Very nice! That Sharkskin blue color was my other preferred choice, but it was not offered in 2023, so wasn't an option for me if I wanted the in-stock 2023 discount!

Jim G

 

Congratulations on the RG3 Jim. I bought one in January. after riding on two wheels for 54 years and being 75 years old. I now have 6,000 miles on her and love it. I still have three two wheelers but ride the RG3 most of the time

 

So @JimGnitecki , I take it the Breakout is in your stable no longer?

Looks like a good ride for you, or you two.
Enjoy it!

 

Correct. The breakout is still technically "within my stable (garage)", but only because the Rinehart mufflers for the Road Glide 3 trike have not yet arrived at the HD dealership, so I have not yet ridden the Breakout to the dealer (175 km each way), but will do so after the mufflers are delievred and installed. It would have been impossible for me to buy the RG3 without the Breakout trade - simply too high a monthly payment if we did not want to disturb our savings,

Yes, my wife has already indicated a willingness to, and actually excitement about, riding the trike as a passenger. She could see how excited I was about the trike after my test ride, and basically insisted that I make the trade! Love it when the wife is 100% on board.

Jim G

 

The dealership finished installing the Rinehart mufflers and Heavy Breather Extreme air cleaner, and I was able to pick up the new RG3 today, ring the "Another Harley sold" bell, and ride it home (a 173 km = 107 mile trip).

Here's a photo of "the chariot" in my garage:



The photo illustrates a problem with taking photos of a trike versus a 2-wheeler, when you need to do the photo from a short distance: The chariot is wide enough that the iPhone camera lens exaggerates the apparent size of the rear wheel which is near the lens, and reduces the apparent size of the rest of the chariot (including the front wheel which is only about 27" further away than the near-side rear wheel! Talk about "big wheel"!

The ride home was exciting. I had a straight exactly full head wind, that was ranging from 28 kph to 41 kph = 17 to 25.4 mph, the whole 175 kkm from the dealership to home! When I stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way home. the wind was trying to blow my gloves, the napkins, and even the drink off the outdoor table!The RG3 sharknose fairing kept the wind off ME, and the 114 engine handled the extra wind resistance with no sweat. But, the wind naturally affected fuel consumption noticeably. Plus, I was breaking in a brand new engine, which requires frequent acceleration with moderate throttle, then dropping speed with a closed throttle, then repeat, never exceeding the 100 kph = 62 mph speed limit or about 3000 rpm despite the acceleration.

So, the fuel mileage was not good for this first ride:

I had put on 47 km on the chariot during my test ride 8 days ago. but I guess the fuel tank was refilled for delivery to me by the dealership, because the gas gauge said "full" when I picked it up, and the odometer still said 47 km. The chariot used 11.44 liters to cover 173 km, which calculates to 6.61 L / 100km = 35.6 mi / US gal.

After the fuel fill, the "Range" displayed as 364 km = 226 miles. Using that projected range, the implication is that the actual fuel mileage during at least some unknown portion of the most recent miles was 6.26 L/100km = 37.6 mpg.

Now in fairness, I had the dealership install the Rinehart mufflers and the SE Heavy Breather Extreme air cleaner (the humongous air cleaner that is much larger than the Heavy breather air cleaner - just look at the photo above!), and those 2 physical changes require a Stage 1 tune from the HD SE Bluetooth tuner. I had bought the tuner, but told the shop I wanted to do myself at home the tune install, and its optimization (via Smart Tune), since I did my own on the Breakout 117 that I traded in, and via very careful filling in of the acceleration bursts rpm versus throttle opening table, had gotten REALLY good results on throttle response, fuel mileage, and even power. So, the OEM tune for the trip home, coupled with the wind issues, and my constant break-in activities, was certainly not helpful. I expect all 3 things (throttle response, fuel mileage, and power) will likely improve notably after I get the tune installed AND have finished the break-in period (You cannot properly fill in the Smart Tune's rpm versus throttle opening tune table during a break-in).

So far, I am impressed. I don't get what all the comments about really harsh rear suspension are. On this first 173 km ride, I would described the raer suspension as unimpressive but NOT harsh, at least on my RG3 model and its low profile / large wheel configuration. The engine torque seems very adequate, although the sloppy throttle response degrades its efefctiveness, but the Stage 1 tune will likely make a big improvement in that throttle response. I must have gooten used to the 3-wheel tracking issue because although I noticed it during the test ride 8 days ago, today the chariot seemed to track just fine, and the 173 km covered several pavement and concrete variants.

I love not having to put my feet down. The electric reverse is a joy to use. The "button" fuel cap was very hard for me to open the FIRST time - Isuspect that whoever fileld the tank at the dealership pushed it down a bit too hard and jammed it. After I got it to finally work after a few tries, and a bit of manual help to get it started, it worked flawlessly multiple times in repeat testing while still at the gas pump. The mirror positioning happens to be PERFECT for me - I can see vehicles coming up behind me VERY nicely. The BOOM full color display is fabulously bright, outperforming my iPhone 15. I do iss the digital speedometer on the Breakout. It was tiny comapred to the analog monster on the chariot, but I could both see it and read it much more quickly than the one on the chariot. However, the chariot has the edge because I can display and see, all simultaneously, the speedometer, the tachometer, the fuel gauge, the voltage, the current gear plus one chocie from several on the rollable LED digital display in the bottom of the speedometer. The Breakout had required me to scroll everything except the speedometer. But the Breakout DID as a result have a very clean cockpit and I could easily imagine I could be flying through the air! However, the sharknose fairing sure was helpful to have in today's headwind!

Overall my first day, and first long ride, on the chariot impressed me a LOT. THIS is going to be fun!

Jim G

 

So glad you pointed out my experience is not everyone’s. Didn’t know that. From now on I’ll just fart puppies and rainbows pretending all is just swell.

 

When people's experiences with a product VARY a lot, there is always a reason. Sometimes the design is weak in some areas and you see intermittent component failures. Sometimes the product assembly does not have uniform enough quality (e..g italian cars ). Sometimes it's the skillsets and customer service varying at the dealership level - some are good and some not so good. Sometimes its the buyer, buying the wrong product for his/her actual needs, wants, and/or capabilities.

You need to figure out which of the above is/are causing your ongoing bad experience. Until you do that, you are not going to be happy.

Jim G

 

Jim G,

Bike looks great but all that kph and km talk is making this old guy dizzy LOL

Mike

 

Yeah, Canada went fully metric decades ago. The US is about the last 1st world country that has resisted for decades and now it is too late to make the huge changeover. Knowing thta most of the forum members are in The u.S. (because the U.S. has TEN times the population), I always try to include BOTH metric and SAE units to reduce the confusion a bit. But wait until I do my tire pressure versus tire temperature testing. There the metric units display as 6.88 times the psi units. It takes 6.88 kilopascal ( kPa)s to make 1 psi. So 26 psi is 179 Kpa and 20 psi = 138 Kpa. THAT gets truly confusing.

Jim G

 

Congrats Jim ... What a beautiful piece of equipment that is. I like your comparable too. I always use the BMW comparable The Freewheeler is the Z4 Roadster, RG3 is the M Series Coupe and the Tri Glide is the Luxury Sedan.

After a lifetime on 2 wheels, I have the 2017 Freewheeler now and it's just a ton of fun. I Love your new ride!