We are doing a ride out in the desert next weekend. Total distance is a little over 200 miles and no gas stations. We are packing saddle bag cans to get the bikes with smaller tanks home.

 

I'm with ya there. I dig that color since they have never had a white-ish RG that I can remember that wasn't a CVO. The blacked out parts with that paint makes it look killer IMO.

 

I am now even more happy that I bought my 2017 Breakout and didn't bother waiting.

 

I was planning on buying a new RG next spring. I'll check out the 18's in person at the HD museum rally party next week. If I like what I see then I'll go from there otherwise I'll find a leftover 17 to my liking

 

Based on what I saw yesterday morning when I woke up, I went out and bought a 2003 Dyna LowRider Anniversary Edition, yesterday afternoon.

One owner, 18K miles, bone stock cept for Stage1. Beautiful Silver/Black. I hope everyone that buys one of the new bikes is as excited as I am. Different strokes for different folks.

 

the dyna is a tried and true bike with a huge following, Harley messed up by discontinuing them

 

There are many other factors one can take into consideration, not just technology, performance or look.

I had a few BMW bikes (R1100RT+2 x K1200LT) and liked them. But after 15 years of BMW riding, I quit because:

- it is very hard not to ride fast with these bikes. I was close to lose my driving license many times. They seem to be designed for a 100mph cruising speed on highways.

- they can't have highway pegs, your legs stay still for hours, you can't alternate positions. I was used to stop only to take a walk because my knees were hurting. I won't ever buy a new bike that can't have highway pegs or at least a way to allow more freedom of move for my legs. (getting old...)

- regarding handling, BWM bikes have their center of gravity higher than V-twin touring bikes. I fell a few times while stopped because of gravel under my shoe, trying to resist to the fall just break your back and the bike fells anyway, you can just slow down the fall. It's also harder to put them back in the upright position.

- they also have quality problems like other brands. I got: clutch wearing out too fast, LCD display troubles, loss of right audio channel (twice, only one with warranty support), case locks that broke, windshield defaults, fairing pieces losing adjustment over time, fuel leaks because of aging plastic parts, etc. I would be surprised that they now have zero default. In July while taking a break in a gas station, I saw a guy on a R1200GS putting it in a truck because he had lost the front brake. I don't buy anymore the dream of the "Deutsche Qualität".

Most of this could be said about many bikes, not just BMW.

If you look for a bike with highway pegs, giving good fun to ride at reasonable speed, very easy to handle at slow speed, especially when slaloming in traffic jams, low v-twins are the way to go.

If you don't like honkasuyaki customs, then you are back to HD and Indian. If you don't trust Polaris, welcome back to HD...

 

Style is nice but I'll put performance over it any day of the week. I'm very curious to see how these new bikes ride. Especially the Fat Bob. I don't doubt they'll be an improvement but I want to see how much more performance they give.

 

Q.) After seeing the 2018 line-up, are you going to buy?

A.) No!

Quite often! Go west some time. You will not have a choice in the matter unless you stay strictly on the interstates . . . and even then it can get interesting from time to time.

 

I can't believe they made the tanks smaller on the Low Rider, Street Bob, and Fat Bob. BIG MISTAKE. The LED's on the Deluxe would've looked good on the new Fat Boy but it's a weird look on the Deluxe IMHO. None of the big bikes have mid-controls which sucks. The Fat Bob's exhaust completely prohibits the use of mid-controls and for the Dyna crew I think that would've been a good call.

I just found a fork seal leak on my 2013 Softail. With the prices of the 2018's going up I just can't ever see my buying another new Harley. Maybe I got a lemon but the 2018's really disappointed me.

I'm going to test ride an Indian.