Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126525
Impression: Harle~·Davidson FLT Tour Glide Classic The American way to be "on the road again" By Jack Mangus Photos by Tom Mueller Americans, perhaps more than any other nationality, like to be "on the road again," to cop a line from the very popular song by the one and only Willie Nelson. For those of us who remember listening to Joe . way to be "on the road again" .. on a Harley. And when the folks in Louis's heavyweight title fights . Milwaukee talk about traveling, they on the radio, watching the likes talk about their 80 cubic inch Tour of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Glide. 28 Williams take their cuts, and cutting a ,coupon out of a magazine and mailing our quaner in for a year's subscription to Harley-Davidson's Enlhwiast, there'. but one red, white and blue Those of you who don't remember when radio was anything but a vehicle for carrying the electronic sounds of heavy metal groups. who think Joe DiMaggio is a coffee maker peddler and have never heard of Ted Williams, have never seen a copy of Harley's Enthusiast publication, and think Honda invented the motorcycle, probably look at the Tour Glide as something for old men and their fat old ladies. To many motorcyclists the Tour Glide is an enigma. And that. folks. means the Tour Glide is something that is hard or difficult to explain. And the Tour Glide is difficult to explain. A short ride won't provide an explanation. But after you've been "on the road again" with the Tour Glide the _ reasons for its being become evident. Today's generation of riders laugh at floorboards just as they laugh at music one can whistle or sing in a shower. They laugh at V-twins but seem content driving shoebox cars with sewing machine engines, They laugh (with bugs on their teeth) at fulldressed motorcycles while they travel on cafe-style bikes which produce backaches they never admit to having. They laugh at the thumping vibes of big twins and then pay to be pitched off mechanical bulls. They laugh... But the last laugh in most cases is on them. They're missing something. A big something. 80 cubic inches big. Not all of them miss it. They take a little bite sometime in their early motorcycling years and then down the road of life a piece they take a larger bite and then when they discover there is really nothing all that new. they eat the whole thing. They get a Harley. Why? Why is Willie Nelson's album of old standards~his biggest seller to date and why is his latest album another rundown of old standards? Perhaps there is no set answer and perhaps as artist Salvador Dali once said, "The esthetic is the greatest of earthly enigmas," Meaning: it's difficult to explain the beauty of a panicular thing, be it a work of art or - a Tour Glide. . No bike we've ever tested has drawn the attention of the average guy/gal on the street/road as did the Tour Glide. Truckers honk at you on the interstates. people press their noses up against car and restaurant windows to get a better look at it. and kids go bananas over it. The 1981 Tour Glide Classic draws all that attention not only because it's big, it draws it because it's different. Everyone has seen the continuing trend towards making all cars and bikes as nearly identical as possible, and the attention that the Tour Glide draws is a reassuring reminder that people do like things that are different. There was a day when a Ford didn't look like a Chevy and your neighbor had a Studebaker that didn't