

This weekend was HD Demo Ride weekend at Westminster HD. I was invited to set up a Ride Like A Pro West Coast booth and took the opportunity to sign up early and ride the demos. I rode the SE Road Glide first, followed by the Ultra. Here are my impressions.
SE Road Glide: Even for a short guy like me, that windscreen is useless. I felt a bit more "stretched out", meaning I felt my legs were positioned more forward. The bike "felt" fast, but in retrospect I think it was really the lack of wind protection. It sounded louder too, but once again that was probably wind too. The bike did not feel as nimble and light as I expected it to. I did manage to "throw it into a curve" while merging onto a freeway, and the bike tracked true and solid. I made it a point to engage the ABS as many times as I could. It produced a loud "CLUNK" sound as it kicked in. The ABS felt GREAT, equal to the BMW bike I used to ride.
SE Ultra: Call me picky, but this bike felt cramped to me. I'm probably used to my extended heel shifter giving me more room on the board, but I kept hitting my toe on the lower fairing. All of this is easily adjustable. The bike felt "slower" than the SERG, but that was probably because I was not feeling as much wind. Sound wise all I could really hear was intake roar. In fact I heard a lot of sounds like tranny noises that were probably present on the SERG but I could not hear due to wind. The bike felt VERY nimble and behaved well at slow speed and road speed. Steering was very light. The ABS behaved very well, loud "CLUNK" and all.
Both bikes: I made it a point to try and force them into overheat mode. Not easy since it was a cool 80 degrees, but I let them idle as long as possible. The SE Ultra was the first to "act funny". The idle dropped and the bike shook more. But once I started moving the bike ran fine. I could not get either of them to spark knock under load.
Given the choice, I would take the SE Ultra. I'm just spoiled and love the creature comforts. So much so that the sound of the stock exhaust was a nice change. I could hear the stereo nicely. I'm sure an SE Ultra IS in the future for me, just not sure if it will be a 2009.
Mark