1996 Harley Davidson FXDWG Dyna Wide Glide
You know how, when you're a kid, there's always one bike that you drool over, that you close your eyes and imagine riding? The bike that lives on a poster above your bed?
This was mine. The Dyna Wide Glide. Big, spidery, chrome-covered styling, with faint echoes in the front end of Captain America's bike in Easy Rider and every raked-out chopper since. I saw it and knew that I loved it.
Fast-forward twelve years or so, and it's first thing this morning. I'm considering what I should test-ride today in my ongoing quest to find the perfect bike to replace my GSX-R750.
With thoughts of Triumph Street Triples and Buell XB12Ss in my head, I check the AMPS website to see what they have laying about on the floor, and 'FXDWG' leaped off the page at me.
I swear, I was actually nervous as I picked up the phone and booked my lunchtime test ride on the Harley. It just felt a little... deviant.
Turning up at AMPS, I was greeted with the FXDWG sitting placidly amidst the noise and confusion of a showroom floor covered in fatter, newer HD models. Geoff the salesman wheeled it out for me and fired it up on the Khyber Pass footpath, putting some sterling effort into the delicate balance of starter cranking, throttle and choke position that appears to be required to get a cold Evolution V-twin idling without stalling.
Eventually wobbling my way down the footpath and into traffic, I turned up onto the motorway heading north for my usual northwest test loop, and the fun commenced.
The run up the northern motorway to the Albany turnoff is always a slightly uncomfortable time on a new, different bike, and this was no exception. It took me a while to realise that I did not need to change gears very often, if at all. Fourth and top were sufficient for everything over 50kph.
Time to test the power. A quick full-throttle test in the top two gears up Albany hill resulted in the FXDWG reaching a wheezy 120kph by the point where a GSX-R1000 would be doing something well over twice the open-road limit. The general aural involvement and wind pressure, however, were comparable, and for a gentleman such as myself with 90 demerit points on his licence, ridiculously low performance levels can be a good thing.
Turning onto the sinuous Coatesville-Riverhead road, I was oddly confident about the Dyna's handling, and indeed it does handle. The standard 'relaxed pace' method of converting the signposted recommended KPH speed to MPH for corner entry works well. On the Dyna, you just pick your line early, look where you want to go and whack on as much throttle as you like, and the bike carves sedately through and out of the corner, with a lovely surge of torque at the exit if you've picked your gear correctly and pinned the throttle with the right timing. No surprises, no 'moments', just smooth, predictable behaviour from a bike that does everything that could be expected of something with its geometry.
I also found that it's better to err on the side of leaving the old Harley in a higher gear for corners, rather than changing down. Whenever the engine starts to sound like it's revving, you've run out of puff and will need to change back up if you want to add further velocity.
And, ahhhh, the sound, the sound. It sounds gorgeous. Soft, rumbling pulses from the 2-into-1 exhaust that are loud and insistent at idle, smooth to a purr when under way, and rise to a sharp bark at the (very low) top of the rev limit. It's true; nothing else sounds quite like a Harley.
Riding along, in spite of Geoff's warning about the gearbox being clunky and harsh, I found the gearchange action quite smooth and liquid, with a long, positive throw on each selection, and not a trace of unpleasant jerking or grinding through the transmission. The clutch felt good, not too heavy, not too light, with just the right amount of vibration transmitted through the lever to allow a good feel for 'bite' and a smooth takeoff, and the brakes were surprisingly adequate, with the application of both producing plenty of slowdown when required.
On the whole, the bike felt solid. Solid and smooth and comfortable, as though all its parts were milled from hefty, high-quality lumps of steel, and fitted together 'just right'.
A quick roll-on along the flat confirmed that the Dyna will do the magic ton in top, although it didn't feel like it had much left to go, and certainly the wind and riding position made it a little unpleasant. You just don't cruise on this thing beyond 110-120kph.
I found myself enjoying the scenic burble in the perfect noon sunshine so much, in fact, that I turned right instead of left at the top of Old North Road and made my test ride longer than I'd planned. That's a rare thing for me to do.
I eventually looped around and back down SH16, and stuttered to a gas-starved halt a few kilometres down the motorway. Fortunately, the reserve switch is obvious and easily accessible, so a quick fumble got the big twin rumbling back into life without any fuss for the final cruise into town and back into the driveway at AMPS.
I hopped off to find that the poor old thing had obviously buckled somewhat under the strain, because it'd pissed nice clean oil all over my pillion's (yes, of course I had a pillion, that's what Harleys are for, right?) boots, back down the swingarm, and all over the rear wheel!
Giggles were duly giggled, and I went inside to hand back the keys and mention that they might want to have a quick look at the bike before letting it out again...
So... did it go? Of course not, don't be silly; it weighs several tons and has a 55bhp engine.
Did it handle? Yes! The suspension had the perfect combination of plushness and firmness, and the bike tracked through corners under throttle without a wiggle.
Was it comfortable? Ridiculously so. I could have sat on it all day, and I actually had to check in my mirrors a few times just to reassure myself that my long-suffering test-ride pillion was still there. I barely noticed her on the back.
Did it sound good? You shouldn't even need to ask.
Would I buy one?
Yes.
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
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Originally Posted by Hitcher
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