Harley Davidson sent me a 0.99% financing offer e-mail on 2018 and earlier models including Street, so I thought I'd check it out. Seems they've lowered the price on all their Street models, especially the Street 500 to compete with the Honda Rebel 500. Good to see them come out of their bubble and realize they needed to have a loss leader to attract new riders to the brand. $6,999 for a Street 500 vs. $7,199 for the Rebel 500, but the Rebel comes standard with ABS brakes while it's a $560 add on for the Street.
The Street 750 comes in at $8,499 and doesn't have any real competitors I can think of. There's the Suzuki Boulevards and Yamaha VStars but they have air cooled engines, 5 speed transmissions, and rear drum brakes. Hard to imagine HD being ahead of the competition in terms of technology. I know you can get naked Suzuki/Yamaha 650/700 which offer more power for less but there seems to be a price premium for cruisers.
Then there's the Street Rod at $9,399, probably the most compelling Harley Davidson for people who like to take corners with a 37/40 degree lean angle, but at 68 HP it's still short on power compared to the nakeds I mentioned above while costing quite a bit more. Can HD do better?