X CHANGE

Is that what the letter in the Harley-Davidson X 440's name means?

- Kartik Ware

'Looks like it's designed by an uncle who refuses to retire,' opined a friend who makes some of the most exotic custom motorcycles in India. Yes, his acts of fertile creativity are comfortably far from the realities of mass production, but I entirely understand what he meant - especially for a motorcycle that wears the Harley-Davidson badge, of all things. A motorcycle tends to be desirable either if it looks good or feels good ideally, it's both. But if it only inherits one of those attributes through its genes, can we afford to disregard it? I don't think so. Harley-Davidson is not famous for its small bikes, Hero is not known for big ones. And on that note, let's address the newest motorcycle formed by that synergy that polarises opinion - the Harley-Davidson X 440.

If said polarisation is anything to go by, it imbibes at least one of its maker's traditional qualities; many wars of words and feelings have been fought about these nonetheless-iconic motorcycles. Harleys were never meant for everyone, so why should this one? Then again, the X 440 is made by Hero, the company that makes motorcycles for India's Everyman, and perhaps that's why the result is as curious as it can get. What you see here is the X 440 S, the top-of-the-line variant which gets machine wheels, a host of connectivity features, and modern-looking black-bronze-whatnot colours found on the new-fangled Harleys of the recent past. Ostensibly, we cannot help it if the once-exponent of American Iron does believe in chrome on a small motorcycle.