Harley-Davidson returns to the LAMS market with the new X series, with the X 350 the smallest capacity Harley in decades. We took it for a spin to see if the most affordable Harley in the range lives up to its nameplate.
When it comes to motorcycles, if you don’t have a foot in the learner market, you are missing out on not only potential sales but also the potential to hook riders into brand loyalty early on in their riding career.
Well, that’s the idea at least and one which Harley-Davidson knows pretty well, but with their previous LAMS offering - the Street 500 - going out of production in 2021 the brand was left without a foot in the learner market.
Enter the X 350 - the smallest Harley-Davidson in the 2024 lineup.
Along with its slightly larger sibling, the X 500, the X 350 brings Harley back into the LAMS market and places a wheel into the sub-$10,000 segment with its $9,495 price tag.
The X 350 is quite a handsome little motorcycle with muscular proportions and some nice stylistic touches that make it stand out. Taking its visual inspiration from Harley’s modern flat track racing bikes, the wide 13.5-litre tank and white bodywork pop out from the steel trellis frame.
The big 41mm upside-down fork features rebound adjustment while the rear shock has preload and rebound adjustment built in unlike much of the competition. With 17” wheels at both ends and big 4-piston brakes at the front, the X 350 is no dirt tracker but it looks the beans which is just what you want in a learner bike. The bike also features adjustable controls for both the levers and foot controls which is a very nice touch and allows riders to really nail the ergonomics of the bike's controls down..
The lighting on the X 350 is provided by LEDs all around and the headlight features the Harley-Davidson nameplate built in which itself lights up.
Off the spec sheet, the X350 offers plenty of appeal, but sadly, up close and personal it disappoints in its execution.The LAMS market is the hardest fought in the nation, and you’ve got to bring your A-game to make a mark, and unfortunately, Harley hasn’t exactly done that.
Rather than build the entry-level X bikes in-house Harley made a deal with the owner of the Benelli motorcycle brand, Chinese giant QJ Motor, and badge-engineered its way back into the LAMS market.
Speaking with Harley-Davidson’s Managing Director, Nigel Keough at the launch of the 2024 touring lineup in Australia, he indicated that the company chose this route as it was the only way they could quickly bring themselves back into the LAMS market at a price consumers would accept, with the Street 500 being axed partly due to the cost of manufacturing it.
To be competitive in the market you need to be priced accordingly, and in recent years we’ve seen the sub-500cc category not only become an increasingly affordable entry point into motorcycling, but the bikes are packing in the value with more technology and surprisingly high build quality.
And that’s unfortunately where Harley’s X 350 comes a little unstuck as we’ve seen some big players enter the market offering higher levels of tech and performance than Harley-Davidson and at a lower price point.
Firstly, sitting behind the handlebars the X 350 doesn’t give the rider anywhere near the same level of information from its dash as its competitors. The single offset gauge features a large analogue speedo with a small LCD insert which can display either odometer, trip meters, engine revs or a clock, but not all at the same time. There’s also no fuel gauge at all - a sin in 2024 in my books - which later became problematic in my test.
The dash not only lacks info, but it looks as if it was plucked from the early 2000s. Worse still, the reliability of the dash on our test bike was questionable. Despite brimming the tank on my first ride, the fuel light turned on while riding the Waikato Expressway and remained on for a solid 28km. On further testing, the fuel light would come on if the speedo indicated above 120kph - and that speedo itself was reading 10% faster than the bike was going according to GPS. Editor’s note: H-D has since been in touch and believes these issues with the dash were a fault with this particular bike.
The DOHC parallel-twin engine has a 270-degree firing order so it sounds somewhat like the V-twins Harley is famous for, but with a peak power of 27 kW at 9500 rpm and 31Nm at 7000 rpm it was underwhelming in its performance. While peak power is achieved at 9500rpm, I couldn’t keep my feet on the footpegs beyond 9000rpm let alone to the 11,300rpm redline due to the vibration the engine produces at high rpms.
The brakes, while powerful, lack any feel and are the most “wooden” I think I’ve ever experienced. It genuinely feels like you’re grabbing a block of wood when you reach for that adjustable front brake lever.
Unlike the rest of the Harley-Davidson range, the Motor Co doesn’t even offer a key aspect of the H-D ownership experience - accessories to customise the bike. Speaking with the dealer when I collected our test bike, they were in the process of modifying Benelli accessories to fit the X series bikes as Harley-Davidson has not included any accessories for these bikes. Even the discontinued Street 500 had a plethora of accessories to choose from.
And that is probably where you should be spending your money if you want a Harley-Davidson learner bike. Skip the badge-engineered disappointment and get the real deal for roughly the same money and better resale value.
Unfortunately for Harley-Davidson, there are now better LAMS options available in the New Zealand market for the canny consumer looking for bang for their buck and when it comes down to it the biggest appeal for the X series is the Harley-Davidson badge on the fuel tank.
Going head to head with the likes of Yamaha’s MT-03, Royal Enfield’s characterful 350 range, Triumph’s new 400cc singles, and CFMOTO’s ever-growing range, the X 350’s cheap build and high price point for the segment don’t help its appeal.
With Harley-Davidson’s traditional customer base quite literally dying off the brand needs to attract new blood. But sadly, it still hasn’t cracked the code as to what makes an attractive small-capacity motorcycle, relying too heavily on the Harley-Davidson badge to do the heavy lifting.
