2017 Harley-Davidson Street Rod 750 review, test ride

What is it?

Harley seems to be hard at work, trying to break its typical, conventional cruiser image. With the Roadster having been launched earlier this year, we now get two motorcycles from Harley-Davidson in 2017 that set out to be sportier than their stablemates. This newest little tyke from Harley is the Street Rod, a sportier derivative of the brilliant Street 750. While Harley-Davidson does have a history of motorcycle racing, those days are long gone, so it's honestly a refreshing move by the bike maker to revisit its sporting heritage. We put the Street Rod to test on our Indian road conditions, to see if this indeed is the Harley that's versatile enough to be a fun everyday ride.

This new Street Rod takes inspiration from the company’s drag-style bikes such as the V-Rod and the Night Rod and packs in aggressive styling that spells speed from every angle. Apart from a healthy dose of matte black paint for the engine and exhaust, the Street Rod gets split seats with a new saddle that helps riders cope with hard acceleration. The rear fender too has been shortened to give it a sportier makeover. The drag bike motif continues to the front that has a tall cowl around the round headlight along with flat ‘drag-style’ handlebars and bar-end mirrors. But it’s not just about looking fast. Harley-Davidson has really put in a lot of effort to ensure that the Street Rod has the performance to match its menacing appearance.

How is it to ride?

What you get here is the same 749cc, eight-valve, liquid-cooled, V-Twin, Revolution X engine that powers the Street 750, with identical bore and stroke figures, but with a new fueling system. In this ‘high power’ guise, it features twin-port injection (as opposed to the single-port on the Street 750) and it gets a larger throttle body as well. Along with a bump in compression, which now stands at 12.0:1, this motor makes 62Nm of torque (an increase of 3Nm) at 4,000rpm. While the exact power figures for either the Street 750 or the Street Rod aren't specified, the latter is said to see an 11 percent increase in horsepower coming in at 8,250rpm; the rev-limiter now kicks in at 9,000rpm instead of the Street 750's 8,000rpm.

With an increase of only 5.0kg in kerb weight, this increased power and torque figures translate to sharper acceleration on the Street Rod as compared to its cruiser sibling. The bike also gets shorter and wider exhausts that add a slightly more aggressive soundtrack to the motor. On the other hand, the six-speed gearbox is carried over exactly as from the Street 750, with matching gear as well as final drive ratios; this gearbox has proven to be among the slicker shifting units in Harley’s line-up.