Harley-Davidson X440 Officially Launched

We’ve already seen the fruition of Harley-Davidson’s association with India’s Hero MotoCorp—the X440—in a series of drip-fed partial reveals, but now the bike has gone on the market in India and revealed a first look at its complete technical specifications.

The first glimpse of the X440 came back in April, when staged “spy” pictures were released to the Indian press, and then confirmation of the bike’s name and capacity came around a month later, along with the first official images. Now it’s been added to Harley’s Indian website, confirming all the technical details along with the sort of price tag that might get you a few Harley-branded accessories over here, but never a complete bike.

Let’s start there. The base Denim version of the Harley X440 costs 229,000 rupees in India. That’s equivalent to $2,773 and gets you one color option—Mustard Denim—and wire-spoke wheels. You could spend more than twice that much on paint alone on some current CVO Harleys. Step up to 249,000 rupees ($3,015), and you get the Vivid version of the X440 in either Dark Silver or Thick Red, adding cast-alloy wheels and two-tone paint to the mix. At the top of the range there’s the X440 S in matte black, with orange and gray graphics and a three-dimensional Harley badge on the tank instead of just a sticker. It costs 269,000 rupees, equivalent to $3,257.

Make no mistake, these are genuinely affordable bikes. In the US, the closest you could get would be one of Harley’s electric balance bikes for kids. The 20eDrive Pan America Launch Edition ebike, designed purely for children, costs $3,100.

For such a small price, you might expect little more than the most spartan, bare-bones motorcycle. In some ways, that’s what the X440 is. The engine is an air-cooled 440cc fuel-injected single, making 27 hp at 6,000 rpm and 28 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm. It’s bolted to a simple steel frame, with a nonadjustable, inverted KYB fork and a twin-shock rear end that only has preload adjustability. However, when compared to machines like Royal Enfield’s 350cc single-cylinder range—direct rivals to the X440 in India—those specs look more than respectable.

More surprising, perhaps, is tech equipment that includes a TFT dash—albeit a tiny 3.5-inch one—that includes phone connectivity for turn-by-turn navigation as well as control over music, calls, and messages. Those are features that were lacking from the Indian-made Triumph single-cylinder 400s that were unveiled just a couple of weeks ago. On top of that there’s a USB port, LED lighting all around, disc brakes front and rear with dual-channel ABS as standard.

Of course, the Indian-made nature of the bikes means their prices in their home market probably couldn’t be replicated over here even if Harley-Davidson made the unlikely decision to import the X440 to the States. Shipping costs and duties would inevitably add a substantial amount. For comparison, Royal Enfield’s Hunter 350 sells here for $3,999, but in India it’s priced at just 169,000 rupees, equivalent to just $2,050, substantially less than even the cheapest version of the X440. Those numbers suggest that the Harley X440 might cost nearer $5,000 if it were to be brought to the US market, putting it uncomfortably close to machines in a higher performance category like the Husqvarna Vitpilen.