Spent the day riding a HD "Street 500" motorcycle today.
We are using them as our training motorcycles to get our re-certification for our state motorcycle license. The class is being taught by our local HD dealership, and is done in conjunction with the state BMV so if we pass the class we are exempt from taking both the written and the riding skills test.
I have to say I'm not impressed with these bikes. Ours are outfitted with bike protection in case of a drop ... which has happened to a few people in our class on multiple occasions. So I guess they are necessary. We have 12 in the class, from seriously experienced riders, to modestly experienced (like me) to zero experience.
The bikes sit low like any HD, they have a V-twin like any HD and they are heavy for their size. Featureless too. No tachometer. No anti-lock brakes. No gauges other than an odometer and speedometer. Your inner thighs come in contact wiht the cooling fins on the rear cylinder of the engine, which gets reasonably warm, despite being a water cooled engine. I will say that riding this bike really makes you appreciate ABS brakes as the front brake grabs pretty easily.
I never really felt comfortable on the bike as my butt was low, arms relatively high and stretched out. Legs also felt pretty cramped as they are bent to sit on the pegs. And the pegs are so awkwardly placed and wide that when at rest and your feet are on the ground your legs are extended so far to either side that you risk a groin pull.
Engine, on the bright side, pulls very nicely with tons of torque so it is actually hard to stall if you have any throttle at all. I did find the gear shifter fairly clunky and stiff, but it does work.
All that criticism aside, it was a fun day thrashing these things around. We have 1 woman in class who quite literally dropped her bike in every exercise we did. I think she is a bit too timid, but she is also small and these things are fairly heavy (about 520# with fluids) so I think she would have been better off on a small bike. Had a guy who dropped his bike at least 3 times today. I don't think anyone else in the group dropped their bikes. We have a few in the group who rode in to the class on their big full dressed Indians and HDs. So its a pretty mixed group. We are in a big parking lot, our riding area is easily the size of a couple of football fields and they had us swerving and weaving around cones, panic stopping, doing all sorts of turns, running in formations, etc. Lots of fun and learned a good bit too.
Not looking to by one of these despite the fact that the instructors were pushing them pretty hard to my wife and I. Just not going to happen.
We are using them as our training motorcycles to get our re-certification for our state motorcycle license. The class is being taught by our local HD dealership, and is done in conjunction with the state BMV so if we pass the class we are exempt from taking both the written and the riding skills test.
I have to say I'm not impressed with these bikes. Ours are outfitted with bike protection in case of a drop ... which has happened to a few people in our class on multiple occasions. So I guess they are necessary. We have 12 in the class, from seriously experienced riders, to modestly experienced (like me) to zero experience.
The bikes sit low like any HD, they have a V-twin like any HD and they are heavy for their size. Featureless too. No tachometer. No anti-lock brakes. No gauges other than an odometer and speedometer. Your inner thighs come in contact wiht the cooling fins on the rear cylinder of the engine, which gets reasonably warm, despite being a water cooled engine. I will say that riding this bike really makes you appreciate ABS brakes as the front brake grabs pretty easily.
I never really felt comfortable on the bike as my butt was low, arms relatively high and stretched out. Legs also felt pretty cramped as they are bent to sit on the pegs. And the pegs are so awkwardly placed and wide that when at rest and your feet are on the ground your legs are extended so far to either side that you risk a groin pull.
Engine, on the bright side, pulls very nicely with tons of torque so it is actually hard to stall if you have any throttle at all. I did find the gear shifter fairly clunky and stiff, but it does work.
All that criticism aside, it was a fun day thrashing these things around. We have 1 woman in class who quite literally dropped her bike in every exercise we did. I think she is a bit too timid, but she is also small and these things are fairly heavy (about 520# with fluids) so I think she would have been better off on a small bike. Had a guy who dropped his bike at least 3 times today. I don't think anyone else in the group dropped their bikes. We have a few in the group who rode in to the class on their big full dressed Indians and HDs. So its a pretty mixed group. We are in a big parking lot, our riding area is easily the size of a couple of football fields and they had us swerving and weaving around cones, panic stopping, doing all sorts of turns, running in formations, etc. Lots of fun and learned a good bit too.
Not looking to by one of these despite the fact that the instructors were pushing them pretty hard to my wife and I. Just not going to happen.