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From Harley-Davidson UK Press Release:
To mark the roll out of its market-leading online test ride booking system, Harley-Davidson UK and Ireland are offering motorcyclists the opportunity to win a motorcycle worth more than £15,000.
All riders who take a free demo ride at an authorised dealership between Friday 9th April and Monday 3rd May will be entered into a free prize draw for a new-for-2010 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Special motorcycle.
Customers can book demo rides online using the booking system which was successfully trialled last year as part of the Judgement Days campaign to encourage riders to challenge their preconceptions of Harley-Davidson and its motorcycles. More than 3,000 test rides were booked online during the campaign in 2009 and this will increase dramatically in 2010 now that the booking facility is available for all 365 days of the year.
As a permanent fixture on the www.harley-davidson.co.uk website, online booking enables motorcyclists to view available bikes at each dealership and complete a test ride booking right the way through to confirming a date and time slot. The booking details are then confirmed to the customer on email. It’s designed to put the customer first and allows riders to book the test ride they want, when they want it from the comfort of their home or work.
The system presents information on the current Harley-Davidson range in a simple and uncomplicated way, while operating 24/7 to cater for motorcyclists who are unable to visit a dealership to make a booking or find it inconvenient to take a call from a dealer during work hours.
All motorcyclists – even those who have never previously contemplated riding a Harley – can enjoy a free, no-obligation test ride of a variety of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, including models from the new 2010 range. Highlights include the Electra Glide® Ultra Limited touring machine, factory custom, chopper-style Dyna Wide Glide, the race-inspired XR1200X and of course the Fat Boy Special - the latest incarnation of the legendary Fat Boy.
“There are many preconceptions about Harley-Davidson motorcycles, particularly among riders who have never tried them,” says Stuart Farrell, Harley-Davidson Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. “Some riders may still hold those preconceptions after completing a test ride, but they’ll never know until they try it.
“The huge response to last year’s four-week demo ride campaign proved that UK and Irish motorcyclists do want to take advantage of free, no obligation test rides on our bikes and they do want the option of a fast and uncomplicated booking system that’s available whenever they want it. So, we listened to our customers and provided the facility all year round.”
For further information or to book a test ride please visit www.harley-davidson.co.uk/testride
Motorcyclists booking a test ride must have held a full motorcycle licence for a minimum of 12 months. Details of which models are available at each dealership will be available to view at www.harley-davidson.co.uk
In the interests of objective journalism, I've just contacted Honda's press office with a request to swing a leg across the Fury: I've got to know if its road manners will save it from consigned to history as a heroic failure. I don't hold out much hope of getting one, unless they are utterly convinced that it will win me over.
Despite my obvious preferences, I will endeavour to be wholly objective - as indeed were the earlier comments that might preclude my invitation to their next Christmas buffet: I want it to be good, because it will broaden the market, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be if they've done their homework right. Sadly the evidence of the bike at standstill isn't encouraging. Watch this space ...
Despite my obvious preferences, I will endeavour to be wholly objective - as indeed were the earlier comments that might preclude my invitation to their next Christmas buffet: I want it to be good, because it will broaden the market, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be if they've done their homework right. Sadly the evidence of the bike at standstill isn't encouraging. Watch this space ...
To be fair, it wasn't really hiding - in fact it got its dealer launch over the weekend, but it's not the sort of thing we're big on attending. But then we found ourselves at Fowlers in Bristol today and there were four of them!
First impressions ... errrr ... brave move by Honda but frankly I'm unimpressed. Didn't think the build quality was up to much - very much below expectations for Honda - cosmetically it seemed like a parody of a proper chopper and there were more things to point at and wince than to congratulate them on.
To be honest, if someone had told me it was made by a Chinese manufacturer rather than at an American plant of a Japanese maker, I wouldn't have been surprised. Welding looked scruffy in places, the yokes seemed weedy for a 250cc cruiser and there were too many angles working against each other for my tastes.
Didn't like the quality of the castings - wheels or kickstand - didn't like the plastic mudguards, didn't like the dash, didn't like the height of the back end, which I sincerely hope was kicked so high to accommodate a rider and pillion, at which point it would have settled down to something a lot more sensible.
But I especially didn't like the price tag: £12k plus for a 1300cc factory chopper? MCN, in their infinite wisdom, have suggested it's a rival for the Rocker C and as such is relatively cheap, but having now seen one, they're so wide of the mark that they should hang their heads in shame. It's got too much of the finish of the now defunct plain Rocker – rough finished where it should be smooth or polished – and it doesn't hold a candle to the Rocker's finish - metal or paint. It doesn't stand close comparison to the new Wide Glide which is cheaper, bigger, better looking, will have a higher residual value and is the real deal.
Its nearest rival, I'd suggest, is the plain finish 1737cc 8-Ball Vegas, which is a better bike in every respect on face value, and is three quarters of the price.
It's reckoned that Honda will only be bringing 300 of them into the country initially, and it might find a market on a degree of exclusivity, but only among the clinically insane unless it gives a good account of itself on the road. Sitting on it, the steering is certainly very neutral for such a radical headstock, and there's a chance it's going to deliver on the road, but we're not aware of any dealer demonstrators being made available. We'll have to see if Honda will let us play with a press fleet demonstrator after that critique, if they've got one: we're more than willing to put one through its paces, and I'm still prepared to be wooed by its sophistication and style, but it had better be brilliant to make up for its apparent shortcomings.
To be honest, I'd far rather play with their DN-01 production concept bike with its auto gearbox and radical styling, but while that's a V-twin, it's from one of Honda's Japanese plants and so doesn't qualify for the magazine.
First impressions ... errrr ... brave move by Honda but frankly I'm unimpressed. Didn't think the build quality was up to much - very much below expectations for Honda - cosmetically it seemed like a parody of a proper chopper and there were more things to point at and wince than to congratulate them on.
To be honest, if someone had told me it was made by a Chinese manufacturer rather than at an American plant of a Japanese maker, I wouldn't have been surprised. Welding looked scruffy in places, the yokes seemed weedy for a 250cc cruiser and there were too many angles working against each other for my tastes.
Didn't like the quality of the castings - wheels or kickstand - didn't like the plastic mudguards, didn't like the dash, didn't like the height of the back end, which I sincerely hope was kicked so high to accommodate a rider and pillion, at which point it would have settled down to something a lot more sensible.
But I especially didn't like the price tag: £12k plus for a 1300cc factory chopper? MCN, in their infinite wisdom, have suggested it's a rival for the Rocker C and as such is relatively cheap, but having now seen one, they're so wide of the mark that they should hang their heads in shame. It's got too much of the finish of the now defunct plain Rocker – rough finished where it should be smooth or polished – and it doesn't hold a candle to the Rocker's finish - metal or paint. It doesn't stand close comparison to the new Wide Glide which is cheaper, bigger, better looking, will have a higher residual value and is the real deal.
Its nearest rival, I'd suggest, is the plain finish 1737cc 8-Ball Vegas, which is a better bike in every respect on face value, and is three quarters of the price.
It's reckoned that Honda will only be bringing 300 of them into the country initially, and it might find a market on a degree of exclusivity, but only among the clinically insane unless it gives a good account of itself on the road. Sitting on it, the steering is certainly very neutral for such a radical headstock, and there's a chance it's going to deliver on the road, but we're not aware of any dealer demonstrators being made available. We'll have to see if Honda will let us play with a press fleet demonstrator after that critique, if they've got one: we're more than willing to put one through its paces, and I'm still prepared to be wooed by its sophistication and style, but it had better be brilliant to make up for its apparent shortcomings.
To be honest, I'd far rather play with their DN-01 production concept bike with its auto gearbox and radical styling, but while that's a V-twin, it's from one of Honda's Japanese plants and so doesn't qualify for the magazine.
Loosely based on a cross between the Iron and Nightster models, it's a 1200cc model with a blacked-out engine, slammed suspension, a new low-profile speedo mount and a first for a factory XL: a 16-inch front tyre beneath a minimal mudguard, which buy my reckoning - if an FX is an FL with FX forks - means it should be the XF1200.
Think of the Zero Samurai that shared the cover of last issue and then add a black XL motor and modern tyres and you'll have a pretty good mental picture.
Harley have even put the mirrors beneath the handlebars, which gives it a very clean, strong, custom silhouette, and with it's black laced wheels, solo seat and close-fitting rear mudguard that doubles as a fork brace, it'll tick a lot of boxes for bobber fans who are looking for a factory bike.
And "Forty-Eight"? The year when the peanut tank that will forever be associated with the Sportster was introduced - a full nine years before the XL - fitted to the DKW-derived, Bantam-like 125cc Model-S.And it is a proper peanut tank, returning to a smaller 2.1 US Gallon tank (7.95l / 1.75 Imp. Gallon) that fails to fill the top frame rail just like on those Sportsters of old. Graphically, it takes the Sportster script that has been reused over many years and models, which makes a very different statement in the three colours: silver, orange and black; with the Brilliant Silver looking every inch the timeless classic, Vivid Black the modern hot rod and Mirage Orange the understated traditional.
The "Forty-Eight"continues the 'drilled for lightness' theme of the Nightster, with holes drilled wherever possible - which now includes the fork brace and the mountings for the shorter tank, and will retain the rear mudguard detail of the Nightster and Iron for the UK market, rather than the side-mount of the American model. It does look as though we'll be keeping the short shocks and forks though, keeping the stance low and aggressive, and the seat height down to 710mm, lower than both the Iron and the Nightster, but still a piece higher than the 883 Low.Will it work?
It's Choppertown without the grazed knuckles, which will miss the point for many, but I suspect it will find it a fan-base very quickly. Much of that will depend on how £7,990 sounds to you?
See the new 2010 Harley-Davidson "Forty-Eight" video here.
I just couldn't resist it. Mad Fokker. Whatever you do, turn down the sound unless you like the sound of a 2-stroke
Sorry. Actually, no I'm not: it's borderline inspired genius with a heavy hint of madness and I want one. No, two, for recreating dogfights.
Sorry. Actually, no I'm not: it's borderline inspired genius with a heavy hint of madness and I want one. No, two, for recreating dogfights.
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