Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

i!DD3 Harley-Davidson FL!iTCII Heritage !ioftail Classic The TwIn Cam 888 motor is equipped with countertlalancers to quell the vibes and make those long 300-mile days relaxing, not taxing. UST PRICE ..........................••••................$16,965/17,870 DISPLACEMENT ....•..•.•••.....................................1450cc ENGINE TYPE ............................•..•....Air-cooled, pushrod V-twin BORE x STROKE 95.25 x 101.6mm COMPRESSION RATIO '" '.' 8.9:1 CARB(JRETION .40mm CV/Electronic Sequential Port F1 IGNITION Electronic TRANSMISSION Five-speed STARTING SYSTEM ...••••......................................Electric F(JEL CAPACITY .5.0 gtll. WHEELBASE .....................•••...........................64.5 in. RAKEITRAlL .........................•.••••.•............ .32°/147.2mm SEAT HEIGHT ..............•..••••••..........•................25.4 in. FRONT TIRE MT90B-16 REAR TIRE MT90B-16 FRONT·WHEEL TRAVEL ......•....•••••...........................5.1 in. REAR-WHEEL TRAVEL .......•.•.•••.••.•....................... .4.34 in. FRONT BRAKE ...............••.••••••............................Disc REAR BRAKE ...............•..•••.•••••..........................Disc FINAL DRIVE Belt CLAIMED DRY WEIGHT .....................•...•••••••.•••• _ 699 Ibs. you'll notice the vibration thing actually that there isn't any. Unlike the old Evo Heritage Softail, the Twin Cam 88B's counterbalancers Virtually eliminate any unwanted shake, making for one smooth ride that allows you to peer into the cleverly curved mirrors and not be greeted by images of electrocution. Venture much beyond 70 mph, though, and the secondary vibration of the counterbalancers begins to creep into the bars and pegs, the cumulative effect of which will diminish your enjoyment over the long haul. If you're willing to take it back below 70 and enjoy life, you should be able to do so for the duration between gas stops. Arched into the comfortably curved saddle, feet resting neatly on the floorboards and the touring-style setback bars firmly in hand, it's a nice ride. The Classic is so cushy that it's almost as though it becomes an extension of the rider. Tucked in behind the quickly detachable windscreen (yeah, we know our photos don't show the screen; that's 'why they call it detachable), you'll be very well protected from the elements. Rolling down the highway, the Classic's telescopic fork and tucked,in Softail rear suspension do an ade'quate job of filtering out the bumps. Harleys have a history of being just a 'tad undersprung. Why mess with trao dition? Venture into curvy terrain on the Classic, and you'd best mind your step. It's not that the bike doesn't handle well. It's great, for a cruiser, but the engine is ahead of the rest of • the package when it comes to negotiating twists and turns up-tempo. You'll notice a tendency of the Classic's 16-inch front Dunlop to feel vague when hustled into a corner. The weight bias simply doesn't tilt far enough toward the front to offer generous front-end feedback. On the other hand, it will be conceded that this same situation contributes to a fairly light effort when turning the bike at slower speeds, again keeping in mind that we're talking about cruisers and not 600cc Supersport machines here. Oh yes, aboard the Classic the term "ground clearance" is best used to describe the amount of earth or other road material that you are displacing as you drag the floorboards any time you lean the bike somewhere just past straight up and down. I believe the sound is something like SCWUPI Read our Another View box to find out where I got that one. Also much better than Classics of decades past are the front and rear brakes. It's not too much of a stretch to remember when Harleys were equipped with high-effort, low-yield, two-piston binders. These days, a bit of techno-aid comes to the rescue by way of four-piston calipers and Harley's uniform expansion rotors, which offer a more linear feel at the levers with less warpage than in previous editions. One aspect of the Classic not real1y worth debating is its style. Refer to the question I posed to myself regarding the machine itself if you're unclear on that. Just check out that perfect marriage of steel and chrome. Those big cooling fins on the TC88 engine. The look of those studded leather saddlebags that ride astride the oft-copied rear fender. You know, one of the reasons that people are into nostalgia is that the vehicles of yesteryear look much more distinctive than those of today. You car guys should really understand what I'm talking about. Why do you think that modern versions of Ford's '49 coupe, '57 T-bird, GT40 and '67 Mustang are either in production or on the way? Classic lines are timeless. If they can be had conveniently packaged with modern updates, so much the better. And at the end of the day, friends, that is why the 2003 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic is as relevant now as it was when I rode my first one back in 1994, or when the first guy, who likely feels the same way, bought one back in 1986. It's why, 100 years after the first Harley, there is going to be a next Harley. The Classic is a solid performer for cruising and touring. And. bottom line, it's a fun bike to ride. Umm, it does almost everything right. The fact that it is also history in the making is merely a bonus. eN Harley has hit the century mark, and the Heritage Softail Classic is already 17 years old. My, how time flies. The saddlebags are equipped with plastic clips to fasten them shut, but if you are the nostalgic type, you can still use the leather buckles. Four-piston calipers and Harley's uniform expansion rotors are more than capable of hauling the Heritage down from speed. Another View I really like cruisers. I like all motorcycles, but certain cruisers just give off an attitude that I identify with. Ask anybody in the office which type of motorcycle I most resemble, and if they thought long enough, they'd probably say cruisers. I'm big, I sometimes appear clumsy, and I'm ridiculously loud. So when managing editor Scott Rousseau invited me to go riding for half a day down to Temecula on the 2003 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail, I jumped at the opportunity. As it turns out, though, our trip's organizer, associate editor Blake Conner, thought Temecula extended all the way to California's southernmost border. That meant Rousseau and I ended up spending, oh, about eIght hours aboard our respective V-twin mounts. I really loved it - even if my rear end disagreed with me. The first thing I noticed about the Heritage Softail when I hopped on it was that the controls were actually very well placed for me. My hands rested on the handlebars, and my feet settled onto the floorboards rather nicely. On the way to "Temecula: I really began to appreciate the wind screen, which we actually removed for the photos but was a big help at freeway speeds - it took much less energy to hang on with the wind screen than without. I used to hear that Harley-Davidsons were unrefined, leaky, loud, vibrating masses of metal, but "unrefined" would be cornpletely inaccurate in the case of the Heritage Softail. It looks classic, but it doesn't run that way. It's actually pretty spirited when you twist the right grip; it handles decently (as long as you don't rnind the "SCWUP" noise as you scrape the floorboards on the pavement)·; the pipes are loud enough without being unruly, and the vibration - what vibration? I was alrnost disappointed that it didn't vibrate - at first. Truthfully, this is a bike on which I could see myself riding the 300 miles or so to Las Vegas without a second thought. Ifs truly refined, easy to ride and really only feels slightly out of sorts in the tightest of twisties. It occurs to me that Harley-Davidson has come a long way in its first 100 years. Steve Cox cue' e n e vv s APRIL 9. 2003 45

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