Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes HD Lowrider second ride

The OL is unable to ride due to some temporary medical problems so, at her requst, I took her bike out for some exercise. I put about 70 miles on it and here are my impressions.
Handling:
Excelent low speed stability. There is no question, this bike is able to beat my America in a slow race with no problems. At normal street and freeway speeds, the handling is probably best described as 'majestic'.
Sound:
It *STILL* has the stock pipes on it. It has a reasonably pleasent (although faint) rumble like a blowtorch (a real one not the propane torches that some confuse with blowtorches) far off across the street someplace. When stopped, the fuel injectors make a mildly annoying tick. The belt drive has a slight humming sound that would "go away" with decent pipes.
Ride:
The combination of lots of weight and soft suspension make the ride near as comfortable as a '55 Packard 400. I don't know that I like a ride this 'cushy', but I have a lot of miles on hardtails, and I'm too old to change my ways.
Seating position and riding comfort:
The seat has an exaggerated hump at the back which is fine for the OL, but I'd rather not have that restriction. The handlebars are about right. The factory highway pegs are a slight stretch for me, unreachable for her. The normal pegs could be maybe 2 inches farther forward. At around 60 miles, my right leg started cramping on the outside. Another sore point (at least it could be) is that the rear cylinder head protrudes slightly on the right under the seat, just where the thigh goes when holding the bike up. Yes, it gets hot at a long redlight! The pipes protrude far enough out on the side that they should have put heat shields on them. Even being extra careful after the Piglet tried to shoot her leg off, the OL has managed to burn herself.
Vibration:
Below 2200 rpm's there is a very noticable shake. Above that, there is some buzzing in the handlebars and pegs, but not a lot. This might be a good thing, considering how much they charge to add a vibro-masage dingus in an easy chair.
Performance:
It does have a lot of torque, which is to be expected with 88 cubic inches. But then, the old John Deere 1 cylinder tractors also had a lot of torque. Keep in mind that this bike has less than 500 miles on it, so this could change, but as far as acceleration is concerned, it is hard pressed to match the America.
The stopping power is a (maybe I should leave out the 'a') little better than the mechanical drum brakes on my old Panhead. The Triumph stops better.
Appearance:
It does look good. The chrome is well done. The metalic candy red has a deep look. The cylinders are blacked out with the edges of the cooling fins polished to a chrome like finish.
Breaking the code:
F - Big twin
X - Sports (non-touring) series
D - Dynaglide
L - Lowrider
I - Fuel Injection

Nice write-up. I have friends with the Heritage-Softtail (?) series that love 'em and ride serious miles. Of course, like everyone else, I have friends (of various make) that IMO let their motorcycles gather too much dust.

What caused the spark plug to blow on the other bike? You're wife deserves credit, I might be a little jumpy if a spark plug shot out past my left ear!! In fact just hearing about that gets my attention.

The newer HD's are pretty much straight ahead freeway cruisers. The ones I've owned could be made to go and handle decently by stripping off all the unneeded weight and doing a lot of mechanical work. But now, a lot of the weight is in the rubber engine mounting system and the whole engine is under the spell of electromagical wizardry, which severely limits what can be done to bring it out of it's EPA induced coma.

As for the sparkplug, the base was still crimped, so it was most likely that the flange on the ceramic part failed. The ceramic is probably still where it landed in the desert maybe 1/2 mile or so west of the "YUMA 28 MILES" sign, I don't intend to go look for it. Fortunately, this was the right side plug (the bike has dual ignition) so the S&S air filter and the cooling fins took a good part of the impact. The edges of 2 of the fins were chipped and the chrome is seriously burnt on the air filter cover. When we got it, it had some junky japanese carburettor with a round filter. Had I not replaced it, this could have been a lot worse.

GB, I have looked at Harley's off and on for about ten years now. Stopped one day (about 1995) at a Big Dog dealer just to see what was on the floor. About choked when I saw the prices, at $21,995.00. So anyway, I BS's with the dealer(a real down to earth guy, even if the bike prices weren't) and told him I had been looking at the Suzuki Intruder's, and he told me I would be a lot better off buying a Dyna Low Rider cause of the resale.I think at the time a LR was about $12.9.So anyway I went on over to the local HDD and there was not a single new bike on the floor,but there was a DWG that pretty much fit my idea of what I wanted to ride.It was a 1994 if I remember correctly,but I about -hit when I saw the price tag was 2k over list for a new DWG. So I gets me a salesman over and asked him what the -uck is with the price on this used bike. I think he looked at me as if I were some kind of total idiot,cause he said that he was never gonna sell a bike at list,and used bikes were marked pretty much what the traffic would bare. That opened up my eye's as to what was going on in the Harley market. We got a rather large part of our biker society that is willing to pay just about any price to be a part of whatever they think it is, that they are going to be a part of. So while I look, and sometimes admire the HD motorcycle, I will never pay that entrance fee. And can you just imagine the talk when I pulled up to the HD store on Saturday morning dressed in a full face helmet. Al

I think for now the days are gone where H_D dealerships can get above MSRP for their bikes. With recent Harley sales not up to their own expectations, they can no longer add on mandantory overinflated accessories and still get people to buy. Just last month I was riding by the H-D store and I saw this bold day-glo sign painted on their front window announcing blowout prices on 2005 models. It was the kind of sign you'd see painted on the window at a Kia car dealer's showroom window. Really tacky and I was suprised to see it. Especially here in Tucson where there's only 1 Harley dealer with a reputation for selling new bikes at inflated prices. Times are changing, with Harley starting to feel the effects of the end of the baby boomer run that have netted them big profits over the last 10-15 years.

Sal,if you are correct, the used HD market bikes priced above new retail,will implode.

The thing is with the used HD market, for $2K over list price, you get a 2 - 5 year old bike with thousands worth of custom stuff on it. The bike has been to Sturgis, Laconia and Daytona, BUT it only has 500 miles on it.

tx 4 bk-ing th cde
I-I
N-never
W-would
H-have
G-gotten
I-it
W-without
Y-your help

mert

would you post some pics of piglet, the lowrider and your triumph?

mert

I'm working on it. Maybe this weekend I can line them all up out on the street to get some perspective shots. The America makes Piglet look small. Set it next to the Lowrider, and you will have a hard time guessing where the extra 100 pounds are or why the Triumph handles so much better.

I've had pretty much the same experience with HD dealers, including showing up with a full face for test rides...
I've ridden Dyna's and recenty a RKing Custom, ground the floorboards on every corner. No thanks.
My feelings re dynas pretty much same as you guys, nice bikes but real soft susp, torquey but no top end, and wayyyy overpriced compared to what Triumph gives you.