Went to Gengras Harley in East Hartford, CT today to check out some bikes from the motor company's demo truck. I also went to the demo at New Roc in New Rochelle, NY a few weeks ago because there was too much traffic and we did not go on any highways which was a disappointment because I wanted to see how the bikes handled at highway speed, especially the baggers.

The folks at Gengras were great and even gave everyone that did a demo a free hot dog. The ride was pretty good as it was about 8 miles long and included a few miles of highway riding. The last ride must have been at least 20 miles and had a great combination of highway and twisty local roads. Someone told me that they used to do all of the rides on that longer run but it was just too long to do all day. Too bad.

My main goals were to sample various baggers comparing, among other things their windshields, to try dynas with forward controls, and to ride a trike.

The trike was horrible. I thought that it would ride like my lawn tractor but it was worse. It tended to pull itself all over the road and usually where I did not want it to go. It felt very unstable as well. After I rode it the next guy, a road captain, did not even make it out of the parking lot because he hated it so much.

The forward controls were ok. I had tried them a few times before and am getting more comfortable every time I ride a bike with forwards. That being said with my short inseam it is a slight stretch to use them so for now I think I will stick with the mid controls and the highway pegs.

What I learned about windshields is that I do not like any of them. I rode the ultra classic, ultra classic limited, road glide, street glide, and softail convertible which had divergent sizes of windshields. They all gave me turbulence in my helmet which I found unacceptable. I much prefer the smooth air of a windshieldless ride even if it comes with more wind hitting me in the chest. Maybe a very tall windshield would do it for me but I think there might be issues with me having to always look through the windshield with rain, bugs, etc so that would not be an ideal solution either. The radios were nice though.

The baggers were pretty good platforms overall. I liked the way they handled. The felt surpisingly light and nimble. Floorboards are not my thing and even with my short legs I was hoping for highway pegs to stretch out a bit. I had heard that the road glide handled best off all of the baggers, especially in cross winds, due to its frame mounted fairing but apparently we never got in any strong cross winds and I did not notice any difference in handling. That being said I still like the dyna handling better, do not need the windshield or fairing, and can put bags on a dyna if need be.

A lot of the bikes seemed to have bars that were too far forward. This was especially true on the V-rod, fat bob, fat boy lo, and blackline, and the road glide and wide glide could have used bars a few inches further back.

The other dynas were a little disappointing too. The wide glide, in addition to the bars had a very hard seat and not enough chrome. The street bob is ok but it is a little annoying that it comes without a passenger pillion and very little chrome. The fat bob, in addition to the bars, has a rear fender and pipes that I do not like.

In summary, I am very glad to have my low rider and hope the motor company brings it back in a similar configuration. They did not have a super glide custom so I could not try one out but I think it would be similar to the low rider in many ways.

 

HOLY Siskel and Ebert....Just ride the damn things and enjoy yourself..........

 

Great write up

 

yeah man i hate the way my street bob rides with it's very little chrome.

 

yeah, Mine too!

 

free hot dogs?!?!
i thought ikea was a good deal, with their 2 dogs, chips and drink for $2 (tax included) but FREE is even cheaper!

 

I was over there at Gengras picking up parts when the truck showed up, all I could think is "man what a dream job"!
Travel the US and do rides all day, Thats the life!
Plus the truck is Bad A$$ too!

 

Chrome is for SAFETY (unlike a black bike that is invisible to motorists!) Just kidding. You have me there. I SHOULD have said that *I* like chrome and none of the dynas that they had had an appreciable amount. I can understand that some like the blacked out look but why every dyna? I did look on the site and it seems that the Suoer Glide Custom is nicely chromed out but they did not have one at the demo.

What I forgot to mention, and the Super Glide Custom is included in this, what also really annoyed me about the dynas was that none of them had a tach. I find this odd because I thought the dynas niche was that of a cruiser meant for aggressive riding like a big sportster. I use the tach quite a bit on my FXDL. I just did a quick search through h-d's site and it seems that none of the sportsters (except the xr1200x), none of the dynas, none of the softails (except CVO), and not even the road kings have tachs. Am I the only person that thinks a tach is a good idea?

 

I spoke to the driver and he agreed.

 

Interesting writeup. Thanks!