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BIKES: 2012 Harley-Davidson Softail Slim First Ride
We were kickin' it old school as we cruised around Bike Week on the 2012 Harley Seventy-Two, the latest Sportster with throwback styling including a peanut tank, spoke wheels, whitewalls, and mini-apes.
The Harley-Davidson Softail Slim looks lean and mean. (Photo: MotorcycleUSA.com)
Harley-Davidson realized eons ago motorcycles whose back ends are clean and uncluttered like a rigid but don’t deliver Mike Tyson-like kidney punches when riders hit potholes at speed are prized possessions. So The Motor Company, with an assist from one Bill Davis, learned how to neatly tuck a couple of small rear shocks horizontally within the frame rails and hide them out of sight so their motorcycles would look like a rigid without the teeth chattering ride. This style of motorcycle turned into a best-seller for H-D so the company trademarked the name Softail. The first FXST hit Harley dealers’ showroom floors in 1984 and the Softail has been a staple for the company since.
Fast forward almost 30 years and the company offers no less than six different Softail models for 2012, from the dressed up Heritage Softail Classic to the popular Fat Boy. The most recent addition, though, is the 2012 Harley-Davidson Softail Slim, a trimmed down version of Harley’s classic Softail cruiser that was introduced to the public a couple of months ago in SoCal at the popular biker hangout, Cook’s Corner. Harley-Davidson Senior Designer Casey Ketterhagen, who also helped design the Blackline Softail, was once again invested with design duties on the Slim. Ketterhagen has a background in hot rod cars and likes to strip bikes down to essentials, a background that proved to be useful in the development of the Softail Slim which Harley sought to pare down like bobbers of old.
Approaching the Softail Slim for the first time, the cruiser appears very compact and stout. At a laden 23.8 inches, its low-slung solo saddle ties for the lowest seat height among Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but even without sitting in the saddle, it looks extremely low at 25.9 inches. No space is wasted in the 64.4 inch wheelbase, and even though this expanse is only 0.1 inch shorter than the Fat Boy’s, it looks much more compact thanks to its meaty Dunlop tires. It has 4.5 inches of ground clearance, the lower tubular frame rails skirting the ground 0.6 inches lower than the Fat Boy. While a beefy FL fork continues to hold down damping duties up front and features a cut-down FL fender to expose the chunky Dunlop, the rear has also been slimmed down with the addition of a narrower 16-inch tire and a bobbed fender. The tidy look of the rear is complemented by the small bullet-shaped turn signals that serve as stop lights, turn signals and running lights. Its combination stop/turn/taillight looks great but being tucked in tight to the fender like they are, they sacrifice visibility, as noted by our videographer who trailed me during testing. Self-cancelling turn signals are a bonus, though!
For the rest of this article visit MotorcycleUSA.com
Fast forward almost 30 years and the company offers no less than six different Softail models for 2012, from the dressed up Heritage Softail Classic to the popular Fat Boy. The most recent addition, though, is the 2012 Harley-Davidson Softail Slim, a trimmed down version of Harley’s classic Softail cruiser that was introduced to the public a couple of months ago in SoCal at the popular biker hangout, Cook’s Corner. Harley-Davidson Senior Designer Casey Ketterhagen, who also helped design the Blackline Softail, was once again invested with design duties on the Slim. Ketterhagen has a background in hot rod cars and likes to strip bikes down to essentials, a background that proved to be useful in the development of the Softail Slim which Harley sought to pare down like bobbers of old.
Approaching the Softail Slim for the first time, the cruiser appears very compact and stout. At a laden 23.8 inches, its low-slung solo saddle ties for the lowest seat height among Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but even without sitting in the saddle, it looks extremely low at 25.9 inches. No space is wasted in the 64.4 inch wheelbase, and even though this expanse is only 0.1 inch shorter than the Fat Boy’s, it looks much more compact thanks to its meaty Dunlop tires. It has 4.5 inches of ground clearance, the lower tubular frame rails skirting the ground 0.6 inches lower than the Fat Boy. While a beefy FL fork continues to hold down damping duties up front and features a cut-down FL fender to expose the chunky Dunlop, the rear has also been slimmed down with the addition of a narrower 16-inch tire and a bobbed fender. The tidy look of the rear is complemented by the small bullet-shaped turn signals that serve as stop lights, turn signals and running lights. Its combination stop/turn/taillight looks great but being tucked in tight to the fender like they are, they sacrifice visibility, as noted by our videographer who trailed me during testing. Self-cancelling turn signals are a bonus, though!
For the rest of this article visit MotorcycleUSA.com
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