It’s not that they were bad really, but compared to most of the other big V-twins that I’ve ridden I guess I expected more from what is a brand new and the most advanced big twin Harley has built. My primary bike is a 2006 Yamaha Warrior 1700. Also a big V-twin, of roughly the same displacement, and it feels so much…

You do if you want it from a low compression air cooled engine at 2,500 RPM. 

A V-twin acts like a V-twin regardless of the bike that it is in or how much that bike weighs. If I drop a liter bike engine in a softtail that doesn’t suddenly change the way that engine acts.

The weight of the bike and the power characteristics of the engine are not related. I never said the bikes were fast, or light, or handled well. What I did say is that with a big v-twin, and their general power characteristics, is that unlike peaky high RPM bikes that can claim huge horsepower figures, you generally…

They’ve expanded the Softtail line to cover everything that the Dyna did. Everything that was a Dyna is now on the new Softtail platform, Street Bob, Low Rider, Fat Bob, no Wide Glide or Switch Back yet though. 

I’m not going to go as far as to call a Harley fast, but big twins like this pull surprisingly hard, up to a point that is. 

First off, that’s just inexperience talking, I’ve gone back and fourth from high revving to low revving bikes and bounced off the limiter plenty enough, they aren’t hard to ride, they’re just different and it takes a hot second to get used to that.

That’s kinda the point though, big twins like this make all that power before bikes like your old Yamaha even start to wake up. You get all the power you’d ever need from idle until it’s time to shift. There is no waiting, there is no shifting, there is no wrong gear, you’re always in the power. 

With big twins like these it’s really all about power delivery. Yes that peak number is laughably low considering the displacement, but you basically get all of that power from 1500-4500 RPM in one of the flattest power curves a ICE engine can make.

Having ridden plenty of big V-twins the max HP number is always laughably low, but the beauty of a big twin is that power is available in basically any gear, at any rpm. Fun can be had in many forms. There are the high RPM high HP bikes where you either have to downshift or twist the throttle and wait for the fun to…

This is one I plan on riding the next time the HD demo truck comes through town. I’ve ridden several of the new Softtails with the 107 M8 and came away largely unimpressed. For a new big V-twin it just felt sluggish, slow, unresponsive, and it runs out of breath way too early. Hopefully the 114 improves on that a…

As a resident of the part time frozen tundra we counter that by just never turning it off. 

2nd gen Ram 2500 with the Cummins and a manual.

There was something seriously wrong with your bike. I’ve got an ‘82 750, with just a little pod filter on the crank vent and it does nothing more than get a slightly oily film after several seasons. 

massive 23-gallon gas tank, so filling it will definitely add up

just make sure to park it between the lines; and if it doesn’t fit, park somewhere else (this is mainly a city issue not a rural one.)

^This. My preferred style of truck will forever be extended cab short bed, but damn if a crew cab isn’t super fucking convenient. Plus living in a rural area a crew cab with a 6.5' bed isn’t a big inconvenience so why not go for the larger bed as well? 

True, there are some costs involved there, but I still suspect that they will still end up under the 25 cents per mile (plus the $1 fee spread across your distance) charge of the scooter.

Let me check my math.....

Arbys is here to help.