BIKETEST: HARLEY-DAVIDSON CVO DYNA SUPERGLIDE 1800:The customised CVO Dyna Superglide GEOFF HILL took for a jaunt was as unlike a Harley as is possible for a bike to be
THOSE OF a shy, retiring disposition can stop reading now.
For this week’s rare special edition Harley will suit only those who like to announce their arrival both visually and aurally.
It started life as a 2007 FXDSE2 Custom Vehicle Operations Screamin’ Eagle Dyna, which came with what the boys in Milwaukee like to describe as a 110 cubic inch motor – 1800cc to you and me – and six-speed Cruise Drive transmission (or what we might call a gearbox).
Not only that, but it had more shiny bits than the Christmas tree outside Santa’s house – chrome upside down forks with chrome forged triple trees,chrome-covered rear shocks with hand-adjustable preload, chrome wheels with matching sprocket and brake discs, chrome internally wired handlebars with integrated risers and gauge mounts. knurled foot pegs, shifters, brake pedal and grips, chrome clutch and brake master cylinders with chrome switch housings and levers, and braided brake and clutch lines, and throttle and idle cables.
Oh, and deliciously sexy spun aluminium dials and a fuel gauge set flush into the tank, appearing like a Mr Smiley curve of red LEDs.
As if that wasn’t enough, all Custom Vehicle Operations or CVO bikes are hand-assembled and painted, even down to the pinstriping.
Now, you and I and the man next door would probably be happy with a bike like that for the rest of our lives, but its owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, was a perfectionist among perfectionists, for he added Vance Hines Slip On Pipes, a Screamin’ Eagle air filter and fuel pack, a luxurious Sundowner seat, a detachable sissy bar backrest, a chrome luggage rack, an angled licence plate and turn signal trim rings.
“Good grief,” I say to Kieran at the dealers, looking at it glittering in the sun. “How much did all this cost?”
“Oh, you’re looking at about £19,000, and he only put 7,800 miles on it,” he says, handing me the key.
Donning shades to ward off blindness from the morning sun bouncing off all that chrome, I climb aboard and start the engine.
All my fillings promptly fall out, several crows topple out of a nearby beech clutching their bleeding ears and, in Ballyscullion, Co Cork, Mrs Murphy at 4 Seaview Row gives birth prematurely to a baby girl she names Grace, a child of ethereal beauty who I predict will go far.
Thanking God, Mohammed, Buddha and the seven sainted sultans of Constantinople I brought my earplugs, I engage, let out the clutch and leap forward like a demented jackrabbit.
Before the morning is out, I will discover that, not only is the clutch like an on-off switch, the throttle is pretty much the same.
For with more air coming in, that heftier bored-out engine and better pipes, this is a machine with a punch of acceleration about as far away from traditional Harley languidness as it is possible to get, accompanied by that glorious V-twin symphony as the engine sings all the way from a couple of thousand revs to the redline at 5,500 and beyond.
Put it this way: at one stage, on a private stretch of road belonging to a mate, I look down to see the speedo reading three figures, then realise, just as my boots finally slid off the chrome footpegs, that I am still only in fifth gear. For a Harley, that’s going some.
Back on public roads, I hurtle through the countryside like a flatulent cheetah, perforating the eardrums of innocent sheep and sending cows leaping over hedgerows like thoroughbred geldings.
Still, they look like they need the exercise.
Faults, if there are any, are that the skinny front tyre twitches and tramlines over rough surfaces and makes low-speed cornering a careful affair until you get used to it, but then all skinny front tyres do that.
And, of course, with all the noise you’re making, the chances of you sneaking through town unnoticed are about the same as Ian Paisley’s chances of making the shortlist for Pope.
“Well, what do you think?” asks Kieran at the dealership.
“Most unlike a Harley,” I say, handing him the key. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go over and attend to those poor crows.”
- Dublin Harley- Davidson, tel: 01 464 2211, dublinharley-davidson.com
- Test bike £13,995 from Provincewide Harley-Davidson of Antrim, 028 9446 6999, provincewide.com, harley-davidson.com.