I own a couple of bikes, and was recently shopping for a new middle weight. I test rode a Yamaha FZ-09, a Suzuki Gsx 750Z, and the HD Street Rod.

I could not imagine buying the Street Rod unless there is some driving motivation to owning a "Harley". In every conceivable comparison the SR is a very distant third.

 

Completely true what you have said, India has a lot of superbikes now but we dont have a road to ride them on, with the traffic and extreme congestion.
The street rod was definitely a motivation of owning a "Harley" no doubt, and the want for tooling around at 40 kmph on a Superbike (Indian standards apply) there was no other bike for me. Only choice was a Hyosung 650 but thats not a Harley.

 

Did I forget to mention the potholes, and single lane traffic?

 

I feel like cross shopping a pair of much sportier bikes with a Street Rod isn't really an apples to apples comparison. The Street Rod is still a cruiser. It's a cruiser with a lot of benefits over more traditional H-Ds, but a cruiser nonetheless.

 

The street rod was not really built as a cruiser more a sports bike tucked up stance knees up feet at mid position but after i brought the seat down by two inches and the feet out by 12 inches I can now ride it much more comfortably, next maybe I may change the spring lenghts for the shocks to drop the bike down by 3 inches then will really become a cruiser.

 

It's still much more cruiser-ish than the bikes the other guy was comparing it to. Your feet sit wide and forward - not on rearsets. The bars are decidedly unsporty (*ahem* "fists in the wind"). And the tank is huge and wide and you can't use your knees on it worth a crap. It's relatively sportier than, like, a Breakout or something, but it's not a sport bike and comparing it to one isn't fair.

 

It's a standard motorcycle...
https://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/wh...ard-motorcycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_motorcycles
My favorite type of motorcycle to ride

Man HD you really fouled up on the Tank, Peg and exhuast design and placement.

The Street-Rod Engine is AWESOME... Just the Ergos are just so bad... Keep the revs north of 6K RPM and the bike RIPS...

 

I think you hit the nail on the head here. The foot position is easily fixed with new longer round pegs like the diamond black HD pegs and a Vance & Hines comp muffler with a straight heat shield over the cat. That gives me a normal right foot position. The problem now is the wide, flat gas tank. My knees ride alongside the widest part of the tank, causing the awkward twisted hip joint seating position. All HD would have to do to fix the problem is put a taller, narrower XR style tank on it and it would be fine. I am guessing they will do that in another year or so and we will have to retrofit the tank on down the road. That is if anyone is still riding it by then.

If they would produce something like this, there would be no other issues except that they expect everyone who buys a Street Rod to pay $1000 to upgrade it to what it should be from the beginning. I did a Stage 1 mod on mine with the V&H slip on, HD hi flow air filter, HD Pro Street tuner and had the shop tune it so it is still under warranty. It actually runs and sounds like a Harley now. If I could just put a narrower tank on it, I would be completely happy with it.

 

I might look into something of this nature in the future, but I have no idea what type of tank mounts would be involved. Maybe when they publish a real shop manual it will be a bit easier to come up with ideas. I doubt that aftermarket Sportster parts are going to be an easy fit either. That would also leave matching the denim gray paint and going to all that trouble for a brand new bike is fairly ridiculous. It would be easier to repaint the whole thing.

 

The FZ-07 is the closest competitor to the Street Rod. The FZ-07 is the class leader by far but the Street Rod is just fun to ride. There is more to making a fun bike than just performance numbers.