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/126759
mph, the tachometer read only 3,400 ·rpm, indicating the lightly stressed nature of the big engine. You can pull away from 1,500 rpm in top without transmission snatch, and if you really want to it'll run up to 5,500 revs, though why on earth you'd want to in the gears with all that torque is beyond me. Maximum torque is at 3,600 rpm, and the engine is indeed happiest running at about 4,000, which represents just over 80 mph - or would, if you could read it on the stupid 80 mph speedo: try riding at 55 mph on the California freeways, and you'll find yourself gelling swamped by a phalanx of Peterbilts and Kenworths, not to mention li'l '01 ladies from Pasadena in their '63 Buicks. For the birds! The lockable fuel cap sits under a £lap on the top of the tank - lost opportunity here, for there's space for a liule pocket for highway maps, coins for freeway LOlls and so on if H-D cared LO install one: there's no room in the handlebar-mounted fairing. But two very neat touches are the installation of the oil tank, blending into the lines of the machine under the seat, and even more vital, the fully-sealed chain which runs in an oil bath and is apparently good for well over 10,000 miles, even with such a heavy bike. H-D ran an interesting test at Talladega earlier this year, using two bikes_ filled with the V2 engine, a Sport Glide FXRTandan FLTTourGlide. The former ran a total of 8:0"51 mires in just over 94 hours, with stops only for refueling, rider changes and manufacturers servicing (oil changes and the like). Average speed was 85.07 mph, and the bike required no repairs or servicing, averaging 1,500 miles per quart of oil. The Tour Glide averaged 85.22 mph for 8,052 miles (fast speedo?), and required only a headlight, wheel bearing seal and rear exhaust mount during the AMA-observed test. In spite of the hot conditions, both bikes apparently ran faultlessly, and both still had considerable wear left on their enclosed chains. Just as well, because replacing them must be a grade A bitch. H-D deserves recognition for their confidence in their new models and engine LO be prepared to expose them .t9 ~~c~ a rig;o!~s, publicly-observed test, thougn smce over 5,600 dyno hours and 750,000 miles of road testing were apparently invested in the development of the Evolution engine, maybe it wasn't such a gamble after all. One statistic they haven't published after the Talladega test, though, is the fuel consumption for the Tour Glide: H-D claims 55 mpg on the. highway, and 45 in town for the bike, but I never got better than 42 mpg on my two fill-ups of the five-gallon tank, running at an average 70 mph on the freeways one-up with my racing gear and camera equipment in the lockers. Still, by VJM standards that's preuy impressive for a 1,340C(;: engine, and again a tribute to the efficient combustion of the new engine. And finally - the brakes. Anyone not a member of the Hawg Herd who's ridden a Harley any time in the past 60 years will tell you that getting the bike to stop was a right pig. The move to disc brakes in the '70s seemed to make things worse, not better: wooden pads, Charles Atlas-course lever pressures, discs that glinered but did not grip, especially in the wet - all these made the other undoubted attractions of riding a Milwaukee bike something you'd be better 0[( doing far away from any potential road obstacle or other traHic. Persistent criticism finally resulted in the new brakes which first appeared on the XRlOOO earlier this year, have been used successfully on Jay Spring-· steen's Battle of the Twins road racer, and are now fiued to the other road models including the Tour Glide. What else to say except that they're excellent, especially when you remember that I,OOO-pound all-up weight with only one rider and a bit of luggage. The bade disc works particularly well, with lots of feel and progressive response which makes coming to a standstill in traffic and keeping your balance on the bulky beast a breeze. The front stoppers are strangely not quite so sensitive, but they still wor.k perfectly well. and are light years ahead of the previous things: well done, Harley. Gliding along the highways of southern California on this unexpectedly good motorcycle caused me to reflect that maybe Reagan's controversial tax on (eHectively) Japanese bikes over 700cc might have been a good thing after all. With only 950 workers at their York, Pennsylvania, assembly plant producing 32,000 motorcycles (compared LO 50,000 a few years ago), Harley has become a low-volume, high-quality manufacturer, and as such an easy prey for predatory pricing and model introduction policies by the Japanese companies desperate to halt their failing sales graphs any way they can. After all, what H-D has persuaded the V.S. government to do is a great deal less protectionist than the policies adopted by the Japanese authori- ties In making it as hard as possible to sell foreign bikes in their country: the only diHerence is in the two countries' respecti ve policies toward free trade over the years. Maybe if a similar tariH barrier had been erected in Britain some years ago, the British might still have a motorcycle industry worthy of the name. H-D's considerable design improvements, as evidenced by the V2 Evolu- tion engine, pi us their ef(ective adoption of computer-aided techniques in design and manufacture, as well as the streamlining of their· assembly process, persuaded Reagan that the company was worth going out on a limb for. If the new FLHT Electra Glide is an indication of the fruits to come from such protection, it will have been justified. That's my opinion, anyway. • Specifications Engine Type V-twin. OHV four-stroke. Displacement ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1340cc. Bore x stroke .. _ 88.8 X 108mm. Compression ratio 8.5:1. Starting system Electric. Ignition system , Electronic. Transmission Constant mesh. 5-speed. Carburetor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38mm. Frame Type Front tire Rear tire Tubular. MT90 x 16 T. MT90 x 16T. Dimensions Wheelbase 62.94 in. Seat height 28 in. Dry weight (claimed) 712 Ibs. Fuel capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5 gal. Oil capacity 4 qts. Suggested retail price $8799 !l -