Quick Ride

Quick Ride

HARLEYDAVIDSON SOFTAIL DEUCE Fuel-injected fun

QUESTION: WHAT CURRENT production motorcycle has the most sophisticated electronic fuel-injection system? The new Honda RC51? Nope. Ducati’s 996? Wrong again. Need a hint? It’s a cruiser, Harley-Davidson’s 2001 Deuce, to be exact.

Visually, there aren’t many differences between an EFIequipped Deuce and the standard carbureted model, which we picked as last year’s Best Cruiser. Press the starter button, though, and the 1450cc V-Twin leaps to life and settles immediately into a slightly fast idle.

Ride away with little warm-up, even on a cool morning, and the injected Beta twin-cammer provides smooth, hesitation-free acceleration. Keep on riding, and it is difficult to find any aspect of engine operation worth complaining about. Even when you snap the throttle wide-open, response is seamless.

As with all Softails, fuel-injection is an $800 option on the Deuce. The system uses a single 45mm throttle body and Y-mani-

fold, as compared to the dual runners and 38mm throttles on FLs. The reason? Performance.

It is difficult to package big, good-flowing twin runners in the tight confines of a 45-degree VTwin. Another reason is emotion. Harley discovered customers prefer the characteristic loping idle of a carbureted Harley to the smooth regularity of an injected FL. The Y-manifold allows for cylinder crosstalk and EGR irregularities that

make for a less than clock-like idle, though our testbike’s idle variation offered only a hint of rough-running past.

Guiding the Delphi-built, injection-controlling black boxand taking fully one-third its volume-is motorcycling’s most advanced knock-control system.

Measuring the current flowing across the plug gap immediately after ignition, which is dependent on cylinder pressure, the unit uses that “ionization” information to determine when incipient detonation begins. It then dials back the spark long before any knock can be heard-slick, invisible and, again, seamless.

The rest of the motorcycle is standard Deuce-arguably the most handsome and in many ways the best Softail. Counterbalancers take the shake out of the engine without robbing it of character, and the stiff chassis provides good handling. In fact, the Deuce works almost as well as a Dyna Super Glide Sport or even a Victory V92SC-all the while offering a comfortable, stretched-out riding position and low seat height.

Given a choice, the injected Deuce is the way to go, as long as you are content with the from-thefactory performance. (Stock, the injection provides a rich enough mix for exhaust-pipe changes, but more extensive modifications require a new map.) For the money, the system provides excellent performance, as well as offering biker-bar bragging rights that you’ll not find anywhere else.

Steve Anderson