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(Above) The Low Rider Custom FXLR. (Below) The Low Rider Custom turned a 15.173 second. 87.21 mph run at the drag strip.
2987 Harley-Davidson Low Rider
Custom FXLR
"American the
beautiful"
By Chuck Clayton
Once you have made it to the pinnacle of
success that top-of-the-line Harley-Davidson
owners'hip announces to the world, you
have no real incentive to trade up anymore.
For generations an old Harley
was not much different from a
new one, except that the new
model marked you as im arri-
vis~e, newly rich. Well, that has all
changed wi th the arrival of the Evolution engine and the new spirit of
. h M'I "k
compe U't'
lOn 10 t e l wau ee h ea d quarters. Harley-D is one of the few,
if not the only company that is soleI
.
. . y
10. the motorcycle busmess (Caglva
might be anoth.er). Sure, H-P. also
makes bo~b c;aS1Ogs f~r the. military,.
but. I don t t~1Ok that IS a big P!1rt of
thelT production. Harley has a faIthful.
followmg, but every one ofthe faithful
already owns a Harley or two or three
How to get them to buy one morei
~ell, they don't have a FXLR Low
Rider Custom yet ... and maybe they
should.
Time was, when you bought a
Harley, you were buying a motorcycle
kit. All the pieces were there, but you
had to cut ~he~ out of their casting
flash and fill 10 the gaps and reassemble them. Then you probably had
to buy a store full of accessories to
make them work right. Not anymore.
~ew Hatleys roll of( the assembly
line ready f?r the road or cy<;le show
- stock. It Is.p!etty hard to Imp~ove
on thestyleor firnsh of the 1987Amencan
t
I
mo orcyc e . .
.
,
Take the subject of thiS week s test,
for example. What would I have to
spend to make my 1978 Harley 80incher as fine as the '87 FXLR? More
than the price of the new bike? Probably. That's what H-D Motor Co. is
counting on _ enticing the f,aithful
back into the market with new models as good as anyone could wish for,
at a price that acknowledges that life
is shon, and you might as well make
the most of it.
This Harley is arranged like a
beach cruiser bicycle. The handles
meet you halfway, and the low seat.
cups your buns like a soft spoon. The
