Harley-Davidson patents the electric ‘super shopper’ City Speedster motorcycle

Posted

14 January 2020

Tony Carter

Not what your average motorcycle rider might think of if you asked them what the next electric Harley is going to look like... but this is the City Speedster patent. — Not what your average motorcycle rider might think of if you asked them what the next electric Harley is going to look like… but this is the City Speedster patent.

Yep, the American firm has gone and filed patents for the electric city runabout that was first unveiled as one of the possible ‘future’ models in a H-D line-up back in February last year.

Back then, the little runaround looked like this:

Wire wheels, handlebar drop mirror, long seat and stretched frame. It kind of looks like the sort of thing a teenager would put together in their garage back in the 1970s. The electric motor and big battery, plus that sweet round LED headlight are the only real modern convention - looks wise. — Wire wheels, handlebar drop mirror, long seat and stretched frame. It kind of looks like the sort of thing a teenager would put together in their garage back in the 1970s. The electric motor and big battery, plus that sweet round LED headlight are the only real modern convention – looks wise.

And the patents are virtually identical to the orange mini-bike, albeit drawn without essential needs like indicators, brake levers or a throttle.

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It's a bit like an electric Monkey Bike from the front and back views. — It’s a bit like an electric Monkey Bike from the front and back views.

We’ve been expecting these sorts of patents to appear around now as a pre-cursor to production versions of the models arriving throughout the latter part of 2020. Expect H-D to make the upcoming Streetfighter (Bronx) big naked and Pan American Adventure bike ready for dealerships later this year, too.

What do you think to this new model from Harley? Is it anything that will be bought by individual riders for city work or is it, in reality, Harley’s take on the electric scooters that can be hired and used as needed by city people who access the service from an app on their phone (like Boris Bikes). Similar scooter-based schemes are wildly popular and growing rapidly throughout major cities around the world.