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Harley Davidson MT 350E Army Bike

The Harley Davidson MT350E are used by Army dispatch riders and for a variety of liaison and traffic control tasks. The bikes are fitted with document panniers and a carrier for the SA80A2 Individual Weapon.

These aren't your made-in-Italy kind of H-Ds either; these are real, genuine, born in the USA Pennsylvanian-built Harley-Davidson 350s (but H-D tend to keep quiet about them). Yet anyone who has bothered to look a little closely at the bikes will know that they're extremely similar to the previous Army machines, the Armstrong MT500s. And with an oil-in-frame chassis and a Rotax engine, the MT350 also has a lot in common with the bikes currently made by CCM. What gives?

It seems that Harley bought the rights to manufacture the MT-series machines from the UK concern, Armstrong (who do indeed have something to do with CCM), when NATO chose the MT as its standard steed. The Americans didn't want to be riding around on anything foreign, bless 'em, so they bought up the option to make the bikes themselves.

The MT500 was considered to be too powerful for modern Army duties -- or perhaps it was just too much for the Americans to handle? -- so it was downsized to a 350. To give them their dues, Harley also overhauled and upgraded much of the Armstrong's ancillaries, correcting some flaws in the design and equipping the bike with an electric start. So now it's known as the MT350E, and you won't get a hot bot any more as Harley moved the reg-rec heat-sink from under the seat to somewhere more sensible, in the open air.