Harley-Davidson is famous among motorcycle brands for more than a few things: its muscular chopper motorcycles, long-standing history of innovation, and in-your-face road warrior attitude, to name a few. However, one factor that we may not think about much — one of the most important — is the overall style of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. And not just their appearance but, specifically, the way that they sound.

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If someone asked you to think of “the sound of a motorcycle,” there’s a good chance the sound that comes to mind would be the snarling roar of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. These bikes are loud and proud, with each one offering a similar yet distinct sound profile to really help their riders stand out on the highway. All of Harley-Davidson’s bikes sound awesome, and which you consider the best will depend largely on your own tastes. With that said, these are the Harley-Davidson bikes that we think sound the best.

The Sportster series is one of Harley-Davidson’s longest-running motorcycle families, with one of the most recent entries being the 2024 Sportster S. They come in a wide number of variants and are good all-around motorcycles for both seasoned riders and weekend warriors. Just because the Sportster series is accessible, though, doesn’t mean you should write them off as pedestrian motorcycles. It’s precisely because the Sportster series has endured through the years that you can trust it epitomizes that classic Harley spirit. If you need proof of that, just listen to one of its engines.

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Out of the Sportster series, one of the best-sounding models is the Sportster Iron 1200. The current iteration of the Sportster Iron 1200 packs an air-cooled Evolution engine with around 75 cubic inches of displacement. If you took a listen to this bike while it’s running, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s a lion lurking nearby. The Sportster Iron 1200 produces a low, growling tone while idling, remarkably similar to the vocalizations of a jungle cat. Once it gets going, that growling tone ramps up in volume and frequency, almost as though it’s about to roar in your face. The Sportster series may be seasoned, but you know what they say: Beware of an old man in a profession where men die young.

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The Harley-Davidson Iron 883 has something of a reputation as a beginner’s bike. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — it’s always good to have a reliable jumping-off point for just about any hobby or profession, and motorcycle riding is no different. The Iron 883 is a comfortable cruiser with a fairly reasonable output, thanks to its 54-cubic-inch Evolution engine. That’s not even mentioning its highly customizable body for those looking to get a little more performance out of it. While the Iron 883 may have humble purposes, though, it’s as much of a Harley chopper as any of its contemporaries, and it has the sound to back that up.

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When you start up the Iron 883, it almost sounds like the percussion section of a sweeping orchestra warming up. It’s a uniform, drum-like rumble, kind of like a percussionist tapping on a steel drum. Honestly, it would make a great backing track for a classic rock jam. Once it gets going, the Iron 883 maintains its percussive beat but adds another sound to the mix, kind of like a strumming guitar. Every pull of the throttle produces another roaring power chord. To drive an Iron 883 on the road is almost like being a rolling, one-man band.

They say that Famine of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rode a black horse wherever he appeared, spreading pain and misery. That’s perhaps a bit dramatic, but if you paint your motorcycle in all black, then maybe “dramatic” is what you were going for. If you wanted a dark, dramatic motorcycle, the Harley-Davidson Night Rod would certainly fit the bill. With its Revolution 60 V-twin engine, packing a 76-cubic-inch displacement, this is a muscular bike that darts through the shadows of the night. You might expect a nighttime predator to do things a little more subtly, but “subtle” isn’t really in the Harley-Davidson playbook.

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The Night Rod starts out somewhat understated, with a simple, yet distinct, rumble that you might not hear if you weren’t keeping an ear open for it. It’s almost like an idling chainsaw, preparing to strike an unsuspecting redwood. Once you crank it up, all illusions of quiet go out the window as it produces a loud droning tone. Since the tone is fairly uniform when at speed, it really helps onlookers appreciate it as it moves closer and past them. If you hear this bike’s sound on a dark road, you know you’re in a Sleepy Hollow situation.

In Harley-Davidson’s earlier years, not every motorcycle it produced got a proper name. It’s not like today, where every series and model has a unique identifier — sometimes, a bike was known simply by a series designation and a number. For example, in the early 1930s, one set of Harley bikes was the E series. No fancy names, just the letter “E.” The sports version of this series was officially called the “EL.” However, longtime Harley riders may know that bike by a different name due to its iconic engine: the Knucklehead.

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The Harley-Davidson EL motorcycle was nicknamed the Knucklehead after its Knucklehead engine, one of a series of “head” engines that the brand produced over the years. As the name may imply, the Knucklehead was a huge brat on the road and didn’t care who knew it. It was loud and obnoxious, producing a tone that sounds more like a motorboat than a motorcycle. When in motion, it gets even louder, almost like a locomotive passing by. It’s definitely not a motorcycle for a quiet neighborhood, but if you wanted to make yourself seen and heard, the Knucklehead was the way to do it.

In the 1960s, Harley-Davidson introduced another entry into its “head” series of engines, the Shovelhead, given its name because of its shovel-shaped rocker covers. Though the Shovelhead had its issues, it was one of the most popular motorcycle engines of its time, and even one of Elvis Presley’s motorcycles was equipped with one. It was quite a feisty engine, though, and not every bike model could handle it.

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To better accommodate the Shovelhead, Harley-Davidson released a factory chopper in 1971: the FX Super Glide. This bike unfortunately only stuck around for a few years, but thanks to its Shovelhead engine and custom frame, it had quite the memorable sound. When idle, it had a distinctive 1-2-3 putter that you could almost set your watch to. When it got going, the FX Super Glide produced a tone that we can only describe as “sounds like a motorcycle.” There’s really no other way to put it — it’s simply one of the most motorcycle-sounding motorcycles ever made.