It Says so Right on the Engine
The Chinese company Qianjiang has partnered with Harley-Davidson to help the company produce a small-displacement model for Asian markets. The Harley bike was rumored to have an engine would be a 338cc, and now it seems that either that engine will be a 350 or the 338cc engine will be called a 350. Either way, the engine in the Qianjiang QJ350 is the engine that will be in the new Harley, and much of the rest of the bike will likely appear there, too.
How do I know, well, Motorcycle.com pointed out that on the side of the parallel-twin engine in the QJ350 it says “Harley-Davidson Motor Company.” That’s pretty hard to dispute. It’s also a clear indicator that these bikes will share quite a bit. Oh, and Harley and Qianjian will also share this platform with Benelli, which is essentially a line of rebadged Qianjian motorcycles.
This will either work out as a genius move for Harley or as an absolute disaster. If folks end up liking the bike, it’ll be an easy to produce bike with an HD badge and could become a cash cow for Harley. However, if people decide they don’t want the Harley badge, they can likely get the essentially the same bike but for less with either a Qianjiang or a Benelli badge on it.
One word… Aermacchi. Harley has tried this before, guess they are hoping history doesn’t repeat. Or that the target markets/demographics haven’t heard of the Aermacchi.