Harley-Davidson Demo Truck

Harleys waiting in a damp parking lot.

Blue Springs Harley-Davidson called me 5 times two weeks to let me know that they had the Demo truck coming. I guess they are needing to get some traffic in the show room since the bottom fell out of the market for expensive luxury items.

Demo fleets are one of the best things going in the motorcycle market. Read about Kawasaki’s demo truck and my reviews of the Ninja 1000 and KLR 650. A post about Triumph’s demo truck is coming soon.

In typical Missouri fashion, the weather was uncooperative. A string of rain poured in mid-morning threatening to stop the demo rides. The sun gave it’s all and dried out the route enough for the demos to continue. I assume that the rain was the main reason for the low turnout.

My goal for the day was to ride the XR1200X, a V-Rod and to see what the big deal is with the “big twin”. I was able to meet this goal in this exact order.

XR1200X

I’ve been enamored with the XR1200 since it was released. I owned a Sportster at the time and the XR fixed nearly all of my complaints (high weight being the last niggle). The extra X at the end specifies upgraded adjustable suspension.

The ergonomics of the bike are very comfortable erring on the side of relaxed vs. sporting. As I thumbed the starter button I was created with that familiar wobble that’s such a part of the narrow V-Twin. H-D would have been well served by adding some aftermarket pipes to this machine. While I’m not a proponent of the straight pipe noise pollution that is so common, I do like to hear some noise. Some manufacturers (Ducati and Triumph specifically) outfit their demo bikes with their factory blessed aftermarket exhausts. a clever sales tactic.

This is where the demo started to fall apart. Even getting started was met with a delay as one of the test riders was unable to get his bike underway without stalling the engine to dumping the clutch and spinning the back tire. This guy should have been taken aside, moved to the back, or simply denied the opportunity to ride. Instead they let him proceed to ride with the group of 12 or so riders. This was clearly a dangerous choice. Nick, who attended with me ended up behind Mr Can’t- Ride-Bike and was so annoyed that he didn’t want to continue riding the bikes.

The Route

Anyway … back to the XR.

Once underway I was glad the XR was comfortable since there was no threat of the ride being exciting. The chosen route was fairly straight and low speed. To make it even more boring, the escort riders kept the pace slow, somewhere between the speed limit and 5 below. This is in dramatic contrast to Ducati, Kawasaki and Triumph whose rides were paced between 5 and 15 MPH over the speed limit which is a much more realistic ride in my experience.

I was honestly surprised at how capable as a motorcycle the XR is. Compared to the ultra low Sportsters the XR is able to absorb bumps without bottoming out the suspension and sending the rest of the movement straight up your spine. Ground clearance is adequate enough to take turns at a reasonable speed and lean-angle. I might have really liked this bike had I the chance to push it a little.

The ultra slow pace made my next ride pointless. What’s the point of riding the “muscle bike” V-Rod if there’s no opportunity to flex the muscle? For this ride there wasn’t. At one point I was able to crack the throttle open a little but hen I caught right up with the guy on the touring model with the stereo cranked.

V-Rod, complete with folded clam ergonomics.

I abhor forward controls and this V-Rod was just another tick in the “hate forward controls” box. So much control is given away when forgoing the ability to use your legs. Even lifting of the seat to avoid a particularly harsh bump is an exercise in silliness.

The V-Rod is uncharacteristically smooth given it’s lineage, but smooth to a fault. The clutch and front brake are completely devoid of any usable feedback making every start and stop require more thought and attention than really needed.

As Sportster owners (or previous owners) know, most Harley fanatics assume that the smaller bike is just a stepping stone to a big twin. I had always discounted it as the bigger-is-better mentality but part of me thought there had to be some characteristic that made the large Harleys something special. The Softail Deluxe I was on sure wasn’t special.

The big twin.

Like the V-Rod, the clutch and front brake offered no response to your input, they completed their action but you didn’t know it by feel. Unlike the Sportsters, I never found the point where the engine smoothed out, it just got more and more shaky until felt like it was going to rattle to pieces which is the point I was shifting. I never got the sensation of massive torque or a relaxing lope that so many people talk about.

I did get the sensation of a clunky transmission that likes to stick between gears. I can forgive the occasional false neutral, but one that needed 3 attempts of clutch, kick, release was just unacceptable.

The last kicker, even at the slow pace with very gentle curves, I scraped the footboards 3 times. That’s pretty close to a dangerous situation of levering a wheel off the ground.

In retrospect, the slow pace and boring route were definitely needed. The low skill of many of the riders coupled with the limitations of some of the bikes could have made anything faster a really bad situation. These are big, heavy motorcycles that require some skills to be able to anticipate and correct any problems as the weight, momentum, and characteristics of the machine make the margin of error very small. Watching the other riders bobbing and wobbling around while trying to hold a line through a turn shows how lacking the current training, testing, and licensing practices are in turning out proficient riders.