2009 Dyna Super Glide - First Ride

[Pete]

I had the wife give me a ride to Tilley Harley Davidson today to pick up the new Super Glide. She didn't leave empty handed, I bought her a new pair of chick-boots.

An hour later I was on the bike and headed out of the parking lot. While the FXD looks a bit like a Sportster on steroids, its differences outweigh its similarities. At about 80 pounds heavier, wet, and with a 4" longer wheel base, the SG is definitely a bigger machine. You can feel the mass of the bike and the longer wheel base immediately.

The SG is not anywhere near as top heavy as my 2008 XL883. With most of the weight in that big-twin engine, the bike is considerably better balanced at slow speeds. That is something that I was not expecting. At stop lights you can practically balance the bike without moving.

The seat is lower than my Sportsters seat, then again I have a pretty thick Mustang Classic Touring seat on that bike. Even with the lower seat, the SG has about 3/8" less ground clearance than the Sportster while having the same lean angle on the right and 2 degrees more lean on the left. I didn't get to go far enough to test the seat, but it was comfortable with a nice bit of butt/back support to keep you from sliding back on the seat.

The longer wheelbase and greater weight give the SG as smoother ride than the Sportster. I was expecting that. Cornering on the SG is good and solid, though I think that the bike would benefit from a fork brace. The bars are very similar to Road King bars which is a change from the Sportsters stock bars that are gripped at an angle that is a lot less parallel to the tank. It made aggressive corners feel different; it is probably something I will get used to or I'll change the bars.

I never thought that the Sportster lacked for power. It would fly up the mountains without straining. Still, there is no denying the torque that a big-twin engine puts out. When I cracked the throttle a bit the SG just got up and left. It was impressive and the engine is stock with stock mufflers. One of my favorite features is that sweet six-speed transmission. It shifted easily and smoothly. There was no whine in 5th gear that I could hear.

All that torque coupled to a great six-speed transmission make me understand how you could get on that bike and knock down 400 miles a day with ease. On the Sportster, I always seemed to be trying to shift into a sixth gear that it didn't have. The high rpm's of the 883 engine in 5th gear just screamed for another cog.

The 4.8 gallon tank on the SG holds 1.5 gallons more than the Sportsters 3.3 gallon tank. Even with the Sportster getting better milesage, that works out to stopping for gas every 200 miles on the SG instead of every 130 miles on the 883.

Downside - The Sportster is a more nimble bike that can be thrown into corners with great confidence, especially with a fork brace and some good suspension mods. Downhill on 181 it could probably beat the SG. The Sportster, being lighter is an easier bike to manhandle on bad surfaces. If you were to get caught on a switchback behind a tourist in a cage taking photos of a groundhog or something, the XL would be an easier bike to control by virtue of its lower weight and narrower frame. Both bikes have a very classic Harley profile, though the Sportster with the the 3.3 gallon tank remains the epitome of what a Harley Davidson is.

A couple of the niceties of the SG are a genuine fuel gauge, a light that tells you when you are in 6th gear, and an additional mode in the odometer window that tells you how many more miles you can go before the low gas light goes on.

I know that a lot of you will think that I'm nuts, but I really like the sound of the stock mufflers. I ride about 22k per year and there is nothing more annoying or fatiguing that having to listen a loud bike for seven hours a day, or more - not to mention the cops writing noise citations.

Tonight I mounted a Memphis Shades Fat windshield that is 19" high. It will make for a good winter shield. As you might expect, it's going to rain tomorrow and Saturday.

...And I'll change my photos as soon as I get a chance to take a couple pictures of the new machine.

Pete

[XDixiecratX]

Congradulations Pete, Enjoy it!

[DCLXVI]

Pete, I hope you enjoy your new Dyna, I have an '06 and enjoy mine very much. I agree with you about the stock mufflers. There are many out there that sound nice but when you ride every day and start adding on the miles they start getting a little annoying. I still have mine and ride with earplugs in. I can ride allot longer with ear protection in. Get some pics up soon, we want to see.

[DeepPurple]

Nice review. Hope ya get a lot of enjoyment out of your new ride.

[pupmstr35]

Hey Pete I hope you enjoy your new SG I have an 02 and i love it....Keep the rubber side down......

[wpk0925]

First of all, you're going to love that FXD.

We did the reverse of what you did. I went from a Honda VTX straight to the FXD. I test rode a couple of 1200 Customs, but the FXD looked and felt like the ticket, especially for 2 up riding and the price was pretty close, too. Then my wife wanted to ride, took and passed the MSF course, and we got her a very lightly used '08 883 Low. I rode the 883 the other day, and where it starts to run low on steam past 65 or so, the Big Twin keeps right on crankin' (and crankin' and crankin' and...). Just wild and scary fast, to me anyway. And since the 883 is a Low, forget about lean angles. I was suprised at how little you can lean into a corner before the peg feelers are getting ground down. Still the 883 is a neat little bike - my wife absolutely refused to get a smaller metric bike.

Good luck with your Glide, and ride safe.

[steve72]

I love my 09 FXD. I bought the passenger pilion and a back rest for the misses and she says its pretty comfy. It gives the rider a bit more lower back support also which is nice. Looks a bit ugly though IMHO. I just take it off when rideing solo. Havent done anything over 100 miles at a time on it yet but no back pain or fatigue.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by wpk0925

First of all, you're going to love that FXD.

We did the reverse of what you did. I went from a Honda VTX straight to the FXD. I test rode a couple of 1200 Customs, but the FXD looked and felt like the ticket, especially for 2 up riding and the price was pretty close, too. Then my wife wanted to ride, took and passed the MSF course, and we got her a very lightly used '08 883 Low. I rode the 883 the other day, and where it starts to run low on steam past 65 or so, the Big Twin keeps right on crankin' (and crankin' and crankin' and...). Just wild and scary fast, to me anyway. And since the 883 is a Low, forget about lean angles. I was suprised at how little you can lean into a corner before the peg feelers are getting ground down. Still the 883 is a neat little bike - my wife absolutely refused to get a smaller metric bike.

Good luck with your Glide, and ride safe.

I used to run my XL883 on I40 at 80 mph all the time. It always ran like a scalded dog - no lack of power. It just felt like it needed a sixth gear at those speeds. The FDX just doesn't seem to ever run out of steam or gears. While the Sportster is more at home blasting around mountain roads than cruising the super-slabs, the SG just feels like it wants to go somewhere a long way away. I can only wonder what a beast the Super Glide would be with the right exhaust, intake, and tuner. Today I went out for about an hour and a half with an eye on storms that always threatened without every doing anything except blowing like hell. Even with the big windshield the SG handled great. While I never scraped the pegs today, having a good lean angle give you the confidence that you can really lean the bike over without dragging metal. Don't try that on a Sportster Low model. The SG is incredibly good at low speed maneuvering. I was concerned that after riding the Sportster that the SG would be hard to handle at parking lot speeds. The low center of gravity makes cone maneuver a piece of cake. It's more stable when stopping or when in the friction zone following in slow traffic. The only mod that I anticipate making sooner rather than later, other than crash bars and a sissy bar, is to move the bars back a little closer to me, with risers. Considering the stock bar configuration, I'm thinking that I will probably get a set of bars with a lower rise and a wider angle. I like the Sportster bars a lot. When cornering hard, I have better control over handlebars with a more drag-bar configuration. I can't wait to take the bike to the mountains. The only issue that I am dealing with is that the shift points, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 seem to be a bit low. I am chalking that up to the fact that I'm moving from a higher revving 883 to a big-twin. The engine has plenty of power at these shift points, it just seems that the rpm's at those speeds are not optimal. One thing that I know for certain is that I'm going to have to be careful not to get a speeding ticket on the SG. I keep catching myself running over the speed limit by 10 mph or more. With lower gearing and a higher revving engine, the Sportster was pretty easy to keep under or at the speed limit, at least in top gear. I can't say the same for the FDX. Today I looked down at the speedometer and I was going 70 mph in a 55 zone and it didn't fell like I was going that fast. About two minutes later, after I slowed down, I passed two cops with radars guns just waiting for an idiot like me to give them a reason to write a ticket. Pete

[Pete]

Originally Posted by steve72

I love my 09 FXD. I bought the passenger pilion and a back rest for the misses and she says its pretty comfy. It gives the rider a bit more lower back support also which is nice. Looks a bit ugly though IMHO. I just take it off when rideing solo. Havent done anything over 100 miles at a time on it yet but no back pain or fatigue.

I almost always have a tour bag on the back of my Sportster. When riding from where I live to the mountains, it is not uncommon to have a 30 degree drop in temperature. That means two jackets, one vented, one with an insulated liner and two pairs of gloves. In the winter I have some insulated clothes to put on in case I get off the bike somewhere. Electrically hated liners don't keep you when when you are off the bike. There is a small compressor, tire plugs with plug tools, flashlight, etc.. Usually the tour bag is mounted to the sissy bar and sits on the passenger seat. It makes a nice backrest too. I'm thinking of getting removable side plates for the SG so that I can take all that stuff off when I'm riding around town. Pete

[geouhl]

Hey Pete. Congrats on the new bike. I'd like to hear about your second and third ride also as I'm sure new things will come up. Glad to hear your happy with your decision and hopefully the weather will hold off for all of us for a while so we can get some more miles in. Still raining here.