This will divide opinion

[Boxadog 2000]

The only HD I would entertain.
Gorgeous.

[conkerman]

Nice.

That and the Night Rod are the 2 Harleys I like.

Some good upgrades as well.

[McBoxer]

Steve - might be a shot in the dark this, but does 'your' XR have a non-standard front wheel? HD (in their infinite wisdom - not!) fitted the std bike with odd-sized wheels - 18" front I think - so having a 17 on the front would be a good thing as it obviously makes many more tyres available.

Well spotted Richard. It has £2500 worth of 17" BST carbon fibre wheels as well as ohlins shocks and the ohlins converted forks....

I spotted the big gap between the front wheel and the mudguard and wondered what was going on - that explains it!
(Thought it was some kind of trail bike front end initially )

[f90x]

Steve - might be a shot in the dark this, but does 'your' XR have a non-standard front wheel? HD (in their infinite wisdom - not!) fitted the std bike with odd-sized wheels - 18" front I think - so having a 17 on the front would be a good thing as it obviously makes many more tyres available.

Well spotted Richard. It has £2500 worth of 17" BST carbon fibre wheels as well as ohlins shocks and the ohlins converted forks....

I spotted the big gap between the front wheel and the mudguard and wondered what was going on - that explains it!
(Thought it was some kind of trail bike front end initially )

There's quite a big gap even with the 18" wheel. My mate with the same bike has a couple of Harris spares made for the 17" and he's given me one of them. I'll put it on in its black gel coat initially but I think I may get it painted orange in the future along with the side panels.

[McBoxer]

I wish you all the best with it! I have no experience of Harleys (except the 350 singles in the army - but I don't think they count).
They do make a lovely noise though (the big ones - not the 350s!).
Will hunt down an XLCR cafe racer if I win the Euromillions tonight...

[herrman]

I like it, Could see it being a pleasant "lazy day" ride , Plenty of torque for riding round the lanes that I enjoy these days, Still wouldn't want to get rid of the 12s though.

Peter.

[Twinspark]

I love those things.

Very hard to justify one, though.

[Gromit]

I love those things.

Very hard to justify one, though.

True enough - it'd have to be purely a toy, but a damn nice one. Had I got the disposable ££...

[f90x]

Every bike I've had since I've been driving a car is 'a toy' I guess. I'm a fair weather rider and usually only get a certain number of Saturdays during the summer and I've managed to get into Europe three times in the last eight years. If I like it enough the 12 shall have to go as I don't have the room for two bikes and the sad reality is that I can't justify 'financially' having them both. I'm very lucky to be in a position to buy my next bike before selling the existing one but I can only ever have the one. My mate bought his new two years ago and has put 15k miles on it. His biggest day was 600 miles and that was in the UK. I think I'll be ok if it's my only bike as long as I can get used to riding around on a mobile earthquake.

[el-nicko]

.
I tried a Harley once and though it might have been a bad one I found it to be a rather unpleasant experience and have not ridden one since. Some folk in my club have them and they are really nice people and I have to say I've encountered some right wankers on 'sports' bikes.
All I can say is, if you really must have an 'Other Bike' (and putting aside off-roading) try something like this....



I did, and, since I got it in March I've somehow managed to put 7000 miles on the clock. It'll be laid-up now though 'cos, apparently, we in for a really bad winter and I refuse to ride a chain-driven bike on salt-treated roads. This is when a shafty comes into it's own. And I must say, as 'a bike for all seasons', there's no competition for the ordinary, easy to maintain, un-complicated (that's non-ABS of course ) R1100S. Unfortunately, I can only accommodate one bike at a time and have grown old with Japanese 3's and 'fours' having bought my first CB750 K0 in January 1970. I spent some time in the '50s and sixties in the company of big V-twin Vincents and 'boxers' but have always been fascinated by the 'Swiss-watch like' capability of 4 cylinder litre bikes to 'rev'. Sometimes, in the workshop, just for the fun of it, I'll spin one of our lathes up to 2000rpm just to look at it and think, 'Jesus! my bike runs SIX times+ faster than that and it's got all those 'rods, piston ect, ect..., thrashing around as well, and it's still feels so smooooooth . Must just say though; adapting to non-self-canceling indicators has proved harder than, back in the day, finding the foot-brake/gear-change swopped about.

Love (but pleeese, no 'tongues'. ) and Peace to all, Nick.

edit: '....come across some right wankers' replaced with 'encountered..... '. Before somebody else (you know who you are) jumps on my case and starts casting aspersions.

[f90x]

I had a fireblade 954 that I sold to get the r1100s nick. I loved the blade but it had to go before I got caught doing jail speeds. Not to mention I'm quite creaky and it would take too long for me to straighten out after a ride. Ultimately I preferred the 11 over the blade (mine was very modded) as it was so much more comfortable and actually easier to ride fast over distance despite not being as powerful or light as the blade. I don't get to go out much so when I do it's all day. I never go out for a quick hour long blast. The 12 is a great bike but it hasn't got under my skin like the 11 so it's time to try something else. As I've already said earlier in the thread, I might not like it but I've still got the 12 and I won't be looking to sell it until April so I'll see how it goes.

[Droptarotter]

[f90x]

Wow, up until now I had you down as a broad minded intelligent bloke. Life's full of surprises eh.

[Blackal]

.


All I can say is, if you really must have an 'Other Bike' (and putting aside off-roading) try something like this....

Those items in the background, Nick -

Are those parts which fell off the Harley you tried ?

Al

[cornishflat]

Nice one. I had a test ride on one and I,d love one as a second bike. As you say the exhaust system could do with a visit by Dr cutting disc. I found it was a little harder to turn....I,d just jumped off a Buell... so the wheel mod should help. I hope you can keep us posted on your findings, I look forward to it.