General Motorcycle & Nightster Review
Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:31 pm
Well, with nearly 500 miles on the bike I feel it's an appropriate time to write up a review, of not only the bike but my first motorcycling experience.
I did alot of research before buying a first bike. I really looked around at advice for beginners, some of it I took. Some I did not. I'll also try to debunk some things about this motorcycle that I thought to be false.
So for advice that I took. WEAR ALL SAFETY GEAR! Pretty simple, and I do. Take the BRC. I was the only person in my course never to ride a bike. I never drove a manual transmission before either. So the first day of riding was an experience to say the least.
So when looking for a bike I had some criteria personally that I wanted.
1) Bike had to be light. At the same time what's light for me may not be light for the next guy.
2) Low Center of gravity.
3) I wanted a Harley.
Criteria #3, made it hard to find 1 & 2. If I had to redo it, I'd probably do the same thing. Initially I looked at foreign bikes (Please no lectures about harleys use some parts not from america.) I wanted a bike that stemmed from an American owned company. I got that.
After looking at new bikes, in my price range. And sitting on a few sportster customs I didn't feel at home. Felt too high off the ground for my experience level (none at the time). Just didn't feel confident on one. Maybe now I would, but that's neither here nor there. So I had sort of a last ditch effort with the nightster. I had researched it before hand as well, and knew it was my only real option for a harley. While an iron would have been nice too, I shy'd away from them due to my dad's advice on 883cc resale value.
I felt comfortable enough of the nightster, seemed to fit me well. So I splurged. I needed a new hobby so I went out and did a stage one, got an obnoxiously loud exhaust, bought gear from the internet. Harley charges highway robbery for their gear.
Now, I bought this bike before taking the BRC. If you've never ridden a bike before, I don't recommend buying one on sort of a whim like I did. I could have proven to be a very large mistake.
On to the bike:
I had read the following about this bike:
Twitchy throttle - In my experience, this is simply not true. The throttle is responsive and not dead yes, but to say it's twitchy is far fetched.
Vibrations - Apparently it has a rubber mounted engine, yet it vibrates hard. It does vibrate but you bought a Harley were you really expecting a docile bike. I've seen somewhere on the net that one person complained that it made their teeth rattle. I find that hard to believe. It doesn't vibrate that much.
Lights (Bikes in General) - I've read alot about riding at night. How your lights aren't as strong as on a car, how they don't illuminate as much, etc. Unless you're driving a car with Xenon lights I found this to be false in the nightsters case. Now I drive an 02 focus, and before that a 94 thunderbird (High beams on this were maybe as strong as most cars lows). On the nightster though I find it to be nearly as illuminating as my focus.
So this bike has really smooth shifting. The design, seat position and how generally comfortable you are on the bike just works. You sit like you would in a chair. Shifters beneath you. I opted for forward highway pegs, but have only tried them once, and never use them because you're positioned so nice on this bike. The center of gravity and positioning gave me alot of confidence.
Now I read alot about 1200cc bike is too big/powerful. This one hasn't been now harleys are made different, and aren't made to be gixxer fast or anything like that but general consent was not to buy a harley bigger then an 883 as a starter. The engine would be too strong, too much weight.
I found neither to be the case. Maybe once you get into the "big" bikes Harley makes. I'm not there yet though.
My by far biggest gripe with the bike is the seat. In general, I'm not sure who it's made for. I go 5'10" 210lbs. It maybe made for someone 5'1" 105lbs. Not sure, but it's downright uncomfortable after about 1 hour of continuos riding.
Stopping - The bike is reliant on it's rear brake, moreso then most. the front doesn't give you 70% stopping power like they tell you in a rider course. I guess every bike is different, but this is alot closer to 50/50.
Styling - A harley, without lots of chrome, sits low to the ground, and reminds me of bikes from back when? Yes please! I've received so many comments about people loving the look of this bike, loving the black exhaust, etc. It seems the attention to detail is high, except on that freaking seat
Overall, I'd give the bike an 8.25/10. Generally it comes in at a good price, is pretty quick, lots of torque. Amazing styling, old fashioned v-twin rumble. The sound and style make this bike.
What's the future hold? For me, I plan to hold onto this bike for the next 4-5 years. Eventually I'm going to want to upgrade to a bigger bike? I can't tell you what I'm going to get but I can tell you that those Victory Hammers/Kingpins look very nice. We'll have to see what the future holds in a few years and decide whether I want to go down a cruiser line, or go down a sportsbike line. Finally, I can't stress this enough wear some gear when riding, but it's your hide not mine.
I did alot of research before buying a first bike. I really looked around at advice for beginners, some of it I took. Some I did not. I'll also try to debunk some things about this motorcycle that I thought to be false.
So for advice that I took. WEAR ALL SAFETY GEAR! Pretty simple, and I do. Take the BRC. I was the only person in my course never to ride a bike. I never drove a manual transmission before either. So the first day of riding was an experience to say the least.
So when looking for a bike I had some criteria personally that I wanted.
1) Bike had to be light. At the same time what's light for me may not be light for the next guy.
2) Low Center of gravity.
3) I wanted a Harley.
Criteria #3, made it hard to find 1 & 2. If I had to redo it, I'd probably do the same thing. Initially I looked at foreign bikes (Please no lectures about harleys use some parts not from america.) I wanted a bike that stemmed from an American owned company. I got that.
After looking at new bikes, in my price range. And sitting on a few sportster customs I didn't feel at home. Felt too high off the ground for my experience level (none at the time). Just didn't feel confident on one. Maybe now I would, but that's neither here nor there. So I had sort of a last ditch effort with the nightster. I had researched it before hand as well, and knew it was my only real option for a harley. While an iron would have been nice too, I shy'd away from them due to my dad's advice on 883cc resale value.
I felt comfortable enough of the nightster, seemed to fit me well. So I splurged. I needed a new hobby so I went out and did a stage one, got an obnoxiously loud exhaust, bought gear from the internet. Harley charges highway robbery for their gear.
Now, I bought this bike before taking the BRC. If you've never ridden a bike before, I don't recommend buying one on sort of a whim like I did. I could have proven to be a very large mistake.
On to the bike:
I had read the following about this bike:
Twitchy throttle - In my experience, this is simply not true. The throttle is responsive and not dead yes, but to say it's twitchy is far fetched.
Vibrations - Apparently it has a rubber mounted engine, yet it vibrates hard. It does vibrate but you bought a Harley were you really expecting a docile bike. I've seen somewhere on the net that one person complained that it made their teeth rattle. I find that hard to believe. It doesn't vibrate that much.
Lights (Bikes in General) - I've read alot about riding at night. How your lights aren't as strong as on a car, how they don't illuminate as much, etc. Unless you're driving a car with Xenon lights I found this to be false in the nightsters case. Now I drive an 02 focus, and before that a 94 thunderbird (High beams on this were maybe as strong as most cars lows). On the nightster though I find it to be nearly as illuminating as my focus.
So this bike has really smooth shifting. The design, seat position and how generally comfortable you are on the bike just works. You sit like you would in a chair. Shifters beneath you. I opted for forward highway pegs, but have only tried them once, and never use them because you're positioned so nice on this bike. The center of gravity and positioning gave me alot of confidence.
Now I read alot about 1200cc bike is too big/powerful. This one hasn't been now harleys are made different, and aren't made to be gixxer fast or anything like that but general consent was not to buy a harley bigger then an 883 as a starter. The engine would be too strong, too much weight.
I found neither to be the case. Maybe once you get into the "big" bikes Harley makes. I'm not there yet though.
My by far biggest gripe with the bike is the seat. In general, I'm not sure who it's made for. I go 5'10" 210lbs. It maybe made for someone 5'1" 105lbs. Not sure, but it's downright uncomfortable after about 1 hour of continuos riding.
Stopping - The bike is reliant on it's rear brake, moreso then most. the front doesn't give you 70% stopping power like they tell you in a rider course. I guess every bike is different, but this is alot closer to 50/50.
Styling - A harley, without lots of chrome, sits low to the ground, and reminds me of bikes from back when? Yes please! I've received so many comments about people loving the look of this bike, loving the black exhaust, etc. It seems the attention to detail is high, except on that freaking seat
Overall, I'd give the bike an 8.25/10. Generally it comes in at a good price, is pretty quick, lots of torque. Amazing styling, old fashioned v-twin rumble. The sound and style make this bike.
What's the future hold? For me, I plan to hold onto this bike for the next 4-5 years. Eventually I'm going to want to upgrade to a bigger bike? I can't tell you what I'm going to get but I can tell you that those Victory Hammers/Kingpins look very nice. We'll have to see what the future holds in a few years and decide whether I want to go down a cruiser line, or go down a sportsbike line. Finally, I can't stress this enough wear some gear when riding, but it's your hide not mine.
