Is the Harley Bronx Making a Comeback or Has It Gone the Way Of the Dodo? (Video Included)

The Harley Davidson Bronx first made its appearance as part of Harley's "More Roads to Harley-Davidson" campaign, which was unveiled in July 2018. It was unveiled with the prototype Pan America adventure bike and a custom-style motorcycle that would later become the Sportster S. The Bronx didn't make it, even though both of those models-each with the 1,250cc DOHC, VVT-equipped Revolution Max engine are already available from dealers.

Harley Bronx Motorcycle Riding

The 975cc liquid-cooled Revolution Max 975T engine by Harley-Davidson, which recently debuted in the new Nightster, was initially intended for the Bronx streetfighter but was delayed until last year.

The Bronx name, which had been long-rumored, was also confirmed at the EICMA in Milan, where the streetfighter which was originally intended to be in the forefront of the new liquid-cooled Harley range-was formally introduced towards the end of 2019. The bike was supposed to be in dealers before the end of 2020 as a 2021 model-year vehicle, but that all changed just a few months later when Jochen Zeitz took over as H-D CEO replacing Matt Levatich. The "Hardwire" plan, which put the company's core clientele back in focus, replaced Levatich's "Other Roads" plan, which was designed to expand Harley's reach into more market groups. At that point, the Bronx was no longer on the company's list of potential future models.

Harley Bronx engine

Although Harley has never been open about whether the Bronx was entirely shelved, there is now evidence that the bike still has a chance of survival since The Motor Company has recently reapplied for the trademark rights to the Bronx moniker.
The 2022 registration includes "motorcycles and structural parts thereof," mirroring the initial trademark application for the right to call a bike "Bronx," which was originally made in 2017. Line item 1B describes the trademark's "filing basis," or the justification for its application. A "bona fide intention to use your mark in commerce with your goods and/or services in the near future" is what the US Patent and Trademarks Office refers to as "intent-to-use."

The Trademark Modernization Act, which took effect on December 18, 2021 and aims to make it simpler to remove abandoned trademarks from the federal register and prevent businesses from hoarding names, is likely the cause of the new application.

The new Bronx application is titled under “B1”. This title states with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as “Intent-to-use,” which basically means that if you register the trademark, you have to create the product. So we'll have to wait and see what Harley does.

It's noteworthy that Harley has never publicly declared that the Bronx has been abandoned entirely. Zeitz stated at a conference call in October 2020: "We did not hesitate to delay or cancel goods like the streetfighter that do not give the necessary timing or return profile, or advanced others that were intended for later market debut." The reapplication for the Bronx trademark shows that rather than being completely abandoned, the Bronx has been postponed.

Although it's unclear whether the final bike will be exactly like the prototype displayed in 2019, considering the amount of development that machine has undergone, it's likely to be comparable. A 975cc version of the Revolution Max 975T with 115 horsepower and more than 70 pound-feet of peak torque was planned for the Bronx, according to Harley's own specifications. These figures indicate that it was a higher-spec engine than the one found in the contemporary Nightster, which is tuned for a more restrained 90 horsepower at 7,500 rpm and exactly 70 pound-feet at 5,000 rpm. According to Harley's initial intentions, a variety of different models built on the same platform, including a larger-capacity Bronx with the Pan America's 1,250cc Revolution Max engine and 145 horsepower, were supposed to follow the 975cc variant. Levatich's original "More Roads to Harley-Davidson" plan called for a total of nine "streetfighter/standard" motorcycles to be available by 2022. Drawings and prototype models showed cafe racers, flat trackers, and even a faired sportbike built on the same engine and chassis platform.