Harley Davidson X440 | First Ride Review | Ground Breaking or Breaking Traditions?

Doesn’t ride like a Harley

Before you put your cynic glasses on again, we mean it in a good way. Apart from the modern-day Harleys, they have always been sort of lethargic when it comes to handling but the X440 turned out to be a revelation. After impressing us with its performance on Hero’s performance track, we then took our respective X440s to the handling track. Hero’s handling track is one technical one and it is essential to get the lines right if you wish to nail a corner. All the more essential is to have a motorcycle that can flow around the technicalities, something which the X440 did with aplomb. The X440 utilizes a set of USD forks up front and twin gas-charged shock absorbers at the back. Nothing sophisticated on the face of it but boy, isn’t the X440 an epitome of just burning the spec sheet and riding?

We kept grinding our footpegs away! So much so that the alloy extension beneath the footpegs was eaten up in no time and by the time we could realize it, we had already started decimating the actual rubber footpegs! The X440 might weigh 190kg but the way it masks its weight around corners deserves nothing but songs of praise. It tips into corners with grace, and holds its line in a manner you wouldn’t expect a Harley to. The able underpinnings are further supported by new MRF Zapper Hyke tyres which performed superbly well. Although we couldn’t test the absorbing capabilities of the suspension setup, on a few rough patches that we found in the CIT facility, it feels like they will do a good job of ironing out any undulations on the road. Even when it comes to the braking performance on offer, the X440’s braking setup feels promising as it provides good bite as well as feedback.