I love my custom.

 

I bought my Custom just for the same reasons most have posted. For the money you cant beat it. The extra chrome is worth it. I rode a Street Glide the other day. I still felt wind in my face (a little) so guess what. I am keeping my Super Glide.

 

I have an 07 Superglide Custom with 39,000 miles on her, so I guess you could say I love mine.

But, is this going to be your first bike?

If so, you may find some benefit in starting on a Sportster. A Sportster is very maneuverable and nimble and really puts you in touch with your riding.

Don't buy into any of the crap about a Sportster being a chick bike or a starter bike, but it is a great bike to learn on.

Harley is running their "We ride free" promotion now. If you buy a Sportster you get full price on the trade if you bring it back in the next year. It may be a way for you to buy one, ride it for 6 months and then turn it back in once you know what you are looking for in a bike.

 

I had an 883L for about 8 months and then traded in at MSRP during their program this past winter to purchase the Custom. Love the Custom. By the way, red Customs are the fastest of them all.

Glad to hear you are taking the rider's course.

 

06 Superglide!!!!!!!!...love it

 

I bought a 08 sportster custom a year ago this month after 44 years of riding metric bikes. The sportster is a nice bike. Very easy to ride. Fairly light for a 1200cc cruiser. Very harsh ride on rough roads though and feels overloaded when two-up. After riding a FXD in Feb. I took advantage of Harleys trade program and purchased a FXDC. Its like a sportster on steroids. Much better ride. Two-up is no problem and although it weighs more, about 80 or so pounds, it doesn't feel like it. Just as easy to ride as the sportser and with the extra cc's can cruise at 75 MPH with less apparent effort. The sportster can do it but it seems to work harder.

If you like chrome then the custom is a better deal then the FXD. By the time you purchase all the chrome parts you will pay more then just buying the FXDC. You will have to add rear pegs to the FXD if you want to go two-up but since you will probably want to buy a new seat for the FXDC anyway the fact that the FXD only has a solo is not an issue. I don't like forward controls and just put on forward pegs to stretch out and you can even still use the rear brake while on the forward pegs.

If you can afford the extra money I'd go for a dyna. Although you can trade for a dyna later if you buy a sportster you will lose shipping and set-up charges which can be $500 or more. Enough to pay for a new seat and some SE slip-ons (on Ebay) for the dyna.

 

I just picked up an 07 FXDC trading in my V Star 1300. Love the bike. While searching, I always came back to the Dyna line. Not a big fan of the denim paints, wanted 2 up and tank mounted speedo. Narrowed it down to a Low Rider and a Custom. Custom won in the end because it had everything I wanted at the right price.

It is funny, coming off metrics, to hear people talk about the stock seat. The stock seat on my custom is nice and comfy. The metrics I owned had the worst seats out there I think.

 

Luv the FXDC it has a lower center of gravity and what you can do with it is endless!

 

i had a sportster for several years prior to the dyna (and other bikes prior to the sporty), and i will tell you this one important handling difference i found switching between the harleys.

at very low speeds, the narrow bars on the sporty make it easier to handle. its a farther reach on the dyna when say moving the bike around in the driveway, or pulling out of a parking spot in a tight area. it took a little getting used to, and wasnt as easy to do on the sportster.

i am fine with it now, and will never give up my dyna cause i love it that much, but its somehting to think about if this is your first bike.

 

fxdc is a sportster on steroids.