Harley vs Indian vs Honda vs BMW: The 2022 Best Sellers Compared
Updated: 3 days ago
For the third year running the same four motorcycles led four different corners of the American market: Harley-Davidson's Street Glide Special, Indian's Scout, Honda's Rebel 500 and BMW's R 1250 GS. For 2022 all four were essentially the machines they had already been. That makes it a good year to ignore the specification contest entirely and ask the only useful question, which is which one fits you.
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Category leaders, not rivals
An 827 pound American bagger, a midsize cruiser with a 25.6 inch seat, a 408 pound beginner twin and a 549 pound German adventure bike are not competitors. They are four different answers to what a motorcycle is for, and almost nobody cross shops them. Anyone weighing a Street Glide Special against a Rebel 500 has not narrowed down a motorcycle, they have not yet decided what kind of riding they want to do.
That is why the table below should be read selectively. Peak torque compared across a 1868cc American V-twin, a high revving 1133cc V-twin, a 471cc parallel twin and a 1254cc boxer is close to meaningless. Seat height and weight are the opposite: they are the numbers that decide whether a given bike is usable by a given rider, and everything else can be adapted to.
Where these picks come from matters. Harley-Davidson publishes no model level unit sales, nor does Polaris for Indian or Honda for the US. BMW Motorrad alone publishes model level figures, and only began splitting individual models in its 2025 report. Three of these four are consensus picks, not published rankings, and we will not invent a unit number.
Two clarifications on the entries. The Harley is the Street Glide Special, which at this point was still a separate model from the base Street Glide, a bike with a smaller Milwaukee-Eight engine and a much lower price. The Indian is the Scout platform rather than a single motorcycle, with the Scout Bobber as its volume entry point. The family widened again for 2022 with the Scout Rogue joining at $11,499.
The 2022 numbers, side by side
Bike | Engine | Torque | Seat height | Weight | MSRP |
Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special | Milwaukee-Eight 114, 1868cc | 118 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm | 26.1 in laden, 27.2 in unladen | 827 lb | $27,449 |
Indian Scout Bobber | 1133cc liquid cooled 60 degree V-twin, 100 hp | 72 lb-ft | 25.6 in | Not published (see note) | About $12,249 (see note) |
Honda Rebel 500 | 471cc liquid cooled parallel twin | 31.9 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm (Honda Europe figure, see note) | 27.2 in | 408 lb, 414 lb ABS, 414 lb SE | $6,399, $6,699, $6,899 |
BMW R 1250 GS | 1254cc ShiftCam boxer twin, 136 hp | 105 lb-ft at 6,250 rpm | 33.5 in | 549 lb | $17,995, Adventure $20,345 |
Read that table with four caveats attached. The Honda torque figure is not a US number: Honda US publishes none for the Rebel 500 in any model year, and 31.9 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm comes from Honda Europe, verified for this model year. Treat it as European homologation data, not a Honda US claim. The Scout Bobber price is approximate and may reflect a later point in the model cycle, so check it with a dealer. Published weights for this generation of Scout Bobber conflict on a wet versus dry basis and cannot be reconciled, so that cell is deliberately empty. BMW's own material gives peak torque at 6,250 rpm globally and 6,500 rpm in the US listing. We have used 6,250.
Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special: who it is actually for
Everything about this motorcycle is aimed at covering distance on pavement in comfort. Fairing, hard bags, a 1868cc Milwaukee-Eight 114 and 827 pounds that feel entirely different depending on speed. Moving, the weight reads as stability. Stopped, parking, or turning around in a driveway, it reads as 827 pounds.
At 26.1 inches laden the seat is low, so inseam is rarely the limit. Physical control of the bike at a standstill is the limit, and it is a real one. That makes this a poor first motorcycle for most riders and a difficult one for a small rider whatever their experience. Push it around a car park before you decide anything.
Buy it if you ride long days on tarmac, often two up or loaded, and you want luggage and weather protection as standard equipment. The $27,449 base price excludes freight. Worth knowing: 2022 is the year Harley added a Street Glide ST using its larger Milwaukee-Eight, so if the Special is the right shape of motorcycle but not enough engine, there was another door in the same room.
Indian Scout Bobber: who it is actually for
The 25.6 inch seat remains the lowest here by a wide margin, and for a lot of riders that is the entire argument. Nothing else in this comparison gets close.
The 1133cc liquid cooled 60 degree V-twin makes 100 hp and 72 lb-ft, and it wants engine speed to do it. That is not how a traditional cruiser behaves, and it is the single thing most likely to surprise a rider trading out of a big air cooled twin. It suits riders who like to use a gearbox rather than lug along on torque.
It fits shorter riders, shorter rides and anyone who wants a real V-twin without the bulk of one. If the Scout turns out to be too small a motorcycle for you, Indian's Chief platform arrived for 2022 as the next step up: a 26 inch seat, 670 pounds in base form, the Thunderstroke 111 at 1811cc and 108 lb-ft or the 116 at 1890cc and 120 lb-ft, and prices from $14,499 to $20,999 across six variants. That is a genuinely different motorcycle, but it is the same showroom and the same low seat philosophy.
Honda Rebel 500: who it is actually for
408 pounds, 414 with ABS, a 27.2 inch seat, and prices of $6,399, $6,699 and $6,899 across the three trims. Nothing else here is close on either weight or money, and for 2022 the Rebel was a mechanical carryover, which is not a criticism of a bike that already worked.
The 471cc parallel twin holds highway speed without drama and is easy to ride slowly, which is most of what makes a motorcycle pleasant in traffic. The trade is that there is no fairing and no standard luggage, so an all day interstate run is possible rather than enjoyable.
Buy it as a first bike, as a way back into riding after years off, as a commuter, or as the bike that leaves enough budget for proper gear and training. It is also the only one of the four you can outgrow cheaply.
BMW R 1250 GS: who it is actually for
The GS does more different things well than anything else here: 1254cc ShiftCam boxer, 136 hp, 105 lb-ft, long range, real luggage, and enough suspension to make a dirt road a non event.
The number that decides it for most people is the 33.5 inch seat. That is tall, and it is the most decision relevant figure in the entire table. It excludes riders who would sit comfortably on the far heavier Street Glide Special, because the Harley puts you down inside the motorcycle and the GS puts you up on top of it. Sit on one before you read another review of it, including this one.
If it fits, it is the bike for distance in any weather and on any surface, and for two up touring with luggage that was designed in rather than added afterwards. It expects experience: 549 pounds, a tall seat and that much power is a lot to learn on. At $17,995, with the Adventure at $20,345, it is priced much nearer the Harley than the Honda.
How to actually choose
Take it in this order and most of the decision makes itself.
First, seat height and weight, because they are the only filters you cannot negotiate with. Sit on all four in one afternoon. The Scout Bobber at 25.6 inches, the Street Glide Special at 26.1 laden and the Rebel 500 at 27.2 are all low. The GS at 33.5 belongs to a different set of riders. Then lift each one upright and walk it. A bike you cannot move at a standstill is not a bike you own, it is a bike you park.
Second, the riding you genuinely do. Short trips and commuting: Rebel 500 or Scout Bobber. Long days on pavement, often loaded or two up: Street Glide Special. Long days in any weather and on any surface: R 1250 GS.
Third, budget, counted properly. Prices here run from $6,399 to $27,449 before freight. Fix your total to include gear, training, insurance and the first service, then spend what is left on the motorcycle.
Experience sits across the whole exercise. For a first season the Rebel is the sensible answer and the Scout is defensible. The Street Glide Special and the GS are both a lot of motorcycle to learn on, for opposite reasons.
Judged as a specification contest these four barely belong on the same page. Judged on fit they sort themselves out quickly: the Rebel to start on, the Scout for riders who need a low seat and still want a V-twin, the Street Glide Special for distance on pavement, the GS for riders tall enough for it who refuse to be limited by weather or surface. Decide what you are going to do with the bike first. The badge follows from that.
What You Wear on Each of These
The four bikes here pull four different wardrobes. The bagger and the adventure bike get ridden in cold and wet, the midsize cruiser mostly gets ridden in shirt weather, and the beginner bike gets ridden in whatever the rider already owns. On the cruiser side the vest rather than the jacket is the common answer, and the difference between a riding vest and a fashion vest is structural rather than cosmetic.
Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Street Glide parked at Hogs for Hospice, Leamington, Ontario, 2025-08-02 04" by Chris Woodrich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
