Surprise concept appears to revive eight-year-old idea for Revolution Max sport model
Harley-Davidson’s will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with sporty bikes has endured for decades – from the VR1000 of the 90s to the company’s ownerships of the Buell and MV Agusta marques, attempt to break away from the brand’s staple cruisers tend to end in tears – but a surprise new concept shows that the idea of building something spicy is back on the table.
The RMCR concept’s name stands for Revolution Max Café Racer, and it does what it says on the tin. The engine is the liquid-cooled, 1250cc Revolution Max, which currently makes the Pan America adventure bike Harley’s most powerful machine with 150hp, while the concept’s café racer styling harks back to the 1977-79 XLCR.
It’s an odd choice of bike to celebrate as the XLCR was far from successful. It’s two-year production run reflects the fact it didn’t prove popular in its day: fewer than 3200 were made before it was axed, making it a collectable today despite not attracting customers when it was first available.
Although the new RMCR is a fresh design, its all-carbon bodywork immediately rings bells if you’ve closely followed the brand’s dalliances with sport bikes. The nose fairing’s shape instantly recalls a clay model, spotted in the background of a video released way back in 2018 when Harley’s ambitious ‘More Roads to Harley Davidson’ expansion plan was revealed by then-boss Matt Levatich, which included the intention to expand into sportier parts of the bike market. That clay model, notably seen sitting right next to an original VR1000, used the Revolution Max engine and while its fairing was more enveloping than the RMCR’s, its nose shape and was very similar.
Those 2018 ideas were quickly snuffed out when Levatich was ousted in 2020, replaced by Jochen Zeitz, who refocussed H-D on cruisers with his ‘Rewire’ and ‘Hardwire’ strategies, which cancelled most of the ‘More Roads’ plans. Now Zietz is gone, too, and it looks like Harley is swinging back in the other direction again.
Since the RMCR is based on the Revolution Max engine, it uses the same chassis concept as other bikes with that motor. The engine is central structure of the chassis, with a tubular front section bolted on to the cylinder heads to hold the steering head. The front section, in this instance, looks very much like that of the Pan America, while the swingarm looks like it’s from the Bronx – a streetfighter-style machine, originally intended to use the smaller, 975cc Revolution Max engine, that got as far as being officially shown at EICMA in 2019 before being canned the following year. Upside-down Ohlins forks, a steering damper and Brembo radial brakes indicate the bike’s handling intentions, while dual, circular TFT instruments are an interesting stylistic bridge between old and new.
Will the RMCR reach production? Harley’s decades of flip-flopping when it comes to venturing out of its cruiser safety zone suggest it’s far from a sure thing, but it looks like the pendulum is swinging back in the direction of more adventurous machines with the H-D badge on the tank.
