Silly Handlebars Sport Glide

I PUT my bike in for service at Fraser Motorcycles and the Sales Manager suggested I should take a new Softail home for a day. The bike they gave me is a new Sport Glide Milwaukee-Eight with a S&S 475 cam fitted. The cam certainly adds a lot of personality to the engine. The new cam… does it encourage me to race it a bit more… tempt me to give it a little squirt every now and then? Of course I wouldn’t do that… it’s a loan bike… obviously I’ve been riding it very carefully…

This is my first time on the new Softail frame and I’m completely surprised at how well it handles; it is quite amazing. It should be given to anyone who says Harleys don’t handle. I mean, it is the Sport Glide with inverted front forks and fancy mono-shock on the back but the ride is truely spectacular.

The West Glide T-bars do make a bit of a sock of you at freeway speeds, and at low speed it’s a little cumbersome, but you know what, it’s such an amazing handling bike they don’t really take that much away from it.

If people want to put high handlebars on their bikes, that’s fine. Whatever floats your boat. But I really wish it had the pull-back bars and screen that comes with it standard because that would have been excellent.

These T-bars are a bit high for me… or maybe I’m just a bit short… but they do make you feel bar-arse; no doubt about it.

by Paul Angus