Harley to start making sport bikes.....
First, let's address the elephant in the room.... wasn't this what Buell was for? Buell was essentially their sports department but they discontinued the brand. I have a friend who owns a Buell (in fact I need to check in and see if it's still for sale) and while it seemed like a solid machine it apparently didn't perform well enough to stay in Harley Davidson's portfolio.
I am not totally surprised though. After the development of the VR1000 racing bike, I was quite sure that the V-Rod was as "sporty" as Harley was going to get. The more modern drag inspired V-Rod touted a liquid cooled V-Twin engine that Harley was able to successfully sell as well... a Harley. That is before they went on to remove it from their web-site also.
After dipping their toe in it seem that they are going to dive head-first with a full on small bike lineup that includes a production version of the Harley Davidson LiveWire that Black Widow drove in the Avengers. Only time will tell as to how these are received.