I'm bais on this one. However the SG is my first street motorcycle and I took to it like a fish take to water it handles real well.

 

I think the Roadliner/Stratoliner is a beautiful bike, not to mention the almost 100hp. What is it the Harley has, 59hp? The only thing the Harley has over the Yamaha is resale value IMO. Ride both and then decide.

 

Here is my advice, get the Yamaha and ride it and when you’re tired of it do what everyone else does and get a Harley.

As far as power and handling go….well a heavy weight cruiser isn’t made to take corners at triple digit speeds. These two bikes you’re contemplating will most likely turn and weave through parking lots the same. Now power will probably go to the Yamaha. But in my experience riding heavy cruisers is that I spend most of my time on back roads cruising at ~60 mph. So unless your going to race people from stoplight to stoplight in congested traffic a stock Harley has plenty of power. Hell even then a Harley will out accelerate most cars unless that soccer mom in the 4 cylinder Hyundai or Camry had some mods done.

 

I think we need a few pics of the bikes in question on this thread too:

[IMG]local://upfiles/1933/D5733035805D4E4C9B1AC2335A3E0704.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/1933/C2F941217AC6475794404E79C2BC2752.jpg[/IMG]

 

Street Glide. This is the best handling big bagger I have ridden. Neutral and sticky. And it is actually flickable... I rode everything else, all the HD's, Honda's, Yammy's, and for a true bagger, the SG is it. It is not an ST 1300, a sport tourer, but it is more comfy. Go ride one, I think you may convince yourself. I don't dislike any of the bikes right now, but when I rode an SG, it felt like what I wanted. Have fun looking, lots of good stuff out there right now..

 

Go witht the Harley, my last bike was an 04 Roadstar Warrior. I loved the Warrior but it just wasn't a Harley. I was always looking at new bikes: Big Dogs, American Iron Horse, and Harley. Now that I have the Harley I do not wander into other dealerships. I am completely satisfied. It may not be as powerful but the comfort and ride made the difference to me. I do not care too much about resale because I intend to keep this one for a while, however when I sold the Warrior I got $7600 for it and the price tag was $12,900 new 1 year prior. (Plus I had done some engine modifications to it.)

That being said, the Yamaha engine is pretty good and has a huge grin factor.

 

A few years back, I decided I wanted a bagger. I didn't want to pay the HD price, and there were a lot of choices out there. At the time HD stealers were adding from 2-5k to the MSRP. I've never been one who liked to knowingly take it up the tail pipe. So I convinced myself that for less money I could get a much more technilogically advanced motorcycle, one with liquid cooling, shaft drive ect. ect.

I bought a Kawasaki Nomad. Now don't get me wrong, it was a nice motorcycle and in the year I had it I put more than 9000 miles on it. But at the end of the day, I knew that the reason I picked the Nomad was because it looked like a Harley. Problem was I just couldn't make it feel like a Harley. I knew that I had settled. So I sold the Kaw on ebay and took my beat'in and went and purchased the 04 Road King Custom that I should have in the first place.

Bottom line...be sure you get what you're after. Ask yourself. What am I really after? Do I want the Harley experience or something close. You only go around once, so on your one lap make it count.

Steve[sm=icon_rock.gif]

 

I would love to hear what you feel the differences are (THAT MAKE IT BETTER HANDLING) as you state in your post above between an SG, an EGlide standard, and an RK?

I'm all ears...Don't insult me by saying the lower stance.

SG is an EGlide lowered, with a different seat, naked front fender and a radio, less the driving lights for a lot more money. Same engine, tranny etc, etc ... Now if you want to state this as JUST your opinion you should prefix the statement with "In my opinion" don't state it as fact.

 

I guess I haven't ridden the Yamaha but my advice is to go with the Harley! You won't regret it

 

As far as what I said, I should have prefaced it with "this is how I feel" But I thought that was clear from the "I have ridden" comment. That implies that its my opinion.... If I wanted to proclaim it as fact, I would have said something like "the best handling bagger, period" But to explain my opinion, here goes... I am 6'2 and when I sit on EG Standard or an RK, I am 3 inches farther from the street on the top end. The rear suspension is also higher. When the suspension preloads going into a corner, the EG has to "sit down". You feel this in your rear end. At anything over 40 mph, it can feel weird IN MY OPINION. The SG, running harder shorter shocks does not have rear end movement like that. You lean it and its there IN MY OPINION. It was also my experience that I can take my hands off the bars on the SG, and unless I shift my weight, it tracks totally straight, because there is less wind resistance from the shorter windshield THIS IS FACT. Lower cross wind effects as well THIS IS FACT. When I sit on my SG, I am sitting farther "in" the bike . My weight is closer to the road. It's also causing the rear tire to plant harder, because I am also sitting 1/2" farther rearward FACT. The rear suspension is also lowered, and shorter travel. The last time I lowered a bike, by the time I did good shocks, and got everything dialed, I was at least a grand lighter in the back pocket. It also took a lot of time. Never said I was an engineer, but in the almost 20 years I have been riding, the closer you are to the road, the better you are going to handle. Not hating on the EG, or ANY other bike for that matter. Life is too short. But after riding everything, I will tell you, IN MY OPINION... that a lower bike is going to handle better. My experience riding the complete touring line seemed to back up that feeling. So I bought a SG, and I like it. Apologies for not stating everything correctly. Never meant to be insulting. As far as the money, there are a bazillion posts in this very forum, that seem to back up the point that EG's and SG's are different enough to come down to splitting hairs when you do the accounting. They are for different audiences. I wanted a bike without fender lights. I do not like tall windshields, or chrome trim on the bags, running lights, or soft bags.... There is nothing wrong with them. I just did not want them. So I bought an SG. And I will go to my grave saying that it handles better. Every car or bike that I have ever raced, or even just farted around with, when I wanted it to handle, down went the shock travel, and chassis height. Worked pretty well, apologies if that is insulting.