By @2_slicc / Matty
So last weekend a new friend Mark Rucco let me take his Harley Davidson Softail ST for a ride. To Be honest ive always been someone who has dogged on the Milwaukee 8 motors because I prefer the raw Feel of the Twin Cam motors. But after riding the new softail it has me thinking. Maybe I was too quick to judge the M8 softail platform. I decided to write down my thoughts and share some insight on what I thought.
My first stop was to pick up the bike at my friends shop Manic Cycle. They had just installed a Horsepower inc 2 into 1 exhaust and a drag specialties seat. So basically this bike was still bone stock minus the seat and the exhaust. So I was really excited to get to ride one of these bikes in stock form. I Feel like riding a bike that is heavily modified doest really show you what a bike is like in stock form or what it would be like to go and buy one of these off of the Harley Davidson show room.
My second stop after picking up the bike was to head home and meet my new neighbor Brennen who was going to be my tour guide for the day. Luckily for me when I moved in to my new apartment in Florida I happened to meet Brennen who was probably one of five guys in all of Florida to have a performance bagger.
So I jumped onto the highway and headed home. Quickly I realized I was speeding, Going 110 in a 65 on the freeway with a borrowed bike. I know this was probably not the best thing to do on a borrowed motorcycle but the Softail St fairing blocked so much wind that It felt so smooth going that fast. The bike had a stock windshield and I'm tall, sitting at 6 foot 3 I was so amazed that the small st fairing blocked that much wind.
Right away I realized that I loved this bike. I couldn't believe how much I liked the bike with how little work was done to it. Fortunately for me I am lucky enough to ride some of the nicest performance baggers built by some of the best builders in the country and it's really spoiled me. Now if I get on a stock bike all I can think about is how much I would do to a bike so that I would enjoy it. But the truth is this Harley Davidson softail st really is an awesome bike bone stock.
However I would do just a few small modifications to make it comfortable for my size and rider triangle preference. The first thing I noticed were that the Harley Davidson risers were a little short for me in the stock form. I would recommend doing a 8.5 inch Original Garage Moto handle bar riser to gain a little bit taller riding posture. Im normally not the type to have pull back risers but I think on this bike I would run a set of 8.5 Original Garage Moto pull back risers.
The next think I would do on the Softail to feel just a bit more comfortable would be to install some aftermarket Harley Foot pegs. I would install my favorite foot pegs from Original garage. These moto style foot pegs will grip your feet and help the rider feel more connected to the motorcycle.
While talking about foot pegs I think it's important to talk about the rear brakes on the softail. This was honestly the only gripe I had with the Harley Davidson Softail ST. The rear brakes really don't work well at all. Ive always heard people talk about this issue but this was the first time I had experienced it like this. The front brakes on the softail worked great but I would install the adjustable brake arm from Original Garage moto to help with that problem.
So Brennen and I headed over to the new local bike night to check out the sights and see what was going on. I was happy to check out the Manic cycle booth and see of the Custom Performance Harley Davidsons they have been working on. Including a fresh build they did on a performance bagger.
We walked around and took a look at some of the custom bikes and even watched a slow race. After that we took off and went for a ride next to the beach and enjoyed the day in the sun. This made me think about how much I love being out on two wheels. It felt nice to go to a local bike event and realize why we started TheDrifters.co it also reminded me how important it is to get out and really be apart of the community. go meet people that you don't know, Introduce yourself. To have the community that you want you have to help it get there.
The last thing I would do to this amazing motorcycle would be to protect it. Id install some crash bars front and back to make sure that this softail is protected in a crash. Id install the Original Garage Moto front softail crash bar & the Original Garage Moto rear softail crash bars.
I can't thank Mark and Manic cycle enough for letting me borrow this amazing bike for the day. It was a reminder of why I love motorcycling and why I want to work in this industry. For now I'm going to focus on trying to take part in the local community and meet some new riders.