Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide
HARLEY-DAVIDSON Ultra Classic Electra Glide
CYCLE WORLD TEST
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING FUEL-INJECTED . . .
ANYONE TRULY LOOKING FOR THE TRANSPORTIVE experience promised in Steppenwolf's classic rocker "Magic Carpet Ride" needn't look much farther than a touring bike.
These things are magic carpets, whisking their riders from place to place seemingly without effort. They’re non-threatening and comfortable looking. Stop while aboard one, and instead of regarding you as a two-wheeled extra-terrestrial ax-murderer, people want to talk to you about your ride.
The bike that has effectively defined the touring-bike genre for the last decade and more is Honda’s Gold Wing. But touring enthusiasts would do well to remember that there is a really interesting alternative to the big Wing.
That alternative wears a Harley-Davidson nameplate and is touring’s fiddler on the roof, exuding tradition like no other member of this motorcycle classification.
This year’s Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide mixes a bit of high technology with its traditional look and feel. This bike, so clearly connected to the Harley family in both visual and engineering terms, is fed not by carburetor but by a sophisticated electronic fuel-injection system that makes the bike even more a joy to ride than it always has been. Just 2000 of the injected Glides were made for '95, in celebration of the model’s 30th anniversary. Suggested retail is $17,500, about $1500 more than the regular, carbureted version.
Oh, yes; the bike still delivers the frustrations we've come to expect from the Harley-Davidson product. But it also delivers the satisfactions that have made the marque so successful. There’s a balance here, and it is this balance between the bike’s quirks and its qualities that makes it so interesting and endearing.
The foundation upon which this machine is built is a familiar one. It starts with the basic backbone frame introduced in the 1980 model year. This mild-steel structure is of interest because it was the first Harley-Davidson frame to offer rubber-mounting, with a single mounting point at the front of the engine’s crankcases and two more at the rear, back by the swingarmpickup points.
This is a good thing, for the Harley engine rocks and rolls thanks to the fact that it’s a single-crankpin 45-degree VTwin, without benefit of counterbalancer. It bops like a butter chum, and, when hard-bolted to a frame, its vibrations quickly become intrusive. When it isn’t, they don’t.
The engine and transmission package has a certain unconventionality about it. This is an air-cooled V-Twin with a separate five-speed transmission. The two are connected by a left-hand primary case containing the clutch and a doublerow chain that transmits the engine’s power to the transmission. Long ago, this was the standard. But the rest of the world long since moved to unitized designs, which are far more compact, with far fewer seams and joins to seep oil. Harley persists with this design. It is one of the things that makes a Harley-Davidson a Harley-Davidson.
First clue that computer-chip technology has made its mark on the good of Glide is evident the instant the ignition key is turned: You hear the same electronic buzz emitted by liquid-cooled Ducatis-it’s the EFI system priming itself. That runs for a second or two, then quiets. That’s when you hit the starter button. You hear precisely the same sounds and feel the same sensations Harley riders have heard and felt since Harleys got electric starters. If left alone, when the engine lights, its tach needle climbs to 1600 rpm. As it warms up, the needle will fall until it’s indicating a steady 1000-rpm idle. Warmed up or not, cold-start or hot-start, as soon as the engine’s running it’s ready for use, without the pops, coughs and fits its carbureted brethren sometimes can provide. An increase in torque is also claimed for the system, though this proved not to be the case. Our ’95 testbike posted near-identical readings to the carbed Electra Glide we tested in 1992, though top-gear roll-ons were better, especially from 60 to 80 mph, where the injected bike was more than a second quicker.
The reality is, with or without fuel injection, this engine’s got plenty of torque—that’s one of its most endearing features. To launch, just dial up a few revs, feed in the clutch, and upshift at as little as 1500 rpm; there’s enough lowand midrange poop to move the bike along nicely. Redline is at 5200 revs, but the engine doesn't breathe well up there in its rpm attic, and it ceases pulling hard at about 4800 rpm. So there’s little excuse for running the tach beyond that point.
Nevermind. Acceleration-indeed, any sort of performance riding—isn’t what this bike is about. What it’s about is sustained cruising, and when used for that activity, the engine disappears from the rider’s consciousness, pulling along, steady-state, with just its distant exhaust thrum coming mostly from the right-hand pipe, which processes most of the exhaust stream, and a hint oi vibratory rumble to remind you what’s below the tank providing propulsion.
Hung on to the Electra Glide’s frame are suspension systems that are air-adjustable.
For the otherwise unremarkable fork, there’s a Schrader valve at the end of the left handgrip. For the rear, the Schrader valve is located on a panel low on the left side, just ahead of the saddlebag. Minimum pressure is 10 psi at the front and zero psi at the rear; maximum pressure at either end is 35 psi. Use the minimum and things get mushy. Go to the max and you jack the bike up to the top of its suspension travel and get a very Firm ride indeed.
We liked 16 psi up front and 10 psi at the rear. We found this kept us, with one rider and his luggage aboard, from bottoming the bike without making the ride too harsh.
The Electra Glide’s styling is as timeless as that of a steam locomotive. There’s certainly nothing contemporary about the fairing; not in its look and not in its aerodynamics. It does a commendable job of keeping the weather off the rider’s upper body, and it isn’t fussy in windy conditions. Leg protection, however, is minimal in spite of the fiberglass pods attached to the bike’s tip-over bars. These, by the way, incorporate pockets that are handy for stashing spare gloves-they won’t hold much more than that.
But that’s fine, because the bike’s hard luggage will carry everything else you could conceivably require for the typical tour, including your wife’s hot-curler set or your Snapon tool box. The massive top box opens from the right and is so large that you can, if you wish, pack real clothes (as opposed to jeans and T-shirts) in the nylon luggage bags that come with the bike. You’ll find them unwrinklcd and wearable at the end of a long day’s ride. A good deal.
The side boxes are a somewhat less good deal. They’ll hold plenty, mind you; just pack the nylon bags with nonwrinkle-critical gear-rain suits, cold-weather gloves, etc.-and stuff it in. What’s strange is that these boxes are accessed by an odd, double-jointed hinge and backwards latch system, neither of which works the way you think they will. It’s fine once you get the hang of it, but like so much of this motorcycle, it’s Harley-Davidson-conventional that is entirely unconventional by the standards of the rest of the motorcycling world.
Hop aboard, and the first impression is of how right the seating position is, and of how low this bike’s center feels. That seating position is somewhat deceptive, however. It relies upon a seat that is outstanding in terms not only of its shape, but also in the characteristics of its foam. You sit in it with your legs comfortably deployed and your arms and hands grasping the handlebar grips in a very comfortable position. What is less outstanding is that this is your only option. The seat is formed to lock the rider into just one riding position, with no room at all to move around in the saddle during long rides. Not so good, though on balance, we judge this to be a better situation than one in which there’s plenty of room to move around, but upon a poorly shaped and/or padded seat.
Out on the road, it’s easy to find a lot to like about the Electa Glide. It also is easy to find a few things that are, to riders unfamiliar with this marque, odd and offputting, the very sorts of things that give the HarleyDavidson its love-it-or-leave-it cachet.
One of the nicest things about riding this bike is the crispness and precision of its steering-you’re thinking, “On a Harley!?” Well, yeah, this is a touring bike we’re talking about here. Give the bar a nudge-and that’s all it ever needs, since the the steering is fairly light and neutral-and it answers, right now.
It’s enough to make you want to crank up your speeds. Don’t do it. The bike brakes well enough, in spite of very small rotors and single-piston floating calipers; but there’s not a lot of ground clearance. Increase your speeds a bit and it isn’t long before you’re dragging hard parts, particularly in left-hand corners, when the sidestand (there’s no center-stand) begins kissing the pavement with a sound certain to jangle your passenger’s nerves.
Jangled nerves are not what bikes like this are about. They’re for the soothing of sensibilities, and this bike does as good a job of that as any we’ve ridden recently.
Yes, if you’re new to the Harley hierarchy, the handlebar switchgear, an ergonomics spe-
cialist’s nightmare, will drive you nuts, since very few of the controls fall where your hands and fingers expect to find them. Yes, the dash looks like something out of a 1972 Kenworth truck. Yes, Harley’s oddball barrel-key ignition switch and steering-lock arrangement takes some serious and intensive getting used to. Yes, you can’t see what the rocker switches on the lower fairing are for until you actually reach down and turn them on, exposing their labeling (cruise control, aux lights, radio speakers and accessories). And yes, you have to make three separate switch strokes to bring the cruise control to life.
This is a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide, after all, and it isn’t like anything else. Love it or leave it? You bet.
Harley-Davidson must be doing something very right, because enough folks love these bikes to leave behind their purchase prices-the highest ever for a stock touring bike, in the case of this one. They’re quirky beasts, and probably not for every rider. But for those looking for an alternative to the standard touring magic carpet, they provide a great deal to appreciate.
H-D FLHTCU
$17,500
Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Inc.
EDITORS' NOTES
IF I WERE TO DON CHAPS AND FRINGE, and hit the highway headed for Sturgis, the Ultra Electra Glide would be my ride of choice. You see, the road from California to South Dakota is a long one and although the Electra Glide’s creature comforts don’t exactly rival those of a La-Z-Boy recliner, it’s the closest thing Milwaukee has to offer. And I wanna be in good shape for getting totally trashed when I arrive.
The 30th Anniversary Special Edition’s electronic fuel injection would make over-the-road life all the smoother with easy cold starts and rheostat engine response. Of course, I can get all that and more from the top-of-the-line Honda Gold Wing GL1500 SE, which is faster, quicker and costs about $ 1500 less.
Which leaves me thinking, if my long-distance destination is anywhere other than Daytona Beach or Sturgis, I have to admit I’d much rather be Wingin’ it.
-Don Canet, Road Test Editor
I JUST BOUGHT ME A NEW TRUCK. BlG motor and suspension, all the cool extras. Not cheap. But you know what? This Electra Glide costs more than I paid for that durned Ford pickup. For me, that’s the most telling aspect of this bike, which except for its fuel-injection system, represents a weird obsolescence veiled as tradition.
Now, the last time I wrote a discouraging word about a Harley, convicts wrote to threaten me and right-wingers called to inform me that I’m unAmerican. Hey, lighten up! I do not hate Harleys. They’re motorcycles, after all. They have character and nice paint. But, for that kind of money, can’t they also have state-ofthe-art suspension and brakes? Or is the Motor Company imprisoned by low-tech tradition?
In a way, BMW recently was threatened by such a situation. So it designed and built the R1100 Boxer series. The R 1100s maintain BMW traditions, but are better than the old Boxers in every way. There’s a lesson here.
-Jon F. Thompson. Senior Editor
ALL RIGHT, LISTEN UP ALL YOU TECHNOphobes: There is nothing to fear about fuel-injection. As applied to the Ultra E-Glide, all you lose are a few random coughs, sputters and wheezes-you call that character?
More importantly, the Ultra is a crystal-ball look at the future. See, the Evolution engine, that hoary old lump
of a V-Twin, beloved though it may be, ain’t long for this world. Just as the Knucklehead gave way to the Panhead gave way to the Shovelhead, the Evo will be replaced. Has to be. Tighter noise and emissions regulations-especially overseas, where 30 percent of all Harleys are sold-will force an update. Fuel injection, virtually universal in new cars these days, will help appease the pollution-sniffers, and-wait for it-liquid-cooling, with its insulating water jackets and tighter manufacturing tolerances, will tone down the thrashing going on inside the motor, a major source of dB’s.
Progress, like it or not. -David Edwards, Editor-in-Chief
