Cruiser diaries

Bike; Harley-Davidson FLHX Street Glide

Words Colin Overland

Pictures Mark Manning

“What. Make. Of. Bike. Is. That?” The teenager standing on the other side of the road is doing that thing of speaking slowly because he thinks that words spoken slowly will, somehow, penetrate my helmet and earplugs more effectively.

“Harley. Davidson,” I reply, because normal speech now seems inappropriate.

“Harley. Davidson,” he confirms, and gives a thumbs-up, then strolls on, his mysterious mission accomplished.

Why is he asking? Because he thinks my Street Glide is a Harley but can’t be sure, as his view is partly obscured by traffic? Because he wonders if it might be the very similar looking Kawasaki VN1700 Voyager Custom? Or because this is all happening in Hinckley, the Leicestershire town remarkable for being home to the Triumph factory? And he thinks this might be a prototype Triumph. And if I say ‘yes’ he’ll whip out his phone and start taking pictures that within the hour will be all over the web.

It’s all possible, isn’t it? The way Triumph have studied the BMW GS series, the F800GS in particular, and come up with the very similar Tiger 800, shows that they can do it. And at this autumn’s Milan show they’ll unveil the 1200 version, which will show what they’ve learnt from the R1200GS and the Ducati Multistrada and the Yamaha Super Tenere.

They already do a good variety of cruisers, several of them featured a couple of months ago in our Cruiser Special. They’re none of them V-twins, and none of them are quite as big and touring-orientated as the Street Glide and its Milwaukee siblings, although the Rocket III Touring is similar in spirit.

But they could do one, couldn’t they? And it would probably work well, given Triumph’s track record. If – purely hypothetically – that were to happen, why would anyone want to stick with the real Harley, and why would anyone want to switch to the Triumph alternative?

It’s a question that arose when we rode the VN1700 earlier this year. It’s a tremendous bike. On paper it does everything the Harley does. In practice, it feels less punchy, slightly smoother, slightly slower. Forgive me for employing such a lazy phrase, but the Harley has more character. OK, it also vibrates more – one of the bolts holding the right pannier in place keeps shaking itself loose, which is not something I’d expect from a Kawasaki. But I like the Harley more, and that’s not because I’ve done more miles on it and got used to it – I liked it the first time I rode it, last year in Austria.

But what if Triumph were to have a bash at building one? They’re very good at engineering-in that elusive ‘character’, aren’t they? It would be good and it would be interesting. But it wouldn’t be a Harley. Even if you’re not a Harley fan, as soon as you’ve ridden a few you get to notice that there are certain characteristics that differentiate Hogs from other bikes. Even the smallest Sportster has a reassuringly heavy feel; they all have large-diameter handlebars, which affects how you hold them and interact with them; they all – even the relatively sophisticated V-Rod – have an engine note that’s somewhere between drag racer and tractor; and they all have a way of turning heads and getting people talking, and that’s something few other bikes can manage.