Harley
Davidson V-Rod |
Had a VRSCA V-Rod for about 3 years. Got it because it was very different to anything I'd had previously and looked fun. It was very different to other bikes I've had, very long & low. Takes a different style to ride due to its design and quirks. Easy to ride at slow speeds but takes a bit of looking after if you decide to use the full power of the engine. V-Rods are very low to the ground and has a very low seat height. Riding position with feet forward is cool. You find yourself adopting a lazy riding style if you just want to poodle around the country lanes. Bike had loads of torque so you can also get very lazy on the gear changing side of things as well. On good roads and in a straight line this bike can rock. I've surprised many a sports bike rider who simply may not be aware of the bhp these things have on tap. This bike will pull through the gears, is happy to rev and the gearing is good. If a sports bike rider hasn't got their machine in the right rev range, this will have them. It's very easy to ground the footrests at even modest lean angles. The exhaust is not much after that either. I fitted alternate pegs which were about and inch higher so allowing more clearance. The solid wheels look great, but do have a slight drawback. As they are solid, the air turbulence on the front wheel when following a large van or lorry will make the bike shake it's head and you need to hold on tight. As this is such a heavy bike (and long) you can;t afford to let it get too bad. In my experience this can happen from as low as 45mph. Once you know it's going to happen, it's pretty consistent and you should learn to work around it. What may catch you out at first is when you come in at speed behind a lorry and then look to sweep past it, the turbulence sometimes sets the wobble on and you have to rethink the maneuver. Anyway, these quirks are what makes these minds of bike. You need a different toolkit for these as they use a combination of metric and imperial fasteners and also Torx. I didn't do much in the way of home maintenance to be honest, but was surprised at how much effort was needed to do tasks such as change spark plugs, which needs the entire airbox removed. Was not impressed with local Harley dealer on service quality or price. Had reason to raise issues more than once after picking the bike up from services. I've been riding different makes of bikes for a long time and can honestly say I'd not choose to use that dealer ever again for work on the bike. And there lies the biggest problem with owning a Harley, the lack of dealers to support after sales work. My local dealer was over 40 miles away and the next one after that is nearer 70, so dropping the bike off for a service takes more effort to arrange than I'm used to. There is a local non-authored Harley garage in Maldon and the guys in there were great help for various bits and pieces, however they did not have the required computer setup needed for the V-Rod models. Anyone in the area with the air cooled models, I'd suggest you check them out. http://www.andyharriscustomcycles.co.uk/
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The powerplant - 1130cc 115bhp Water cooled V-Twin
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Some more pics of my ride.
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Had a set of Street sweepers on it for a little over a year. They were very loud. Managed to scrape them on the deck a few times round the right bends. Sold and went back the the Screamin Eagles.
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