Harley-Davidson has regally silenced its critics with the latest version of the Road King, writes Tom Robert
EXCUSE ME for a moment, folks, while I climb off this Road King, step back and scratch my head.
You see, I'm just wondering how the backroom boys in Milwaukee have done it. They have taken a really good bike - a legend of the two-wheeled world - and made it even better.
To be honest, it wasn't always so good. For as long as I can remember, all you had to do was wander into a pub, find a Japanese sports-bike rider leaning against the bar, mention the name Harley-Davidson, then sit back and give him a good listening to.
He would invariably treat you to a monologue on how, in spite of the fact they cost an arm and several legs, Harleys didn't go, didn't stop, didn't go around corners and were only good for fat, retired bank managers in Dundalk who took them out of the garage every sunny Sunday and rode them down the road and back again, imagining they were heading west on Route 66 from Chicago to LA, then put them back in their garages.
Then the V-Rod came along and shut up half the carpers, which left the other half to mutter into their beer: "Yeah, well, apart from that, they haven't changed since the 1950s. As my old dad said . . ."
To be fair, they were right; the basic design of cruisers like the Road King hasn't changed in decades.
However, if you accept the basic premise behind it and other style icons (like the Dualit toaster and the Citroën 2CV) that fashion always goes out of style, but style never goes out of fashion, well then why should they change?
The trouble was, though, that the mechanics hadn't changed either. Start a Harley and it sounded, in that first blast from the big V-twin, as if the whole bike was going to self-destruct.
At idle, it vibrated so much you feared your chances of ever having children were diminishing by the second. Engage first gear, and there was a clang as if Quasimodo had just whacked his head off the bell of Notre Dame - again.
If you tried to corner at low speed, especially up a steep lane in Donegal, as I did on my first outing on a Road King, you soon found yourself looking at the world from a distinctly odd angle - sideways.
Then, in 2007, Harley undertook the biggest rethink of the bike ever - they increased the engine from 1,450cc to 1,584cc, boosting torque by 13 per cent at lower revs, and stuck in a six-speed gearbox with helical teeth, cut at an angle rather than the previous straight ones, to make everything down there much quieter.
Best of all, they allied it to a new lightweight clutch, which makes low-speed control such a doddle you can now ride this beast to a standstill, even while cornering, before you have time to think about putting your feet down.
You'd think, after all that, the engineers at Milwaukee would have gone across the road to the Miller brewery then staggered home to find some nice, soft laurels to rest on, but not a bit of it. For the 2009 model they've managed to stiffen the frame by a remarkable 62 per cent, widened the back tyre to a hefty 180mm and made Brembo brakes and ABS standard. All of which creates a motorcycle that, in spite of weighing 332kg, is as easy to handle around town as a Vespa.
Out on the open road it is so smooth, powerful and stable that, as you eat up the miles towards the distant horizon, it makes you feel like nothing less than a king of the road.
Factfile: Harley-Davidson Road King
Engine: in-line V-twin air-cooled four-stroke, twin cam, 1584cc, electronic sequential- port fuel injection, six-speed gearbox with nine-plate wet clutch
Chassis: mild-steel frame, square-section backbone with twin downtubes, touring cross-over duals with slashup end caps, cast-chrome spoked wheels slotted or laced depending on model
Dimensions: length 2,380mm, overall seat height 663-693mm, ground clearance 119- 130mm, steering head rake 26 degrees, fork angle 29 degrees, fuel capacity 18.9 litres, oil capacity w/filter 3.8 litres
Price: €21,430 for the Road King standard or €22,240 for the classic on the road.
• Contact Harley-Davidson, Ballymount, 01-4642 211 for further information. Test bike supplied by Provincewide Harley-Davidson of Antrim, see provincewide.com.