Harley Davidson has given up on the air cooled Sportster, the classic V-Twin is no more in the Sporty line up. Emissions regulations and all that. But wait, what’s this? Well, it’s called the SWM Stormbreaker V1200. It looks like an air cooled Sportster and sounds like an air cooled Sportster and it would appear that SWM figured if Harley wasn’t going to build them anymore, they would do it themselves.
SWM is an Italian motorcycle company which was purchased by Shineray, a Chinese conglomerate. They came out with a copy of the air cooled V-Twin engine over a year ago and the whole bike was introduced last year. I don’t know whether to call it an SWM or a Shineray. They have the Shineray name on the tank in some photos while it’s on the SWM website and was at the SWM booth during EICMA 2023, so it’s a bit of a puzzle.
I’m a little late to this party, I found out about it only yesterday thanks to an email (Thanks, Bob!), but how many of you have heard of this or seen it before?
Is this something Harley Davidson had a hand in as a way to get some payback for a platform they’ve discontinued, like they did with Rikuo way back when, or is this a reverse engineered design poking the Motor Company in the eye? They freely compare it to the Sportster, so they’re not hiding anything. I guess if somebody wants a brand new air cooled Sportster, at least if you’re in China or Europe, you now have that choice. I have to admit, I am curious what Harley thinks of this.
Will this ever find its way to the USA? I think that’s highly improbable, but these last few years have shown me the craziest things can happen, so one never knows.
SWM Motorcycles
China Motor World – launch
China Motor World – EICMA
JP Kalishek says
Cue Arte Johnson’s german soldier character . . .
todd says
SWM has access to the rights to build the old Husqvarna TE enduros, I bet H-D saw no harm, no foul to have SWM remake the Sportster.
hoyt says
The fact this exists is about the bottom for me in a variety of topics.
Steve Welte says
Sad but the Sportster was the best product Harley Davidson ever produced. Harley lost it’s vision a long time ago. They blame the EPA and other factors but yet others (like S&S) can build far larger platforms and still pass TUV. Harley should have , a long time ago, added a big bore kit and a bit more stroke and done a few more chassis/suspension upgrades and then watched sale grow again.