I was pulling out of a gas station on my UC, turning onto the highway, and a car jumped out in front of me causing me to jam on the brakes. The fork twisted to lock and overcenter went the bike. I struggled to hold it up but with the wife on the back, the bike ended up going down on the crash bar, wife is yelling I told you it was to heavy for me, as I am struggling to pick it back up. I have MD and torn my rotator cuff in both shoulders. Luckily a friend helped me get the bike up and we continued on the ride. I have always been extremely careful when stopping, fearing feet slipping on gravel, etc. I am going to purchase the video and hopefully never repeat this scenerio. I am glad that I am not alone with this. I love the bike and the great ride. I would hate to have to give it up prematurely.

 

dont let that discourage you from the ultra i also went from a sporty 1200c to an ultra and would not go back and 15 miles is not a long enough ride to see what that bike can do for you, i use mine for back and forth to work everyday that i can, the tour pack is great for carrying lunch, more clothes for cold nights, the radio is nice for country rides when you need to relax. also the lower fairings keep your feet dry when it rains(unexpectedly) nothing worse than going into work with wet feet. the air ride will be a blessing on a long ride, way better than the sportster, when i had my sportster i never had room for anything like rain gear, lunch box, etc. if you can afford the ultra and you can deal with the 5th gear whine i say go for it, the only thing i dont like about the touring bikes road king included is the 5th gear noise even with the ids installed i hear it.

 

One of the first things I do in class is demonstrate the proper and safe method to step off and away from a falling motorcycle. Then I show how easy it is to pick it up off the ground. I lay down some foam absorbing pads, straddle the bike, lean it over, then drop it on the crashbars. As the bike is toppling over, I step off, and away from the bike as I can. You DO NOT want to get trapped under it. If you ride with a passanger, they too can practice with you. Find a nice soft grassy area, and lay the bike down. Make sure you both have ALL your gear on, including boots.

That bike is NOT too heavy for you. You just need to practice some.

 

Don't forget the MSF teaches an Experienced Rider Course where you use your own bike for slow-speed manuevers, cornering/braking, tight U-turns etc.

If you have not been, I would suggest that you go. You will learn how to do the slow speed stuff.

When you put the foot down on the sporty, it told me that you may need some more practice with friction zone clutch operation with the throttle. On a sporty, proper throttle and clutch application using the friction zone will make the bike stand up instead of falling over.

Please don't take this as a criticism, don't want to see any bros/sisters hurt and getting some learnin' in once in a while can only help...

 

+2

The only thing I can add is counter balance that big devil. I can do figure 8's in the small box on mine but the one time I tried a U-Turn on a gravel road and grabbed that front break and it went down quicker'n a sack of potatoes. And I couldn't get it back up as I was freaked out. BryanTTM helped me after I took a bag off the tourpak rack and then unloaded the tourpak (probably 50-60 lbs of crap).

 

After some 3,5months of owning my first bagger,06SG, I have to say that I´m quite surprised how easily I can manage that weight.I still look carefully where I`m parking though , making sure not having to back it to uphill or having to back it to tight corners or parkingon sand etc.Being around 5'9", 175lbs I ain´t the strongest guy on the block and my back can´t handle much weight(or riding a rigid...).

I was first intimidated of the SG´s weight whilemoving that sucker first times on my garage, but just have to get this thing moving say like 5mph and it´s surprisingly easy to ride. U-turns were ok for me(having been used to riding my pan chopper, +18" forks and suicide/jockey shift might have helped a little), but when slowing down totraffic lights etc, I have to be careful ´cause for some reason that last seconds before complete stop have proven to be a bit difficult for me,Not sure why. Might beif I don´t have enough arm strength to keep the bike steady if it starts to tip on its side while braking. Also if I´m pushing that SG on my garage I always sit on the saddle, walking besides it and pushing are a sure way to get it on its side(walking on the left side I have couple of times almost tipped it to its right side.). Its a bit top heavy even w/o Tour Pak.

Haven´t dropped her yet, but it could happen anytime and knowing the weigth of this thing I´m not surprised to see these posts here.Yeah, hurts your pride, but it´s good that these things arebeen discussed, maybe we all can learn something.

BTW. dropped my Buell once, sitting on its saddle andwiping the gas tank and cauges after washing her. Of course I automaticly got the jiffy stand up(like going to ride it)but forgot that when I got of the saddle...Bang, down it went. What do you do first? Check and make damn sure nobody saw you and kill every possible witnesses....HAH! Only things hurt were my pride and clutch lever.After that told my friends what happened and laughed my *** off for that first reaction: looking around to make sure nobody saw you dropping your bike...My friend actually said when I was telling the story that"first you checked nobody saw you,right?"even beforeIgot to that part...He has been there and done that too...

 

The "front brake" will take you down.. When coming up to the stop, don't forget your rear brake....

 

I have owned a BMW K1200LT, an 1800 Goldwing and now two Ultras in succession. Of the three different models, the Harley is the easiest to balance and handle. The BMW (a '99 model) was plain scary at parking lot speeds. If you see a K1200LT BMW parked near you, feel the edges of the black tip over protection pads on the lower fairing:they will almost always be scuffed up from being laid over. Those things are tall and TOP HEAVY!