Street 500/750
Road Test
Frosty
and
Barry Tanner Sr.
Put some miles
on Harley’s
Lightweight
Bikes
In early 1969, before the Honda CB750 was
released and changed everything, Harley-Davidson
advertised their XLCH as the fastest street bike in the
world. At that time it was 900cc and rated at 50HP. Their
current Street 750 model is rated at 53HP, and I have seen
some dyno tests online that touched on 58HP, if you really
wring it out. This is quite a bit more than a standard 883
Sportster, so I was very interested in giving it a test ride.
Randy and Shark at Cajun Harley-Davidson agreed to
hook us up with both a Street 750 and a 500 to test, and
former State Flat Track Champion Barry Tanner Sr. came
along to give his impressions.
Barry took the 750 first since he was more familiar
with the area, while I followed on the 500. We pushed
the bikes a bit, but not all out since these are dealer bikes
and not test mules. In quick roll-ons of the throttle, the
750 could easily run away from me, and I always had
to downshift if I wanted to accelerate fairly quickly. The
500’s powerband was smooth and docile, well suited to
a new rider. It also has built in safety features, such as
a programmable rev limiter. We’ve all seen new riders
accidently roll on the throttle when they didn’t mean to,
and have the bike take off with them flailing behind. The
street models can be programmed to prevent over revving
in the low gears if you choose, this is great for a learner.
The transmission was smooth and all 6 gear were
usable, but Barry and I both found Neutral to be hard to
hit on the 500 and 750. This is something that is likely to
break in as the bike gets some miles on it, but it was a bit
annoying on these new bikes. There was also sometimes a
delay before the neutral light came on. I soon discovered I
had to slip the clutch a bit to see if I had really hit neutral
or not.
18
The handling was pretty decent, We did some
slaloms and wobbles going down the road, and quick
swerves as if avoiding road obstacles, and both bikes were
quite stable. Steering was neutral and light, and the bike
easily returned upright in a straight line. Nothing ever
scraped in any corner. Again, we didn’t really push the
limits, but the lean angle is more than enough for most
riding, and certainly better than a Sportster. Suspension is
OK on rough and smooth roads. Nothing ever bottomed
out, and it seemed like more travel was available than on
other Harleys, but there was room for improvement.
In normal riding the brakes felt great. I usually
used one finger on the front, and the feel was light and
controllable. In hard braking, the results were not as good.
The bikes were stable and tracked straight, but the braking
distance was longer than I expected. I found myself using
two fingers in normal riding on the 750, and the rear brake
pedal had noticably more travel than the 500.
Photography by Deana Berry