| Author | Message | ||
     Cpilot |
I thought it was time to make a change from the Uly to a cruiser. So I research a number of the them and set out on a quest to make a decision. I demo'd the Harley Switchback, and Road King, a Triumph Thunderbird, and a Victory Cross Roads; all of which sounded like they would be just the ticket. Wow, was I ever disappointed. They all were rough ridding compared to the Uly, and I felt like I was trying to pilot a boat instead of a motorcycle. So I found that my personal preference was the Uly upright style, feet under you, long travel shocks, and responsive handling. I do want to demo a Super Tenere and the new Triumph Tiger Explorer one of these days, but what a confirmation in the genius of Erik! | ||
| Teeps |
I rode standard's most of my life; tried a cruiser Honda VTX1300, before the Uly. Never got used to the cruiser riding position. There is something "just wrong" about feet forward, riding, on a M/C IMO. | ||
| Motorbike |
I agree with Teeps. I owned a cruiser for a few years and never felt that I would be able to do any kind of quick, evasive maneuver if I needed to. If the NHTSA ever did a study on the safety and handling of cruiser bikes in accident prevention situations, they would probably make that type of bike illegal to ride. It would probably shut H-D down completely. Just my $.02 of course. I also always thought the cruiser seating position was hard on my lower back too. | ||
| Britchri10 |
I took my MSF test in Florida. THey gave us UJM 250CC bikes to learn/ride on. They had forward controls. I spent the first 20 minutes learning where the pegs were. I haven't ever owned a cruiser type bike & I honestly believe I could never get used to not having my feet under me on a bike. Chris C | ||
| Conchop |
Rode and sold cruisers and dressers most of my life. They have their place BUT compared to a Uly, they are like riding a big powerful marshmellow. I would like to see Victory or Indian come out with an ADV bike with cruiser accented styling. The current crop of ADV bikes are quite fugly. AS a matter of fact, I wouldn't want to be seen on many of them. Ewww! I've commented before - ADV bikes are like having an athletic girlfriend with a well built and powerful body, but with a face and a snout [ beak ] that would cause a train wreck. If you were to go with a cruiser, Victory King Pin is a well sorted out machine. I am really anxious to see if Erik is going to do another Uly.  | ||
| Buellerxt |
I agree with you on the Uly, Cpilot. It is a special bike, for sure. | ||
| Hooper |
Lucky enough to have both types, and hope I always can...definitely different bikes for different moods and different destinations. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
I test rode a Road King last year and didn't care for it! I don't feel comfortable with my legs out in front of me while riding a motorcycle. A car yes, but not on a motorcycle! | ||
| Timberwolf |
Wonder if Froggy would have accepted an 1125 version of the Uly as a "real" motorcycle? | ||
| Froggy |
Possibly. The chassis, motor, and suspension on the 1125 is fantastic, and lightyears ahead of the XB. I would love to have factory designed hardbags and passenger accommodations, it would then be the perfect sport touring bike. I have a similar predicament as you guys regarding cruisers, but with the Ulysses. After several years of sportbikes, I can't ride the Uly comfortably anymore. If I lean forward and basically put my helmet up against the handlebar, and put my feet up on the rear pegs, the bike is vastly more comfortable, and the buffeting vanishes. Then my arms begin to hurt due to it being an un-natural position, so I'll have to figure out some clubman bars. Still, it doesn't solve the shaking at idle problem. | ||
| Motorbike |
Actually, the shaking at idle is to my advantage. After I wash the bike, I just start it up and let it idle. It shakes the water off like a dog that just hopped out of his bath water! | ||
| Skifastbadly |
In addition to my Uly, I have an 04 HD Heritage and an 08 Triumph Scrambler. For sure, three different bikes, and I enjoy them all. By far, the Uly gets more miles. Partially, this is because it has heated grips and I ride all year 'round. It's also the quickest. I went on a trip last summer that took me from Seattle to Boise then up through Idaho into Canada then Montana. I was going to take the Harley because it's more comfortable but at the last moment changed my mind and took the Buell. That decision cost me, because the ECM failed outside of Missoula and stranded me. Repairs including investigative time cost me 900 bucks, two airplane tickets, and three hotel nights. Next time, the HD for sure. The Scrambler is for putzing around on, it reminds me of when I was a kid and a friend had one of those mini bikes with the centrifugal clutches. My favorite bike is whatever one I'm on, it seems. It's curious and perhaps not a coincidence that all three are air cooled twins. It's sort of like having three girlfriends. One wishes there was a way to ride all three at the same time. | ||
| Cpilot |
curious... has anyone tried the Super Tenere or the Tiger Explorer? | ||
| Ronmold |
LOL, but my Briggs & Stratton was only a 4 horse! I've been contemplating moving out all 4 of my bikes and replacing them with a Vulcan 2000LT. There's a few new leftovers around for a song and maintaining 4 bikes is just becoming too much of a time consumer. I picked up an old Vulcan 1500 last fall cheap to see if a cruiser style works for me and so far it does. Easy on & off for me and the wife, and she's got floorboards now. No real need anymore to knee-drag corners but I would be anxious to try the 140 lb-ft of torque on the Vulcan which causes many references to "perma-grin" also on the Vulcan 2000 forum, actually it's referred to as a "$@#&-eatin' grin" much the same, I believe. This thread has come along at a good time for me, there's a LOT of experience & opinions here to help me make a decision. (Message edited by ronmold on April 17, 2012) | ||
| Skifastbadly |
I took the ST for a ride. It's a big bike. It handles well, I thought. It doesn't have the same low end torque of the Uly. I hated HATED the front end. With the Uly, you feel like there's nothing in front of you. The ST has a massive amount of plastic way out there, it felt like I was riding behind something. I'm not a motorcycle engineer so I don't understand what drives a designer to make the choice between having the front bits (headlights, instrument panel, etc.) attached to the fork and having it all attached to the frame. All three of my bikes have everything attached to the fork and I like it that way. The ST, the Tiger 800, the 1200 GS all have the other geometry and while I'd probably get used to it, if feels weird to have the fork disappear down into the plastic. I'm sure there's a better way of describing that. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
The quandry of "what next" is something on many Uly riders minds. When we read the threads about catastrophic mechanical failures, inevitably we talk about what we'd get to replace one of our Ulys. I rode a 'wing a couple weeks ago, and it's not a shoe in replacement for a Uly, but it handled well running thru the BRC2 (old ERC) exercises, and gosh, those bells and whistles were pretty nice. Based on my fellow coach's 100K + problem free miles on his, I would consider adding one to our garage. "THey gave us UJM 250CC bikes to learn/ride on. They had forward controls. I spent the first 20 minutes learning where the pegs were. I haven't ever owned a cruiser type bike & I honestly believe I could never get used to not having my feet under me on a bike." Getting comfortable on all our foward-control demo bikes was one of the biggest adjustments for me when I became a coach in FL. 90% of our training bikes are cruiser style bikes and like you, Chris, I'd been a standard bike rider my entire life. For that and many other reasons, I love having Zeros in the fleet. MN has a wider variety of training bikes in their fleet, and its a hoot to do demos on their many dual sports. I feel like I'm twelve again! | ||
| Britchri10 |
I took my "test" in the UK on a 125cc Trials bike. Unlike the USA, we got to do it on public roads. The guy who tested me couldn't believe how well that "little bike" handled. Prior to taking my test I took the UK safety riders course. We rode all kinds of bikes on that. |
