as they say...its all in the eye of the beholder, personally i think they look cool though they are not my cup of tea...my crush has fallen on the crossbones personally. Though I am a proud owner of a new Heritage Classic (need the comfy 2 up) I really wish i had the extra cash to be able to get the Crossbones as my person 1 up bike.

 

I had an 100th Anniversary Fat Boy fitted with a Mustang seat as comfortable as a catchers mitt and was toying with the idea of buying a new 08 Fat Boy to replace it. My buddy Pete told me I ought to check out the local paper before I dropped a load at the HD dealer. I took his advice and ran across a Rocker C for a great price.

Driven by morbid curiousity, I went for a look see. Smitten was I, when he rolled it out into the sun. The test ride was like trying to hang on to a motorized log.

But....the bones were there and I'm working on it. I gutted the plastic "glove compartment" in the seat, replaced it with some medium density foam and it rides 100% better. On to lowering it to get rid of the dreaded "gap" and other changes I'm sure. Bike is well balanced and handles like a dream.

Guess you gotta ride it to understand. Nothin against anything else on the road but I'd do it all over again.... yep...all over again

 

Didn't do much for me, but that's just me.

 

Yeah I sort of fell in love with the Rocker when I first seen it. At the time I had a V-Rod (which is such a great bike). A group of us from Oregon were on a 10 day ride, ended up passing thru Carson City NV dealer and they had a few Rockers on the floor. The sunglo red is beautiful. I just had to have one, or so I thought.

Well earlier this year in Reno at Street Vibrations, I got to test ride 5 different bikes, one was the Rocker. I was really disapointed in the handling and the acceleration of the stock bike. Maybe I was just used to all that power of the V-Rod.

But then I also rode the CVO Fat Bob and a standard Fat Bob. Oh man, talk about a great handling bike, almost as good as my V, but not quite the acceleration. he he he.

From that point on, I knew my next bike would be the Fat Bob. Well it finally happened a few days ago. I no longer have the V-Rod but I do have a new Fat Bob.

I don't want to bash the Rocker, I know there are a lot of them out there, but my biggest disapointments were the handling, acceleration and comfort. Funny thing about the acceleration, I know it has the same engine as the Fat Bob but for some reason it just didn't seem as powerful. Both bikes I rode during the test rides (Rocker and standard Fat Bob) were stock. So I don't know why such a difference in acceleration.

I also rode a Street Glide (another nice bike).

 

One word Fugly, Second uglyiest bike next to the god aweful v-rod. Just my opinion don't get all sensative,touchy feely types. We'll see in the next few years when guys are moding them heavy maybe I'll change,but not about the v-rod. God that things worse than a 90 year old prostitute.

 

I almost traded my WideGlide for one and then just decided I'd be better off with the Glide.

 

From 20 feet I liked the look the closer I got the less I liked it the harder I looked I really did'nt like it. Looks like strictly a bar hopper to me but I'm sure there a people out there that love it.

 

Other then the seat is pretty bad stock it was really comfortable to me. But then, I ride a bike that is basically a crotch rocket without the plastic and real handle bars. I could get my boots between the controls and stretch my legs out, which was nice and the bars were just a tad short of perfect for me (I have REALLY long arms). What suprised me was that harley managed to get a bike that has that big *** back tire and STILL turns decently. The that guy I did the demo with asked me if I wanted to open it up a bit I got wring it out a bit. It was much better ridden in anger then I thought it would be. Bravo for that I suppose.

I was pretty fond of it till I saw the price tag for a "c" it was cool but not 20 grand cool. Really I'd rather have a softail standard with a 6 speed and the 96. But yeah, thats just me.

 

Greetings,

And it's thoughts like this that have Harley in such bad financial shape. They need the younger crowd. They need people under the age of 35 to buy stuff. That crowd doesn't want a bike that essentially hasn't changed in years. What do younger people like? Sportbikes and custom-looking bikes. As far as riding them on long trips, I did put the regular Rocker seat on mine, which gets rid of the hideous gap and is a lot softer. So, long rides aren't an issue at all.

 

Well, less of that in my opinion. It's just pricing. Like I said, I REALLY liked the Rocker, but I don't think the base looks right in any color but denim black and the C's pricing is friggin rediculous. The Sportster and Dyna lines are slowely rejoining the realm of reason, but the higher shelf softails and touring lines are just goofy, it's A LOT of money, for what? tradition? All the social baggage that comes along with it? (see all the biker enough threads on this site) It's not performance, untill recently the metrics, and damned near all of them had more power, were lighter and had better breaks, for half the jingle. Harely has made pretty good advances there, I applude them for that. Likewise I LOVED the V-Rod...till I rented one. Good greif, who decided that was an acceptable riding possition.

Harley is losing market share for this reason.

Look at the XR1200 sure there are some rattles about it, and many possitive ( I like it). But its direct competitors are bikes like the Ducati reto Sports and BWM GSs lines that do EVERYTHING better. Buell to a lesser extent has the same issue. Again, they are making progress by finally going to rotax motor, but the 1125 are direct competiors for bikes like my Speed Triple, Super Duke, and the new Streetfighters by Ducati. The S3 is an old line and VERY well sorted, and the Streetfight is a 367lb 155hp L-twin fire-breathing-knuckle-dragging-snot-blowing beast of a naked. NO ONE does performace twins like Ducati, their 1200 (1198) twin is putting out 170hp/90ft/lbs and their 1100 has been known to get 150hp to the WHEEL with mild modifications.

So for me, I've sort of wanted to take a wrench to another softail (my last one was a for about a decade. But I'm NOT willing to pay over $15,000 for a mechanical experiment, and I couldn't have one for an only bike. I love the way they look, but (like I said for me) spirited riding is the purest expression of the sport, be it at the track, or out in the funnies. Unfortunately, that is also where my naked metrics get me into trouble. If I want a bike that is 100% mine and is completely-unmistakably mine. Well, that requires a Harley, or at least a machine along those lines. I thought about building a Triumph parallel twin, but no, not the right attitude. Since I don't have access to the tools to make a ground up at the moment, I'm back to a factory bike. I want a bike that I don't cramp on the highway on there are really only two options to me Triumph Rocket IIIs or a Harely. The Rocket has it's up points as well, the 144hp/141ft/lb STOCK 2300cc motor being one of them. But its not what I want, I think it's time for another Harley.