WEIGHT might not get the same amount of column-inches as power but it’s surely one of the most vital of all a bike’s statistics.
While some might like the ‘bigger is better’ adage, when it comes to two-wheelers extra bulk damps performance, strains brakes, suspension and tyres to the limit and makes manoeuvring harder.
We’ve dug through all the current models of bikes on the market to establish the definitive top 10 list of the chunkiest fatties out there. And you’re not going to be too surprised to hear that it’s dominated by machines from America. In fact, the demise of the old-model Honda Gold Wing means that now only Harley-Davidson and Indian machines appear in the top 10. The 2018-on Gold Wing, even in its fattest, airbag-and-DCT-equipped form would be down in 13th position overall at 383kg wet. And you’d be well into the 20s before you reached a European bike, the heaviest from this continent being the 350kg BMW K1600GTL.
We’re not going to include Harley’s brace of trikes. In case you’re interested, the Tri Glide Ultra is a car-like 564kg wet, while the Freewheeler isn’t far behind at 507kg. But since you can’t ‘drop’ them, the weight of those three-wheelers matters little. So we’re sticking to proper two-wheelers.
What’s more, we’re concentrating on proper kerb weights, complete with fluids and fuel, because you’re never going to find yourself riding a bike without those things. And they make for bigger numbers, of course.
So here goes with the top ten heavyweights…
9=: Indian Springfield (and Dark Horse): 388kg
At 388kg, Indian’s Springfield and Springfield Dark Horse are the featherweights of this list. For a bit of context, that’s about as much as a small male moose.
9=: Harley-Davidson Road Glide (and Special): 388kg
Literally matching the Indian Springfield, pound-for-pound, are the Harley Road Glide and Road Glide Special, which are also 388kg beasts. That’s as heavy as the 10.5cm Leichtgeschutz LG40 recoilless gun used by Germany in WW2.
Indian’s Chieftain Elite might be a motorcycle, but its 392kg weight puts it on a par with a Robinson R22 helicopter in terms of weight. The helicopter is significantly more powerful, though, with a 131hp four-cylinder engine.
The CVO Street Glide has the sort of price that has people saying “you could have had a car for that!” – and as it turns out you could get a car that weighs as much, too. The tiny Secma QT500, a 505cc twin-cylinder four-wheeler, weighs exactly the same amount at 392kg.
The CVO Road Glide is still far from the heaviest Harley here, but it’s the first to breach the 400kg barrier at 401kg. If a quad bike weighed that much, it would be legally classified as a car.
Back in WW1 the British relied heavily on 15-pounder guns. They weighed 406kg, which just happens to be as much as an Indian Roadmaster Classic.
Usually anything much over 200kg starts to feel fairly heavy when it comes to bikes, so at 413kg the the Ultra Limited is definitely a fatty. It weighs as much as the XLR99 rocket engine that powered the North American X-15 research plane to over 4000mph back in the 1960s.
The Roadmaster and Roadmaster Elite are starting to get near the heaviest machines on sale now, but are still knocked back to third place by two rival Harleys. Their 422kg weight is the same as a Piper PA-18 Super Cub two-seater plane, though.
And in second place, it’s the Harley Road Glide Ultra. The heaviest bike in Harley’s mainstream range tips the scales at a whopping 425kg ready-to-ride. It weighs about as much as a Honda Super Blackbird-engined Caterham 7 sports car.
And the winner is… The Harley CVO Limited, coming in at a massive 428kg. That’s exactly the same weight as a Kawasaki, though. It just happens to be a Kawasaki Jet Ski; the 310LX, which is also the most powerful personal watercraft in the world with a 310hp, supercharged, 1498cc four-cylinder engine. The Harley can’t muster quite that much.
