufacturing, sales and marketing lines and the first step in a restructuring process that's about to kick into second gear with the five-year Hardwire 2021-2025 plan.
Once the Rewire phase is done, the American brand is setting its sights on evolution through innovation in an effort to attract new customers and offset its aging baby-boomer base of true believers. To bring in new blood, H-D is striking out in some surprising directions, and the upcoming Pan America 1250 is a bold example.
Expanding into the densely-populated Adventure class is a huge leap for a company that's stayed well within a very different wheelhouse for several decades. The challenge becomes especially daunting when the landing zone is crowded with best-selling legends like the BMW R 1250 GS, Ducati Multistrada, KTM 1290 Super Adventure, and more. If anything, the Pan America is a display of sheer determination, diving for the first time into a very demanding market and with a brand-new liquid-cooled engine.
In the meantime, Harley-Davidson has revealed the rest of its 2021 lineup, starting with the new Street Bob 114. Based on the current model, the bobber gets a boost with the most powerful engine available to the Softail family; the 114-ci (1,868-cc) Milwaukee-Eight comes in place of the basic 107-ci (1.753-cc) version.
The Touring section has received some updated equipment, as both the Road King Special and Street Glide Special get the new Daymaker LED headlamp, while new two-tone color options are available for the Road Glide Special and Street Glide Special.
As for the eclectic CVO (Custom Vehicle Operations) family which is distinguished by the exclusive Milwaukee-Eight 117 engine, 2021 brings a new Harley-Davidson Audio system designed by Rockford Fosgate, as well as new color options and styling bits.
Two model families, Street and Sportster, have been dropped completely from the European lineup, whereas for 2021 the US market retains the Street 500 and three Sportsters – the Forty-Eight, Iron 883 and Iron 1200. A new Euro 5 generation of Sportsters is rumored to be on the way.
Now the spotlight centers on the Pan America, whose global launch is scheduled for February 22, 2021, as the first of a new breed of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that is expected to stretch from small electric city bikes to a 975-cc V2 streetfighter.
Source: Harley-Davidson
