Harley Street 500 for custom set

The Harley-Davidson Street 500 should become an instant custom classic when it hits the Aussie showrooms early next year.

Like the Yamaha Bolt and the coming Indian Scout, the Street 500 is a blank canvas that oozes character and begs for the customiser to have a go. It should arrive at a good price, too, which will make it much more accessible for young riders looking to personalise their ride.

I’d love to see the water-cooled Street 500 turned into a street scrambler with a high pipe, MX bars and street-knobbies.

Harley has already recognised the potential for customisation with three custom versions of the Street 500 and 750 on show recently at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

The Harley-Davidson Styling team, based at the Willie G. Davidson Product Development Centre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was given the challenge of creating the Street Custom Concepts to demonstrate the customisation potential of the Street family with its narrow frame, low seat and Revolution X engine.

They came up with three concepts to inspire urban riders – Garage, the RDX 800 and the Urban Custom.

Garage is a brat bike with a jockey shifter, bicycle footpegs and minimal hand controls, RDX800 is a cafe racer and Urban is race inspired with modern digital instruments, carbonfibre, LED blinkers and Brembo brakes.

And just to whet your appetite some more, the Street Merchant below is another example of a tastefully customised Street 500. Click here for more.