And to cut that long story -
The SuperLow booked a few months ago, arrived, many thanks to the staff at Seven Islands Harley Davidson, Bandra, Mumbai.
In the past years, I have been riding many sports bikes and three kinds of Harleys, and have refrained from critical commenting out of deference to vehicles that I do not own, or afford to.
Then my mom, all of 70+years jumped pillion! And my son awaited his turn- to turn 18 before getting to ride...
Its the first this this morning, that on a side road that you have these 'failed in drafting' technician designed half-moon bumps that brushed the pivot of the side (jiffy) stand.
And I realised I had to come back that way too. And we took it at a diagonal. but the thing was about 10" wide, so we walked and still grazed it. And then again on the road rom Worli SeaFace to Old Passport office- scrape. Ugh.I guess the 12.5" Progressive Heavy Duty Shocks and Progressive Fork Springs are in order.
The rear pillion seat is a fine attempt at 'Mission Imposible 4' thrill at every gear change. Given you would possible have many different pillion riders, a set of side plates and a sissy bar is a must.
The 17 L tank is a very good asset. There were a few at the store who could ride around in the same PIN code all day and be happy with the tank of the '48' and not think twice about fueling twice a day. Experience from others gets you about 14KmpL in the city to abut 24KmpL with sedate riding on the highways. I will update on this as we ride more.
The thumb-starter is a single push- positive emotion button. The solid'notch first gear and light clutch is sure to give even a first time rider good confidence. However, the first left or right turn that you take, brings you all the threads and Forum discussions of grounding- and nothing wrong happens- its fine. The clearance is low, but it aint all that bad. Once you glide over the first speedbreaker, with the car behind wondering what a superbike is doing at 3KmpH... nothing happens, and then you realise that the bad ones are the poorly designed bumps. What i am actually fearing now - is the multiple bumps on the Goa highway, and at a few places on the Pune-Kolhapur stretch, especially around toll nakas.
To my mind the Iron 883 riders have no such issues, and therefore, it seems that either you plonk in the 883's rear shocks and Damper Tubes- setting you abck between 18-25K from a H-D service station, or then hunt around and import Progressive parts as mentioned by me elsewhere on the Forum.
Second gear onwards, there is a RUSH- that will simply power through traffic and on curves- it will beg to lean and run. I think 'Rush' is the word to describe the acceleration and the bull like feeling. No other word seems to work.
having seen a 4Km traffic jam on the Lalbaug Flyover that went on till JJ hospital- the lessons form two days is quick- wear jeans, and full length that too, wear good socks, and good shoes. The heat will get you otherwise- from the rear cylinder cooling and the vent of the lower exhaust...
The speedometer with its trips and clock are useful and the lack of a tach is annoying...
The rush of acceleration, the stability on turns, the ability to weave in traffic if required- the high speed capability- and more than all - the tons of charm, the sound and to use the internet phrase- 'eyeballs.'
If one pic could sum it up, here is one taken by a Manish when I got off at his house... now to find that pix first.
Update- March 2013-
Ran the 883 into the ground, maybe due to earlier experience of riding bigger bikes in the US as a student- the 883 was max'ed out and I finally sold it in january of 2013. I purchased a Super Glide and that post is ready, awaiting for a Moderator to post it on a bike Forum.
Now, though I am very happy with the purchase of the Super Glide, the one funny statistic that I never paid attention to while buying a Super Glide, I realised about 15 days into its ownership.
The Lean Angle- left was 30.9 Deg, while the right was 29.5 Deg. Now guess what happened- the Sportster had footpeg scrapers that would leave behind a string of sparks and let your foot know that you were about at edge and the Glide didnt... and to my surprise in the Amboli Ghat, where my tail flagged me down and told me- "what you doin' man? You are scraping the crap off your exhaust" - and thats when I realised the awesome confidence that the bike instilled in you, and the decimal difference in lean angles, even a normal human like me could find out... and you didnt have to be a Rossi or 2013 version Colin Edwards to find out its limitations on bends.
It remains my favourite memory of the Sportster- and maybe I need to do something in its memory urgent for the pegs on the Glide.
No comments:
Post a Comment