suited to travel.
Overcoming my initial fears, I quickly realised that
this bike was very easy to ride. The 114 cubic inch (al-
most 1900cc) V-twin pulled away from the curb with ease
and despite weighing in at around 330 kilograms plus my
luggage it felt extremely nimble, I couldn’t get over just
how nimble it was, this was not the bike the nay-sayers
describe it as.
A quick succession of twisties proved just how nimble
the big bike was; left, right, right, left, corner to corner
the bike was almost as nimble as my regular ride, a 2014
BMW F800GS. I’d ridden cruisers before and the Harley
was as good … no, again I lie … it was better.
As the southern Tasmanian roads flicked from one
side to the other, I started to understand what the true
meaning of torque meant. The Softtail’s huge V-twin
required very little gear changing, whatever gear I was
in seemed to do the job and when opening the throttle,
my goodness, my arms where almost pulled from their
sockets … the bike just went, and went and went …
The amazing thing was the bike never felt like it was
too powerful, being an air-cooled machine, I guess it’s
not. It didn’t really matter. What power and torque it
had was more than enough.
Honestly, that’s all I know about the technical side of
bikes, just what I’ve heard others talk about, most of it
makes no sense to me and I don’t care, what I do care
about is how comfort the bike is, would it suit long dis-
tance travel?
That’s the thing that amazed me more than anything
about the Heritage Softtail, the comfort levels were
superb. The seat was large and ample. Yes, yes, I know
what many of you will say about Harley riders and why
the seats are such, I’d say sit on one and tell me it’s not
comfortable, offering plenty of support. The footboards
were in exactly the right place and cushioned the con-
stant vibration from the engine, the foot controls, while
large and industrial looking, felt reasonably light and
precise, not what I was expecting.
The handlebars were in exactly the right place; a good
height and width made the steering feel effortless, to the
point where I forgot I was on such a heavy bike. Again,
the controls looked industrial but worked well; light and
easy even for a female hand.
The whole lot, including the rider, are protected from
the wind by the largest of screens I’ve ever sat behind,
it was superb. There was little buffeting and almost no
wind noise, the light rain we encountered was kept at
bay. I giggled nervously as I was told I looked like Frank
Poncherello. “Who the hell is that,” I thought as my
partner laughed about something called CHiPs. I’m way
too young to have any idea of what he was on about. I
TRAVERSE 68