ULTRA DESIRABLE

Craig’s first taste of Ultra has left him with a desire for more. Here’s what he had to say after his Quick Spin.

- Craig Pattison

This is a lot of motor-cycle by any standard, it’s long at 2600 mm, wide, and heavy at 416 kg, its engine is large, and the seating position is high which makes it the fully loaded touring experience that Harley-Davidson claim it to be. Getting onto this machine after riding my ’02 Heritage Classic was a shock to the system in so many ways. There’s the large touch screen display and numerous circular instruments inside the Bat Wing fairing for a start, then there’s the joystick controller at your right thumb, and the menu scroll/ setter at your left thumb.

Daryl, Mick, and the team at Harley Heaven were enthusiastic about handing this to me and made it all easy at collection time (thanks again HH). This is really my first decent experience with a Tourer, and I was a tad nervous for the first few minutes as it’s a lot of someone-else’s money to be learning on, but this bike inspires confidence once you’re moving. The new Milwaukee 8 engine is an outstanding powerplant that moves this big bike effortlessly with its 114 cubic inches of displacement. There are some really decent engine kits out there to take this to many more cubes and double the horsepower too if that’s your thing. 128 cubes and 150 hp is entirely feasible for this engine if you need to get there quicker than the Motor Co. are offering.