Much has been made recently of Harley-Davidson?s lack of youth-market penetration. Some millennials claim that the boomer-centric vibe of the company’s heavily accessorized and rather expensive motorcycles does not suit their lightweight, cash-strapped lifestyles. Pundits?as pundits are wont to do?are claiming that the Motor Company is in crisis. Some opine that perhaps it shouldn?t have killed off the Buell sport-bike marque. Others assert that maybe it shouldn?t have merged the Softail and Dyna lines, dispensing with the latter name in the process, just as a group of younger hipsters was beginning to embrace the Dyna.

Evel doing Evel on his XR750 in 1975, leaping vans in the Wembley Stadium parking lot.
Others might point out that its newish entry-level machines?the four-valve, overhead-cam, water-cooled 60-degree V-twin Street series motorcycles?are too much of a divergence from the brand?s core competency: large-displacement air-cooled pushrod 45-degree twins with that immediately identifiable potato-potato sound. What better way to build some cred into the relatively new motor than by taking it racing" And what better form of racing is there to showcase it than flat track, a wholly American sport that?s having a bit of a renaissance at the moment" Even better, it?s a sport that the bar and shield has basically owned for the past four decades, thanks to its venerable XR750, undoubtedly one of the great motorcycles of the 20th century. There are two c...