Just for a laugh I rode one of these today at the 3X Triumph open day. Expected it to be a bit shit but fun in a silly way. Actually it was one of the most unexpectedly exhilarating and enjoyable bikes I've ridden in ages. It went way way better than I thought it was going to. It felt really grunty and a lot more powerful than it really is. Oodles of thumpy torque and a willingness to rev. It pulls and pulls and you couldn't over-throttle it, it just keeps leaping forward. If I was a rich man I'd have bought one there and then. In fact I'd go as far as to say that if it was possible to fit luggage to it I'd abandon my plan to replace my SMT with a 1200 Explorer and just buy one of these. Its that good. Its even comfortable. The riding position, dare I say it, is more comfortable than the XDiavel's. And it handled. I mean properly handled. It could do with twin front discs because it definitely goes well enough to need them. I rode the new Street Triple RS first. Lovely chassis, silky smooth, fantastic brakes, but up the same stretch of road and particularly between bends I was faster on the Bobber and quite a lot faster. Daft but fantastically good fun. If everyone contemplating a compact custom test rode one of these, Harley Davidson would never sell another Sportster. Even if its not your thing, go and try one anyway just for the hell of it. Its a riot.
It does. And the small fuel tank helps keeps it low. Don't know what the fuel economy is like because the instruments are bare basics, not even a rev counter, but I would guess you could get 50 mpg. And I never ran out of ground clearance and I did try. I was a bit wary of really hammering it through bends though because the single front disc doesn't give you a lot of emergency stopping power. The finish quality is top draw as well.
Looks even better in the metal. The 1930's hardtail look has been pulled off pretty authentically. Lots of nice little touches too. The ignition switch is down by your right ankle. The edges of the brake discs have a gold tinge like that detail on the crank cover and I like the bakerlite-look stainless-strapped battery box. I think they've changed the crank throw or the firing order or something as well because its got a real grobba-grobba sort of character which sounds different to the Thruxton and there's some appropriate low frequency vibes. It out-Harleys the smaller Harleys. There's some Vance and Hines pipes in the accessories catalogue. Would have been nice to have heard them.
Not cheap.. £10,500. To be fair, when you see it, it does look like a 10K bike. New track bike Bradders..?
