THE PR blurb maybe goes a teeny bit far when it describes this bike as being like 'a drag racer crossed with a fighter jet'. But this new Harley 'power cruiser' looks like it should be good fun.
It's built around the firm's Softail chassis, and uses a new aluminium swingarm, with a cunning rear mudguard that pivots up and down with the rear wheel, so it can hug really tight. The tyre itself is a huge 240-section hoop, matched to a 19-inch front. Harley reckons it's saved nearly eight kilos over the steel swingarm and rear subframe of the standard Softail range. The front end incorporates a raked USD fork, with an Ace thin-spoked alloy rim.
The FXDR uses the latest Milwaukee-Eight 114 V-twin engine, that puts out around 90bhp at the rear wheel, pushing along 289kg dry. They're not great numbers compared with something like a Ducati Diavel of course, but we're used to that with Harley.
We'll be riding the new bike next month, and will report back on how it goes then...
