6 Of The Lightest Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Ever Made

Harley-Davidson motorcycles have a reputation for making big, loud, and heavy cruisers. Their low design makes them good for long trips since it typically places the rider in a comfortable position and the extra weight makes it so they won't get tossed around by the wind or a bumpy road. The large engines required to move these massive machines are also responsible for the infamously loud rumbling sound that riders often attribute to the brand. That said, Harley-Davidson has also made a few surprisingly lighter bikes in the company's early years.

There are a lot of riders who are just starting out and aren't confident riding a heavy bike, or who may be more experienced but simply don't feel comfortable maneuvering a half-ton of steel. Just because these bikers don't want a massive ride shouldn't mean that they can't still enjoy the look, feel, and reliable reputation of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The Nightster is the lightest bike currently being manufactured, coming in at just 462 pounds. That said, Harley's lightest bikes are also some of its oldest and predate most of the company's heavier modern frame types. So most of them aren't easy to find.

Harley doesn't have a definitive public database that shares the weight of every motorcycle it's ever made, so there are a few out there we might miss. Even so, we took a look at some of the smallest bikes ever to bear the HD logo and compared each of their dry-weights to find six of the lightest Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever made.

The first bike on our list is actually a bit of a strange one, since its roots are a bit less American than your typical Harley. The SST 250 was initially designed and manufactured by an Italian subsidiary in 1978. This company was owned by Harley-Davidson at the time and was based in Varese. This bike, and the SX 250 which was designed for more off-road focused endeavors, are the only Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever to be produced that weren't sold in the U.S. 

The SST 250 was more of a street bike than a cruiser. It was tall and narrow, placing the rider in a much more upright sitting position. It was also tiny when you compare it to the Harley's that were being manufactured in America at the time.

The bike ran on a 242cc, air-cooled, two-stroke, single-cylinder engine, which is much smaller and lighter than the engines used to power the company's heavy cruisers, but it also meant that it was less powerful. It could only produce up to 17 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and gave the bike a top speed of 85 mph. All this added up to a motorcycle that weighed 252 pounds dry and 294.4 pounds when it had its 2.7 gallon gas tank and other fluids filled–pretty light for any bike.

Next up, we have the Harley-Davidson Scat. Granted, that's not the most attractive name for a motorcycle, but it's actually a pretty cool-looking bike. This bike was first launched in 1961, and it had a five-year run before it was discontinued in 1965. There might still be a tiny bit more scrambler in the overall shape than what you may have come to expect from modern Harley's, but the Scat is low. It has a spring-mounted seat, and there's a certain curvature to it that speaks to the later Softail models. It also has a large, scrambler-style exhaust that was mounted so high that it nearly ran parallel to the rear fender. 

The Scat ran on a very small 175cc, air-cooled, two-stroke, V-Twin engine which gave the bike a maximum of nine horsepower and a 60 mph top speed. Interestingly enough, this bike only had a three-speed transmission as well and used a magneto ignition instead of a battery to start.

AutoEvolution reports the bike's weight was 220 pounds, while Mecum Auctions states that it was 216 pounds. It could be that there were some unaccounted variables between the different bike's weights, but it's also quite possible that this variance is explained by the weight of gas in the machine's 1.9 gallon tank.

The next super-light bike on our list is the Pacer BT. This is another '60s bike that has a very similar design to the Scat, only much more street-focused. It has a slim, ultra-light frame with a lot of empty space in the chassis, giving the bike an airy appearance and cutting back on unnecessary weight.

Like the Scat, the Pacer BT was powered by a small 175cc, two-stroke, single-cylinder engine. This provided 10 horsepower and gave the bike a top speed of 60 mph. Also like the Scat, it had a magneto ignition starter instead of a battery and a three-speed transmission. So with similar designs and engines, it shouldn't come as a surprise that these bikes also sat at close to the same spot on the scale.

The Pacer BT had a reported weight of only 216 pounds, meaning that it's at least as light as the Scat, if not a few pounds lighter. You're probably out of luck if you're hoping to get one for yourself, though. There are a lot of rare bikes on this list, but the Pacer BT is an exceptionally hard-to-find model considering its relative recency. Only a few hundred of them were manufactured each year they were in production.

Believe it or not, the third-lightest motorcycle on our list is the first one Harley-Davidson ever made. William S. Harley started work on his prototype motorbike all the way back in 1901. In 1903, he completed the prototype of what would eventually be the Model No. 1. However, this bike didn't actually enter mainstream production until 1905. Like most motorcycles from the early 1900s, the Model No. 1 looked like little more than a bicycle with an engine strapped to it. But while most other motorcycle manufacturers petered out and eventually went under, this simple piece of machinery was the foundation of Harley's empire.

Harley only sold completed bikes on an extremely limited basis, so there were only ever a handful of complete Model No. 1s ever in existence. This is why the Model No. 1 is considered one of the rarest Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever built. Those that Harley did build had a sizable 405cc engine, with a single-speed transmission accounting for a good portion of its weight. 

The engine was so rudimentary that you often had to use the momentum generated by the pedals to get it started. This is probably why the bike wasn't actually lighter, in spite of its tubular, bicycle-like frame. All told, the Model No. 1 came in at just 185 pounds. Pretty light, but there were two motorcycles that Harley made which managed to go even lighter.

One of the most famous lightweight Harley motorcycles was first launched in 1955 and ran until 1959: the Harley-Davidson Hummer. This bike had a clean design that served as an attractive and practical tribute to minimalism. Unlike the similarly named SUV, everything about the Hummer motorcycle was designed to be light, maneuverable, and efficient. This is likely due to the fact that the design was heavily inspired by the German DKW RT125 which was made during WW2, bringing the same utilitarian outlook that you would expect from a wartime bike.

The Hummer had a 125cc, air-cooled, two-stroke, single-cylinder engine. This gave the bike a whopping three horsepower and a top speed of 50 mph. As you might expect, this didn't add a lot of weight to the Hummer. The small engine, coupled with the bike's minimalist frame, added up to a vehicle that weighed just 170 pounds dry. That's lighter than the average large-capacity washing machine — not something you can say about modern Harley's. That said, there was an earlier bike that was just as light.

While the Hummer is probably the most famous lightweight bike that Harley ever made, the Model S-125 actually came first. This bike was first launched in 1948 and, like the Hummer, its design was heavily influenced by the DKW RT-125 after the Allied Forces started dividing up the rights to German intellectual property following WW2. It had a similarly light and utilitarian-focused frame and a slim, naked design that emphasized maneuverability and efficiency over flair.

The model ran on a 125cc, air-cooled, two-stroke, single-cylinder engine. This gave the bike three horsepower and a max speed of 45 mph — so even if you managed to get your hands on one, you probably wouldn't be taking it on the freeway any time soon. It was also just as light as the engine in the Hummer, so it's probably not much of a surprise that they weigh the same. The Model S weighs in at 170 pounds dry, perfectly tying it up with the Hummer as two of the lightest motorcycles that Harley-Davidson has ever made.