Would This Design Save Harley-Davidson’s Future?

What if somebody who isn’t American designed the motorcycle that saved Harley-Davidson? How’d that be for an ironic timeline? Well, if this type of design were to ever infiltrate the real H-D boards, that would be the case. Of course, this is just a smooth rendering, but it’s interesting to think about how this would affect the brand.

Harley-Davidson is, of course, one of the oldest and most known American brands in the world. It’s also been struggling as late with maintaining its identity while keeping up with a changing industry. This new look comes from a designer named Ion Turcan from Romania.

The project is actually already three years old, but it looks as modern as ever. It was designed and submitted for a Jever beer-sponsored creative thinktank that was housed at Jovoto.com. Jever has previously created custom Harley-Davidsons, and they created a contest to foster new designs. This exact bike you’re looking at placed second in the contest in 2013.

The concept is based on a 2012 Harley-Davidson Softail. The body around the twin-cam engine is much more stretched and smoothed out, even incorporating the handlebars in between the tank and the nose intake. This would give the ride a much more of a sport bike seating position, having to lean very far forward, but it gives the bike a very slithery look. Any takers?

via [CarScoops]