Let me start by saying that a Harley is a Harley in my book and I love em' all! I happen to own a Wideglide and a Sportster so dyna type frames are all I'm used to. I hear people make comments about soft tails being "slop tails" and not handling all that well. Could someone enlighten me on the subject? P.S. I'm not trying to stir the pot! Thanks in advance!

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Good question!! both bikes have a swingarm, the soft tail is jus more custom and normaly gets lowered for that look. although my softail is lowered i have no probs with the handling and run the rear tire to the edge. I do run progresive 422's as the standard shocks are crap!! As were the brakes too. At the end of the day its the look you like that you go for in a bike then you change it to work for you!!Certainly in my experience like for like the soft tail is a stiffer setup.

 

Like darkman says the ride is stiff when stock.Riding my 07 Fat Boy makesme feel every crack/bump or unenvensess of the road. On long rides it's punishing, specially at high speed. Don't get me wrong I love my FB it handles great, rock solid (no pun intended) and very reliable machine, love the 200 rear. The brakes are somewhat weak and they tend to lock easy if you are not careful, however, you will learn to ride the beast.

When I got my FB Ilived a few miles away from work, so street cruising to work was just perfect, unfortunately I had to move furher away and now I haveto navigate three freeways plusheavy street traffic;splitting lanes (going over markers) is nasty as well. I am considering getting a different ride, with a bigger gas tank and better suspension.

 

i have no problem with the handling, other than the fact i wasnt used to the bigger 200 rear tire...it took all of 20 miles to make the adjustment. i had been on road kings and touring bikes the last 5 years so going back to the softail was fun for me. i never rode a dyna mod, so i cant compare the 2, but i love the softail. i might want to look into shock upgrades though, especially if it makes a big difference

 

Thanks guys for the replies! Wasn't sure how that question would go over! The only "softail" I've ever owned was my Suzuki about 5 years ago and I never noticed any thing goofy about the ride. Sounds like it's just a Hatfield/Mcoy type thing, the whole "my bike is better than yours" type thing. If anybody else has any opinions about it, I'd love to hear em'. Thanks again...

 

There's another aspect to it that's not well understood, in the case of Softail owners/lovers they largely don't care.
That is the geometry of the rear swing arm on the Softail vs. the Dyna's, Sporty's, and the bigger FL Baggers. On all the other bikes Harley makes the swing arm is a nearly solid boxed unit with its pivot point in line between the axle and the bottom of the frame and is triangulated with the spring/shock to the top of the frame.
With theSoftail emphasizing style over functionthe swing arm is made of round tubing with its pivot point above the bottom of the frame, but its spring/shocks slung underneath.
This has two different deleterious affects on the suspension action, neither good.
First is that with its pivot point above the bottom of the frame the tracking of the bikechanges at a greater rate for every inch of suspension travel than the same deflection willhave on the other models.
The other 'problem' with the Softail is that because of the construction of the swing arm the only means it has to stay 'in place' is the swing arm pivot bolt and bearings. The swing arm is also longer and with no other support system to triangulate it its basicallyhanging out in the breeze.It doesn't take a genius to see thateven a small amount of 'slop' in the offsetpivot bolt bearings can make for a wobbly ride.
Now for those of us who likeSoftail's its not much of aproblem. We like the style, and in my casethe fit as well,and for speaking myself I couldn't give arat's rear endif it can keep up with aBuell or not. I own one because I like how it looks, it fits me and my riding style.
If its not the best handling bike around so what, I'm not going to take bets on beating somenut kid on a crotch rocket in a race. But I'll bet I can talk hisgirlfriend into climbing on theback of my Hog without too much trouble.

 

Now that's the kind of answer I was looking for!! Thanks for that in depth analysis, Citoriplus! Especially the explanation of the triangulation of the swingarm, that makes perfect sense! As always, keep em' clean and keep em' on the road!

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Citori I love it man awesome well written response.

I've only ridden a dyna a few times and while it did seem to handle the bumps a little better I didn't notice a ton of difference. Granted more miles on a dyna would make my opinion more accurate, but I can tell you I love the way my softail rides and I love the look even more.

To add to Citoriplus' ending statements I have had "relations" with 3 different chicks for no other good reason than my Deuce. That and my devilish good looks and cunning personality of course lol

 

One other thing to remember is the 'sloptail' name was slapped on themlong before the current crop of bikes were made. A lot of the olderSoftails did in fact have some 'interesting' handling qualities. Bikes made in the last 10 or so years are light years ahead of the older ones in terms of handlingbecause of majorimprovements in both materials and quality control.
They are still, and always will besubject to the overall oddity's of the suspension geometry, that's an inescapable part of the design. But with more accuratewelding and machining of the swing arm assembly along with more solid mountings and better bearings. Thenewer bikesare spared some of themore onerous handling difficulties thatolder Softails often had built in at the factory.

 

Deleterious - ,adj 1. Injurious to health. 2. Hurtful; harmful; injurious.
Damn, Citoriplus! Think you could use some bigger words in your next post?