46 | AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDERHARLEY-DAVIDSON STREET 500
pours out of most engines onto your legs.
Harley has done a lot with the aero and
cylinder cutout technology on its Touring
bikes to alleviate this heat, but it doesn’t
need to do anything with the Street 500.
It feels like a cool runner, even in stop-
start conditions. And when the radiator
fan does come on, it doesn’t sound like a
swarm of wasps as the Buell’s did.
We rode through the staccato Sydney
traffi c down to Scarborough in squally
conditions, but the li le Street 500
felt sure-footed like a much bigger
bike and didn’t get blown around by
truck buff eting on the highway or the
howling winds that ba ered us off the
coastal cliff s.
The seat is quite comfortable and
didn’t start to hurt my damaged tailbone
until near the end of our 100-minute ride
to our lunch date. Our ride back to trendy
Redfern also didn’t have me twitching
around in the seat and wanting to get off.
This bike is going to appeal to a lot of
riders, not just learners. Women, returnedriders, commuters, short people, tall
people and Harley owners who want a
second town-run-around will be among
potential customers.
Well before the Street 500 arrived,
Adam said they already had orders
from more than 300 customers, most of
whom paid a deposit before the price was
announced at the Moto Expo. He says
some potential customers told him they
expected it would cost about $12,000 and
had budgeted that much, so they were
now planning to buy accessories and
rider gear. Lucky for them there are some
80 Street-specifi c accessories including
screens and luggage, plus a host of other
generic Harley accessories that will fi t.
At this price and with this level of
performance, quality and brand cred,
the Indian-built Street 500 should be a
real winner. And if there were 300 pre-
orders just two weeks a er its Australian
unveiling, it should easily outsell the
Breakout, which was the surprise
seventh-best-selling bike last year. ARRREVOLUTIONARY
POWER
Street 500 is powered by an aptly
named Revolution X engine because
it is a bit of a revolution for Harley.
It’s not the company’s fi rst water-
cooled engine and it owes a lot of its
architecture to the other water-cooled
Harley engine from the V-Rod.
But it is a revolutionary departure
in other ways, mainly its 60-degree
angle, rather than the usual 45
degrees. This was done so that the
seat could be lowered to attract young
riders, learners and the shorter people
out there.
The fuel-injected Revolution X
comes as both a 749cc and 494cc
four-stroke engine with the same
stroke and different bores (85mm and
65mm). While they share much of the
components, the 749cc has a different
crank and bigger valves, however
the 494cc engine can be largely
converted to a 749. They have four
valves and one chain-driven single
overhead camshaft per aluminium,
iron-lined cylinder.
Part of the engine’s frugal economy
is achieved through the reaction of
internal engine friction by using roller
rockers with screw adjusters. The
bottom of the engine has a vertically
split crankcase with plain bearings
and it has a single balance shaft to
smooth it out.“This bike is going to appeal to a lot of riders, not just
learners. Women, returned riders, commuters, short people,
tall people and Harley owners who want a second town-
run-around will be among potential customers”ARR112_040-046_HD Street 500.indd 46ARR112_040-046_HD Street 500.indd 46 2/3/2015 9:49:44 AM2/3/2015 9:49:44 AM