That latter figure is available at 3,500 rpm, but there's plenty of twist throughout, ensuring you won't need to worry about flicking through the six-speed transmission too often. The Milwaukee-Eight 117 V-twin fed by Harley's "Heavy Breather" intake sounds downright civilized, only letting out a low, throaty bark when you summon all its 103 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque. Those vibrations were far louder than the bike itself, which surprised me.
The fairing looks great and should work well for most folks who aren't too long in the torso. Closing the vents in my helmet helped quell some of the weirdly loud vibrations, but another inch of screen would have done me better. I sit tall, in other words, and that left my helmet buffeting about in the wind that rolled over the top of the windscreen. I never could get comfortable behind that non-adjustable fairing. That stability continued on the highway, where the bike was rock-solid in crosswinds and even when being passed by a tractor trailer with a long way to go and apparently a short time to get there. The ST just cruised over the grooved, ridged pavement without the hint of wobble or weave, soaking up the rougher transitions without kicking me out of the saddle. I must have passed a half-dozen "motorcyclists use extreme caution" signs. Before getting to the highway I had to cross an endless sequence of milled and torn up roads as the local DOT crews are really doing their thing. I'd missed Americade by a few weeks, but that was just as well - I prefer empty roads to spectacle. Instead, I took it for a cruise up the New York State Thruway and a half-lap around Lake George. The bars, meanwhile, sit on generous risers and those two touchpoints match with a low, solo saddle, forcing you into the arms-up, feet-forward, posture that will have you aching for a run down Highway 1.
Your feet and legs are left hanging out in the breeze on the high, mid-mounted pegs. Up front is a slender fairing, visually similar to that on the Road Glide but far smaller, providing a bit of respite at highway speed though hardly a cocoon. The saddlebags match the profile of the bike perfectly, and pop right off when you don't want 'em. More likely they'll be holding a set of coveralls for work and maybe an adult beverage or two for after-hours, but should you want to roll with a little less girth they pop off in seconds with a cleverly simple latching mechanism. And so the ST packs a pair of svelte saddlebags, not big enough for a helmet (at least not one my size) but offering enough volume to swallow clothes and miscellany for a weekend getaway. With the ST, Harley-Davidson took inspiration from California custom cruisers - low, long and fast bikes that didn't give up their bags along the way. The T in ST is indeed for "touring," and on the surface, this bike's existence seems like slicing an already narrow segment too thin.īut stay tuned, because the minds in Milwaukee know exactly what they're doing. The recipe goes something like this: Take the 2022 Low Rider S, an intentionally stripped-down performance cruiser, and then add a bigger fairing and bags, building it half-way back to a proper touring machine like the Street Glide. The core concept of the bike itself is also maybe a little hard to process. For someone who doesn't consider himself a member of the Faithful it was all a bit hard to get my head around. The H-D signage is absolutely everywhere, even embossed in the tire tread and printed on the drive belt. That murdered-out look even helped hide the overwhelming number of shield and bar logos. The solid gray paint without a hint of sparkle paired with the flat black everything else looked neither pompous nor overbearing. It was big, of course, but somehow the long, low stance that defines this bike made it look almost svelte. I mean, there was barely any chrome on the thing other than the levers and the pushrods.
I fully expected to hate the thing and all its chrome and its tassels and what would surely be an outrageously obnoxious exhaust.Īnd then the delivery van showed up and out rolled this and I suddenly realized I'd let my preconceptions get ahead of me. So when the opportunity arose to review one of Harley-Davidson's latest models, the 2022 Low Rider ST, I accepted it with a sense of bemusement and morbid curiosity. Even BMW's attempt at making a traditional Harley, the R 18, left me flat. While I've been suitably intrigued and impressed by Harley's recent efforts at branching out, like the Livewire and the Pan America Special, the traditional big, V-twin cruisers that defined the company have never done anything for me. And I'm not going to lie, I've always counted myself in the "don't" crowd. In the motorcycle world, Harley-Davidsons are a lot like Jeeps: You either get them or you don't.
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