Harley-Davidson Flhtc Electra Glide

HARLEY-DAVIDSON FLHTC ELECTRA GLIDE

RIDING IMPRESSION

What a difference a fairing makes

TWO MOTORCYCLES COULD HARDLY BE MORE alike than Harley's FLTC Tour Glide and FLHT Electra Glide. Since 1985, the motorcycle that bears the Electra Glide name has simply been a very slightly modified Tour Glide. The rubber-mounted engine, chassis design and luggage are the same as on the Tour Glide; only the FLHT’s handlebar-mounted fairing—and the bike’s name—can be traced to the original Electra Glide, Harley’s ageless tourer that dates back to the middle Sixties.

Ironically, the classic fairing on the new Electra Glide proves a more effective piece than the standard Tour Glide unit. Its handlebar-mount design allows the Electra Glide fairing to be placed closer to its rider, giving better wind protection than that provided by the FLTC’s frame-fitted fairing. Thus, much less turbulence buffets the Electra Glide’s rider, and, overall, there is less wind noise, yielding a higher level of rider comfort.

The sacrifices for this improved protection are minor. The top speed on our test Electra Glide was just

96 mph compared to 100 mph on our Tour Glide; but that’s a reasonably academic consideration, since speeds above 80 or so feel strained on either machine. The Electra Glide fairing also requires the use of smaller speakers with the sound system, resulting in distortion at a lower sound level than with the Tour Glide’s system. Still, sound quality is good in the normal volume ranges. What’s more, steering effort is slightly increased with the mass of the fairing attached to the fork; and the small, handy storage compartments provided in the FLTC fairing are nowhere to be found on the FLHT. But we’ll accept those trade-offs to get the improved protection.

Besides the fairing dissimilarities, these twin Twins differ only in their seats: The Electra Glide seat is slightly less generous in its padding to achieve some-

thing like the low seat height provided by earlier FLHs. Even that proves not to be much of a sacrifice, for the Electra Glide seat is nearly as comfortable as the excellent Tour Glide unit.

In the end, this leads us to a conclusion about Harley touring bikes that would have been just as true 20 years ago: The company’s best full-dress touring machine is the Electra Glide.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON

FLHTC TOUR GLIDE

$10,895