Editor’s note:Since MO posted the story linked below, Harley-Davidson has very clearly stated that it will not sell the X500 in North America. Motorcycle.com posted the following paragraph today:2023年10月12日更新:哈雷伸出to us, saying the X 500 remains designed for the Asian market and will NOT be sold in America. The official owner’s manual still suggests otherwise, but it’s possible it was published in error. Stranger things have happened. We’ll take Harley-Davidson’s word that the X 500 will not be offered in the U.S., even over its official owner’s manual, unless we have more evidence otherwise. We’ve left our article intact, as it remains true that the manual contains the information outlined here.
Harley-Davidson reached out to us and said essentially the same thing: The X500 is not for the US (although it is currentlyfor sale in Australia).
Will Harley-Davidson bring the made-in-China X500 to the US market? It sure looks like they will, according to documents unearthed by Motorcycle.com.
The guys at MO have published excerpts from a US-market owner’s manual for the X500. In the words of Dennis Chung:
Harley-Davidson has released a U.S. owner’s manual for the X 500, indicating the roadster manufactured by China’s Qianjiang Motorcycle will be coming to America for the 2024 model year. The X 500 was announced for the Chinese market in April, and later for Australia and New Zealand, but the newly published owner’s manual leaves very little doubt about a U.S. launch.
The manual for the 2024 X 500 was released on Harley-Davidson’s Service Info site, with some distinct changes compared to the 2023 owner’s manual, adding information specific to the American market such as a U.S. vehicle identification number (VIN). The manual’s VIN breakdown explicitly outlines the codes for models manufactured by Qianjiang in China for export to the United States.
You can head to Motorcycle.com tosee the whole article, including scans from the owner’s manual and information about US-market warranties.
What’s the X500?
In case you missed our earlier write-up, you can see the story from this machine’s launchhere. Basically, it is made-in-China naked bike built by QJ Motors. It’s very similar to the Benelli Leoncino 500, which QJ Motors also builds. With that in mind, we expect the liquid-cooled parallel twin engine to make around 47 hp and 34 lb-ft of torque, and weigh around 460 lb at the curb.
It’s basically the big brother to the X350,which came to the US this year as a mount for riding schools. The X350 is not for public roads, but it looks like the X500 will be street-legal in the States.
What about non-US markets?
What about other markets in Asia, or Europe, or North America? Harley-Davidson also has themade-in-India X440to sell in developing markets, so it will be interesting to see which countries get the Chinese machine and which countries get the bike from India. What about Canada? Europe? No doubt these made-in-Asia bikes will work their way all over the globe, but which ones, when, and for how much money? Stay tuned—we are in the middle of a major shift for the MoCo, and there are lots of angles to play out.
