I read the article, several interesting points crosses my mind. They point out the the swing arm and rear fender can house a much beefier tire then the stock 180. I wonder how big one could fit. The 180 tire increases GVWR by 15 lbs. I like the idea of the 4 point engine mounting. After reading the article they pointed out much reduced vibrations at idle so i ran outside started up my 08 and at idle grabbed the front brake as they explained in their idle test, and sure enough the vibrations were on. You guys need to try that one, weird. Next time i get around an 09 I'm going to try this test.
They also stated the frame can now handle much more torquer engines then past frame.. em got me thinking twice about installing my 131 in my 08. Darn should I ? As far as rerouting the exhaust to lower the heat, i think we've all done that with either our dual headers or Fat Cats, so I doubt any of us will tell any difference here. And giving the option to turn the Heat managment off and on via throttle, why? Most everyone has deactivated the the auto option anyway. They re-tuned the suspension for better handling. Would like to know what they did here, maybe fork fluid change up front or different springs? It would be interesting if they share same suspension part numbers. The new frame has 50% less welds, em.. no weld splatter to look at, thats a good improvement. The wheel base is approx 1" longer and they stated this provides a night and day difference in handling, I believe that, but doubt it's night and day. I think the improvements we are doing, i.e. True Trac, or did may equal the difference. This would be an interesting comparison. They state all the improvements are worth the increase in the bikes MSRP. What is the difference? Anyone done this comparsion? All and all, Harley did a bit of changes but is it really worth trading our 07,s and 08's in? Considering the improvements we've done on our own??? That is the question.
