With a lull in the bucketing-down-real-old-school Cape winter, we had a few days of sensual sunshine, windless and very spring-like. It was the perfect time for a cruise with the Street Bob through the dairy farms, green and gold canola fields and even the first spring flowers popping up. The route I chose had little traffic (what a pleasure) but poor quality tar. Impressions? The Harley’s suspension did a brilliant job of absorbing the dips in the tar. Some did get through to my back as this is no motocross setup.
What helped was to forego the forwards-control foot pegs and pull your feet back to the rear pegs. Here you can use your legs to cushion some of the bumps. It also reduces wind noise at high speeds and eases the heat coming off the engine on the right-hand side. Rumbling along behind the removable screen, I also got to really admire those handle bars. Nominally called “drag bars”, this is a length of oversized tubing (1¼ inch) clamped to a pair of risers from the triple clamp. This brings the bars to a comfortable height while retaining a flat-and-low look with the increased diameter adding a sense of strength. What isn’t chromed is finished in a deep gloss black.
Oh, and the cabling is internal to clean it all up further. The first oil change is due at 1 000 miles, so soon (at 1 600 km) we will book “Bob” in to Harley Davidson Cape Town and report back on the experience.
Mileage on arrival: 810 km
Mileage now: 1 248 km
Fuel consumption: 5,61 L/100 km
What we like: wind cheating screen
What we don’t like: would help tall riders if the screen could be raised further
