New Harley Davidson Models

Firstly let me echo the positives that so many industry peeps have said about the Mocos new line up. Change is good.


Unless you've been under a rock the past few days you will have seen that the Moco was generating a hefty amount of Hyper around some big announcement. Images of big black boxes at various locations generated much hype. Well they delivered.

I was completely expecting another parts bin special and despite the rumors for what seems like months nay years that the Dyna line was being killed off. That's what happened. They killed off Dynas and Softails as we know them.


An image or two leaked a few hours earlier, one of the fat bob and one of the fat boy. I will admit I was a little dumbfounded as to why the Moco was just making everything softails now. Until the images of the new frame came out.

A new mono shock frame of monoshock where the shock is mounted under the seat and compresses with the swing arms up travel. As opposed to the underslung twin shocks of the softails of old that pulled as the swingarm pivoted up this new fram screams better handling.


I've never been a guy to buy a bike for looks, I go by the feel and the spec sheet. Out of the old Dyna lineup the Fat Bob is actually the ugliest of the lot, but on paper it met my requirements perfectly and changing the bikes aesthetics has been half the fun.

So when I look at the new softail lineup these are my thoughts

The Good

Motor

The Milwaukee 8 engines make more power, run cleaner and vibrate less Its great that these are now available with better power to weight ratio than their bagger brothers
Chassis

It just simply HAS to work better than the softail & dyna of old. Couple that with upside down forks and various combinations of wheel sizes and widths there is a model fro everyone. Ditching the oil bag under the seat is also a win.
LED Lighting

LED lighting its a no brainer
Less weight

The easiest way to add more power is to remove weight and seeing figures like "30lb lighter" is promising.
Technology

Things like USB charging ports in the frame neck and minimalist dashboards that form the handlebar riser clamp are brilliant. More of this please Harley.
Accessories

In the dealer press release the marketing guys attached a tour opack onto a heritage. While the tour pack was hideous it illustrated that the new platform doesn't need turn signal relocations or any other shiznit to attach luggage. A big win in my books.
Colour

I've hated the stupid sticker come clear coated stripe on the gen 2 fatbobs but the gen3 has a bitchin combo. And the 2018 CVO line-up for tourers now has some slick solid colours and less of that tribal bollocks of old.
Finishes

I'm loving the new bronze collection as well as the brushed/satin chrome on the fat boy.

The Bad

Sadly the shaving of weight appears to be at the cost of among other thinsg fuel capacity. Comparing my Gen2 Fatty with the Gen3 Soft Fat Bob I can fit 18.5 litres in where as the new model only gets 16.3 that may not sound like much but it all counts. (By comparison the touring models hold 27 litres) The new Street Bob holds 15.9 litres. Now one could argue that the M8 motors may be more efficient but whikle that is great Id rather see a bigger tank so I can go further on a fill up. But having said that the softail Slim has 22L capacity so maybe its just the dynas that copped the biggest diet.
Similarly things look to be more complicated on the new models for standard servicing. Where you had to remove only the seat or a side cover on the old Dyna and Softtails to remove the battery you now need to move the Rear shock. Where you simply pulled your 2 plugs before on the M8 motor you need to remove the tank to access the second set of plugs

Size wise I do have some worries about the fit of the new chassis. As you've read before at 6'7" I am too tall for several of the previous softail models and the ones I do fit (the softail slim) I couldn't really ride any real distance. But that's no biggy, out of all the dyna models the only one I could ride off the lot without changing anything is the wide glide. So I accept that whatever model I chose I would at minimum be changing Seat and bars. And maybe controls. The forward control mounting points do seem a little closer than the current dyan forwards. Time will tell.

The Ugly

The ugliest thing about the new monoshock softail lineup has been peoples reactions to it. Mainly Dyna riders. Mainly GenY fan boys who didn't know a Dyna from a sportster before watching sons of Anarchy. But hey that's their loss. Change is good. I rode and didn't like the previous BMW R1200GSA but when I rode the water boxer (a major improvement over previous designs I was impressed enough to drop a tonne of coin on one.

But the Dyna clowns are in an uproar. Mainly because the only mistake the Moco made was retaining the Softail moniker. If they had of thought of a new name for the monoshock chassis perhaps the attitude of the Dyna primadonnas would be different. But hey if Dynas made up such a small market segment who cares hey?

Would I buy one?

If I were replacing my fatbob most definitely YES!! The fat new bob would make a great sport bike chaser. I've already seen one converted to club style and I'm a fan (and I'm not even a fan of club style bikes). At first I was neither here nor there but it has really grown on me in 3 days. I can't wait to ride one.
But now that you can put the seats from just about any model on any other model I have to say the Softail slim or the Deluxe would make a sweet second bike. Whitewalls, Ape hangers Long Pipes. I can't wait to see what the aftermarket does for this new breed of bikes.

Of course if I were dropping coin on a new 2018 Harley from the dealership it would be a tourer in a heart beat but in the meantime I can dream and watch the exciting times ahead.