I currently own a softail standard and while it has the balanced motor I don't believe that the performance difference is very noticeable. The difference of the vibration at idle is significant when comparing to a couple of rentals I've tried out, a 2006 Road King and 2008 Road Glide. However, just recently I test road a couple of 2009's, a Street Glide and Bob, these new unbalanced bikes were much smoother than their predecessors.

 

You've got a sweet Sporty but I seriously don't think you'll regret moving to the Train....I'd make the move if I were you...Good luck!

 

I test road an '06 Street Glide with only 4k miles on it this weekend at a stealership near my house. Was a nice bike but it vibrated at idle more than my Sportster. Was actually kind of disturbing to me that such an expensive bike would vibrate so much. It was 100% stock so maybe doing a remap and pipes would smooth it out a little. Once it got going it was like floating on air but I didnt care for that shake. I will give it a thumbs up for the amount of torque it delivered. I noticed that immediately. Needless to say, I decided to purchase a Deluxe instead :-)

 

Anyone know why they have two different motors? Doesn't make sense to me. Why offer a rubber mounted non-balanced and a solid mount balanced motor?

 

Just buy a Street Bob and quite worrying about the counterbalancer.

 

The way I understand it is, to get the Softail look they didn't want to leave enough room for the rubber engine mounts. They decided the best look was to keep the frame as close to the engine as possible. This meant hard attaching it to the frame. They came out with the B engines, so the ride wouldn't be overly harsh, since there wouldn't be any rubber mounts.
I consider it a plus that various parts of the bike aren't shaking themselves loose and falling off. It is also nice to be able to see what is behind you in your mirrors when you are at a stop or moving slowly.

Tom

 

I've had bikes with both motors and there's no performance difference that you can tell in the seat of your pants...get the bike that feels right for you, and don't worry about it...