OK, all my experience with Harleys has been with riding their touring bikes - Road King, Electra Glides, Street Glides. So I got the hankering to try something different and I thought why not a Dyna Glide? I gotsta be honest here, I love the look of the new 09 Street Bob, but I'll never buy anything unless I can try it first. So, off to rent one!
The closest thing to a Street Bob that is available for renting is the Dyna Glide Low Rider. The specs are basically identical, the differences are cosmetic and the ape hanger on the Bob. Ok then!
Picked up the Low Rider from Route 66 in Marina Del Rey. Nice thing about that shop is that all their bikes are in great shape and current model year. "Mine" was a 105th anniversary edition model, in copper/black 2 tone. Nowhere near my favourite colour choice but what can ya do? Funny part is that me and my g/f showed up in full 2 piece leather suits, full face helmets, gloves with armour and Sidi boots. Compared to everyone else's t-shirt, jeans/shorts and beanie helmets we kinda stood out. Still I figured the road is just as hard to someone on a Harley as on a sport bike...
Bike came with a detachable shield - and I wish I detached it. The bike fired up instantly with a surprisingly loud bark considering that the pipes were stock. Riding off I was surprised by several things. One, the clutch was super light and easy to use. My Ducs' clutches are much heavier. Secondly, I was expecting the vibes to quit just off idle but it seemed that the motor only smoothed out once I had over 3500 rpms on the tach. Kinda disappointing as this meant that I was riding around town in only 2nd and third gears. Out on PCH where speeds hit 65 mph (whoop-de-doo it was a heavy beach traffic day!) I maybe was in 4th gear. This thing has a 6 speed box and I can't imagine using 6th as this is not a high speed bike.
It took a while to get used to the kicked out forks (compared to a Duc) and turning it took a bit of effort. But this is just an acquaintance issue, once I put a few miles on it it felt fine. The suspension was quite underdamped. Hitting divots/bumps/what have you at moderate speeds would have the bike wallowing as if it was a Buick with shot springs. After about 25 minutes my g/f asked if we could pull over as the vibes and bumps just were getting to her. I also was getting a headache from the buffeting from the shield and could do with the breather. At that point I decided to turn the bike around after the stop and go back to the shop and have them remove the shield.
Crazy thing, with out the shield the bike was transformed. I don't quite understand this but the ride became much smoother, the bike seemed to vibrate less, it was much nicer to not have to look through that thing, it turned better as there was less weight on the handlebars plus it looked so much better!
Now we headed south to Palos Verdes peninsula to a little cafe where they serve great lunches. Stuff like homemade meatball sandwiches on foccacio bread with salad and balsalmic dressing all in one! We also had a grilled chicken breast salad with fresh mango and sesame seed dressing. But I digress!...
Cruising down there through the beach communities of Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo beach the bike was transformed. Not sure if the shield caused some harmonic but without it it seemed to either wallow less or maybe I was just riding it less like a Duc!, the gear box almost snicked between gears (much better than the similarly engined Street Glide - maybe the gear shift levers have something to do with that), the vibes were much less intrusive and we were having a great time. As we were on surface streets in traffic, the fastest I went was about 60mph. Of course the bike could have gone much faster, there was just too much beach traffic to do that. Of course now I was soaking up all the wind, but I really did not mind it at all. It felt part of the experience. I'm sure 80mph on the freeway would have had more interesting results but that would have to wait for another time.
I was bummed out when I finally returned the bike. There were some things that I would like to change. My butt got antsy after about 30 minutes as the seat seemed to kill any blood flow. So that's something. The brakes felt a bit weak so maybe a pad change etc would help. It wasn't helped by the rear brake where it seemed the lever needed to be rotated up a bit so I could get proper leverage on it to use it. I'd change out the shocks for some Progressive units, that would really help it out. About $400 right there.
Yeah, I dug the bike after a rocky introduction. At the end I liked it a lot more than Harley's tourers. The lighter weight just gave it much more zip, it was much easier to handle at slow speeds and it was just more fun. Hmmm, I'm gonna have to check out the red denim Street Bob when that finally shows up!
2 pics below. One of the g/f on the bike on Kanan in the Santa Monica mountains. This was when we still had the shield on it. The other is at Redondo Beach w/o the shield and us much happier!
Peace out party people.
