After much teasing and a clever unveil, Harley-Davidson has finally launched the X-440 in India. The motorcycle is the most affordable model in its line-up by a huge margin with the only other Harley closest to it costing 17 and a half lakh.
But the X-440 is priced from Rs 2.29 lakh and is being built in India in collaboration with Hero MotoCorp. As you’d guess, the American manufacturer is aiming at the accessible side of things by chasing the Royal Enfield Classic 350, Honda Hness and Jawa for market share.
So if you are looking to buy a motorcycle around that price or are just purely intrigued by what the Harley-Davidson X-440 is all about, here’s all you need to know about the motorcycle.
Design
The designers at Harley-Davidson have gone through their archives while styling the X-440. Visually, it derives heavily from the XR1200X that was designed by Buell. It sports a boxy fuel tank, neatly shaped side panels and a stubby rear end with a single-piece seat. To add touches of retro-ness, Harley has added a circular headlamp and tail lamp, and a squarish tail lamp, all with LED lighting. What is impressive though, is the attention to detail. There is the Harley-Davidson branding inside the headlamp with the lighting stacked similar to the electric LiveWire.
Variants
Harley-Davidson is offering the X-440 in a choice of three variants- Denim, Vivid and S.
You are also welcomed by the signature Harley-style machined alloy wheels and 3D decals on the top-spec variant. The mid-spec gets alloy wheels and dual-tone colours. And the most affordable of the three is offered with single-tone colours and spoke wheels. Overall, we feel the X-440 has the ability to stand out in the crowd of small-capacity neo-retro motorcycles. While all variants get Bluetooth connectivity, the top-end S trim gets additional features that are facilitated by an e-SIM and work with a smartphone application.
Engine
With so many motorcycles in the market offering similar displacement and performance output, Harley-Davidson decided to stand out and plonked in a 440cc engine. This single-cylinder, air/oil-cooled engine is capable of churning out 27bhp and 38Nm which is much higher than what the Classic 350 or the Hness 350 have to offer. Furthermore, this engine offers a strong low and mid-range focused on city use.
Coming to its cycle parts, the Harley-Davidson X-440 uses a trellis frame which rides on an 18-17-inch wheel combination. The bike is suspended by 43mm upside-down front forks and gas-charged twin shocks at the rear. Meanwhile, a dual-channel ABS accompanies disc brakes for the front and rear.
Features
The Harley is equipped with a healthy list of features which includes full-LED lighting, dual-channel ABS and a TFT instrument cluster. This circular unit on the top-end variant offers smart connectivity with turn-by-turn navigation, music as well as call and message alerts. Along with this it also features a USB port, gear position indicator, distance to empty and real-time mileage indicator. It is also the first motorcycle in the segment to get auto-headlamp illumination which turns on the headlamp when it senses a change in brightness.
Pricing
Now, Harley-Davidson has priced the base version of the X-440 at Rs 2.29 lakh. You could get the Vivid variant for Rs 2.49 lakh while the top-spec S version will set you back by Rs 2.69 lakh. This pricing puts it way above its competition that are priced from Rs 1.93 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh (all prices are ex-showroom).
