Yeah my main worry was the longer trips. I know it wont be a street or road glide but was curious with a 5" windshield if it would be ok for long trips etc. It is hard to tell about long trips @ interstate/highway speeds from a 10-15 min test ride.

 

I did a 1700 mile trip on my Sport Glide in April. I was riding solo, carrying camping gear and a bag that doubled as a backrest. My only complaint was the inability to change my foot position. I plan to add floorboards to solve this. I have the 5 inch windshield and it works pretty well until around 80. Also, the 4 inch pullbacks helped with my riding position. It’s not as comfortable as the Street Glide on the long rides, but the bike fits me just fine.

 

I am just back from a 3000 mile trip and one of my friends did it on a Sport Glide - with his wife and all their luggage. No problem at all.

In fact he recently sold the Street Glide that he also had and now just has the Sport Glide. He loves it.

 

Getting ready to make a 500 mile trip to Wisconsin in 2 weeks. My longest has only been 200 miles and no issues at all. Recently added 4 inch pullback and klockwerks windshield which has made a big difference. But like mentioned the foot position can get bothersome. I have pulled my feet back to my passenger pegs and it’s a nice change for a while. Kinda like riding sport bike position but does shift weight in seat.

 

Going to do a Texas to North Dakota round trip next week, 7 days and should be about 3000 miles and will be the first long trip on my SG. Comfort mods I have done are a Mustang Dagger seat w/ backrest, 6" pullback Harley risers w/ stock bars and the Harley 5" windscreen. I had put a Klockworks 8" on and it took a lot of wind off my upper body and helmet but created such a buffeting noise that I could not stand it, even with earplugs. Put the stock lip on and liked the smooth air but made my helmet want to turn side to side, the 5" is a compromise between the two. I have also made my own footpeg relocation brackets, which brings the pegs back about 2" and up about 1". Not a fan of forward controls and found the stock location way too low for my style of riding, as I like to really lean into turns and curves and found my feet being lifted off the pegs from ground contact way to easily and often. Back on subject, I will report back when I get back from this trip on the comfort of my setup but really see no reason the SG could not be used as a long distance touring bike. On my long rides I see plenty of people on Dynas and Sportsters, and the SG has got to be more comfy than that even in stock form. Ride On!

 

Any pics of the relocation brackets? I'm no fabricator but I'm interested in the design, could have some made locally unless you're interested in making some more. I scrape my mini footboards at least once a day, would love to have my feet a little higher and lean into the turns a bit more.

 

First time posting pics on this forum, hope it works. I'm a shadetree fabricator at best and these are the proto type if you will so they are pretty raw. After my upcoming trip, if they perform the way I want I will make a more polished form. I changed these with chop and weld a couple of times and you can see that but so far have worked well. I would like to try them with some small floorboards, I think that would be very comfy. As a side note, bringing the pegs aft this far does require shift and brake pedal adjustments. The shift lever has a lot of adjustment but the brake pedal is just about at the max aft adjustment with these brackets. One might be able to go aft with the bracket maybe another 1/4 to 1/2 inch and still be able to use the brake pedal effectively.

 

Just back from an 8 day trip to the Black Hills and 2900 miles. The Sport Glide performed flawlessly. I haven't had time to do the floor board mods, so I just hung my feet over the pegs on the long stretches and it sufficed to give me some relief. I even found out it's good at crossing flooded roads (about 6") of standing water.

 

Quick recap on my Nodak trip, ended up being a little over 2800 miles round trip. Having my pegs back that little bit with my homemade brackets helped a lot but I still found myself wanting to put my feet at the mid position to adjust myself in the seat. Occasionally using the passenger pegs and/or hanging my legs straight out over the fwd pegs also added some relief. Suppose I could just get in better shape...nah. Probably explore the mid mods people have been doing or just get a bike with mids and be done with it. But I really like the style of the SG and really want to like it but I have gotten rid of great bikes in the past do to comfort issues. I ride year round and take really long trips and comfort is a big issue. I did like having the 6" pullback risers and I was a little disappointed in my Mustage Dagger stich seat but I'll hold final judgement on the seat until it gets a few thousand more miles on it as the Mustangs and Corbins take time to break in. The M8 was flawless and on one tank with a pretty good tail wind I got just shy of 62 mpg! Over the entire trip my fuel mileage was 46.8 mpg, just like the manual says it should be, ha>>.

 

After decades of touring on small/medium sized bikes I finally bought a Road King. It was a great bike but after enjoying my Road King for two years, I had to admit that I just prefer touring/riding on smaller lighter bikes. Sure they aren’t as comfortable, but they are more flexible and increased the fun factor even as they add fatigue etc. as I’ve aged I do less ironbutt days (used to ride 1,490 miles straight through twice a year on a Honda 650 to visit family) and as said, any size bike will take you coast to coast...it’s up to your taste and planning how you enjoy it.