MT500

This military dual-purpose motorcycle was the Harley-badged continuation of a British-designed platform that had originated with the Armstrong MT500 program. After Harley-Davidson acquired the rights, the model was built in York, Pennsylvania and offered in U.S. model years from 1993 through 2000. It was aimed at military and government use rather than the retail street market, which helps explain its low production volume and rarity today. The machine is closely associated with the company’s late-20th-century effort to compete for military contracts, and it stood apart from Harley-Davidson’s more familiar heavyweight cruiser lineup. In enthusiast circles, it is remembered as one of the brand’s most unusual factory motorcycles: a single-cylinder, military-spec, go-anywhere machine with roots in the earlier Armstrong/Rotax lineage rather than classic Milwaukee road-bike tradition.