BikeTest:With some motorbikes it's love at first sight, while others take a while to seduce you. Any BMW dealer worth his bonus, for example, would never let a potential customer road test a Rockster for less than an hour, for up to that point, they would be thinking: "This is weird" and it was only afterwards that they would start thinking: "This is wonderful." writes Geoff Hill
Others, like Beemer's R1200ST or the first Victory 92 cruiser, feel like you've ridden them all your life from the moment you hit first gear and roar off into the sunset.
Now, to that pantheon of instant hits, and straight in at number one, I give you the Harley Superglide.
Even the first sight of the bike, with its spoked front wheel and metallic grey paintwork gleaming in the afternoon sun, tells you that this is a motorbike on which Harley has put exactly the right amount of things to make a Harley a Harley, and then just left it at that.
The result is a bike on which nothing is wasted, nothing is superfluous. You have the same hefty 1584cc V-twin as the Road King we tested recently, but on a bike 40kg lighter, and if you think that makes the Superglide no slouch at the traffic lights, you'd be dead right.
It's also got such a low seat and centre of gravity that even before you hit the first corner, you know that leaning into it, then stepping on the gas is going to be an absolute pleasure.
On the run up to Annalong in glorious sunshine to meet Cate and stay over with our mates Tom and Caitriona, it gobbled straights and devoured corners with an insatiable appetite, and since every other biker around seemed to be on the roads that day, it attracted all the right sort of attention - even from men who would't normally give a Harley a second glance.
"You know, I always thought of them as big and fat, but that's a grand looking bike," said one Honda VFR800 owner when I stopped to fuel up.
"Is there anything you don't like about it?"
"Well, the throttle's a bit more snatchy in low gears than the Road King, but you get used to that, and that pillion seat sure isn't build for Chicago to LA in a day, but apart from that, it's the best Harley I've ever ridden," I said. When I got to where I was going, I felt so comfortable on the bike that I could have ridden the grass and gravel drive to Tom's seaside cottage with my eyes shut.
As I pulled up, he looked up from where he was respraying the front forks of his Kawasaki Drifter a very fetching shade of kingfisher blue. "Don't switch it off," he grinned. "I want a spin on that."
Ten minutes later, he was back with an even bigger grin. "You know, the last Harley I rode had three gears. This is from a different planet," he said.
"Now, excuse me a second while I go and tell Caitriona what I want for Christmas."
Geoff Hill's latest book, The Road to Gobblers Knob, on riding a Triumph 16,500 miles from Chile to Alaska, is out now. Visit blackstaffpress.com for details
ENGINE: In-line V-twin air-cooled four-stroke, twin Cam 96, 1584cc, bore x stroke 95.3mm x 111.1mm, compression ratio 9.2:1, fuel system electronic sequential port injection, six-speed gearbox with nine-plate wet clutch.
CHASSIS: Frame mild steel, square-section backbone with twin downtubes, exhaust system chrome, staggered shorty duals, tyres Dunlop Harley-Davidson Series, narrow, front wheels cast chrome laced 19 x 2.5in, rear chrome laced 17 x 4.5in.
DIMENSIONS: Length 2355mm, overall height 1200mm, seat height laden 681mm, ground clearance 153mm, rake (steering head) 29°, fork angle 29°, trail 119mm. wheelbase 1630mm, fuel capacity 19.3 litres, oil capacity w/filter 2.8 litres, dry weight 295kg.
PRICE: from €17,695 on the road for the Dyna Super Glide Custom FXDC.
The test bike was supplied by Provincewide Harley-Davidson of Antrim, 028 9446 6999, www.provincewide.com, www.harley-davidson.com.