Every time I swing a leg over an Electra Glide I feel at home. I rode one - a very different one to this - for eight years and I have a love if not for the over-the-top styling, then certainly for the practicality that its cavernous luggage space affords. They are big, they are brash and they are every inch what the non-motorcycling world wants an American motorcycle to be, and the bike that everyone has heard of. In short, if a Cadillac were to have two wheels, it would be an Electra Glide.

The undisputed king of the hogs, the Ultra Classic Electra Glide is the only grand tourer now imported into the UK, with both the Electra Glide Standard and Classic models, and the Road Glide dropped, but that only serves to accentuate the differences between it and its nearest rival, the Road King. Truth be told, the nearest rival it does have is Honda's Gold Wing, which is now bigger, heavier and more expensive than its American rival, and I daresay that a number of people have migrated towards that purely for the cachet of biggest is bestest but to do so misses the point.

An Electra Glide, for better or worse, is more than a motorcycle: it is an icon.

If you'd parked an Electra Glide next to a Gold Wing 1200 Aspencade ten years ago, the Aspencade would get scant consideration. But there have been major changes in public opinion over the last ten or fifteen years: cultural changes, and not necessarily for the better - or at least as far as the old dowager is concerned. Today, the larger number of buttons, longer wheelbase, integrated luggage and greyhound bus excess of the 1500 flat six or 1800 flat eight 'Wing would at least get equal billing, probably more because as a society we are become more impressed by that sort of techno flash, whether it is good or not, regardless of whether it is required or distracting. Yamaha's Venture Royal adds a classic dimension, and - I have to say it - the nicest speedo I have ever seen on a motorcycle. Be that as it may, however, the Electra Glide has the class, the style … the je ne c'est quoia!

There is an almost identical comparison here in the four wheeled world, Park a Rolls next to a Merc or top-end BeeEm and the masses would drool all over the favourite sons of Teuton, but then consider the very public fight that VW and BeeEm had in gaining the prestige of the Rolls-Royce and Bentley marques a couple of years ago: both desperate for the kudos that the ancient badges would bestow: class versus technological efficiency.

Class is a hard thing to define, but it has something to do with deference, and the ability to instil that deference in people is something that the Electra Glide has in spades. Cars pull out of the way when they see you coming, or wind down their windows to shout approval at your choice of transport. Small boys engage you in conversation while you're cleaning it, and offers by old ladies to keep the pillion seat occupied are innumerable. If a FatBoy on open pipes typifies the outlaw biker, then an Electra Glide is the friendly cop.

I have no truck whatsoever with the class system: it is the person not the perception or the power that is important, but in a straight fight between a Wing, a Venture and an Electra while I can see the technical merit of the Japanese offerings, it's be the Electra that I'd squeeze into the shed at the back of the house - and that's even as a tech junkie.

Why?

Because it is the real thing.

Because it does everything that the others need to be able to do to fit the role, but does it with an honest simplicity. I don't need the Gold Wing's six or eight cylinders - or even the Yam's four - to bimble along at long-haul touring speeds, not even to make it a relaxing, understressed trip because the rubber-mounted Twin Cam 88 motor isn't exactly struggling even in standard form: with a few more staged horses let out, it will do more than is necessary to keep up with its rivals.

Because it's cavernous luggage carrying potential will hold anything that she and me would require on a fortnight or longer away, if we fancied seeing a lot more of Europe.

Because the seat is more than comfortable enough for as long a run as you're ever likely to take, for both pillion and rider.

Because it is as happy outside Asda, the Hotel de Paris or the White House - whether shopping, on the grand tour or as a presidential escort.

Because I need no more electrickery than the electronic cruise control and built-in ghetto-blaster to play with when the roads become dull - as they inevitably will do.

And because, warts and all, I love Electra Glides.

So what is an Electra Glide at the dawn of the 21st Century?

It is a big, heavy, lumbering, ponderous renegade from the sixties, restyled in the eighties and rewired in the nineties. It is a tart's handbag of chrome, glitz and shiny stuff, and a bastard to keep clean. It is anything from a middle-distance commuter bike to a round-the-world adventurer.

Riding an Electra is unlike anything else now available in Harley-Davidson's UK range. It might share major components with other machines - most notably the Road Kings, but it is on its own. The first major impression is of space, which sounds like a stupid thing to say when referring to a machine that is open to the elements … just … but it is spacious. The area behind the classic Electra fairing is vast, and probably feels like a space in its own right because the sheer size of the fork-mounted fibreglass is akin to a windscreen in a car - emphasised by the car-like dashboard that is facing you. It is this fairing that separates the Electra Glide from the Road Glide which has a sleeker, frame-mounted Wing-like affair that didn't really capture the imagination over here.

Extending beyond the width of the handlebars, and obviating anything other than the subtlest changes in handlebar selection, the Electra fairing scores big brownie points for me as being the first touring Harley I've ridden in years whose screen is below eye level, and provides ample confirmation of the fact it continues to deflect the worst rain over your head with ease even at modest speeds. It's not all good news, however, because when combined with the fairing lowers, the wind currents behind the bodywork cause it to rain upside-down inside the fairing and over the inside of the screen - which might explain the use of a short blade. Be aware also that it will rain on the inside of your visor if you choose to wear a full-face helmet, or your nose if you don't. Open face helmets are practical with the Electra as the weather is kept off you, and desirable in many ways because even the best venting systems of the most modern full face lids rely on the passage of air to take away expelled air and the static air behind the screen gives them all sorts of trouble, so you are forced to keep the visor open a tad to prevent misting, even with anti-mist sprays. If you wear an open face, a scarf will prevent the ingress of water into your nostrils.

The radio is a novelty that I didn't really use for the duration of the test: I tend towards broadcast speech which is useless on a bike, and as long as radio stations employ disk jockeys with egos inversely proportional to their talents I'll make do without the banal chatter. When touring Europe a few years ago on this models forebear, we did take a selection of tapes with everything from the soundtracks of Dracula and the Addams Family, through to loud and bouncy rock 'n roll and had enormous fun sharing our eclectic tastes with the Germans of the Rhine valley, but I felt somewhat self-conscious. I know that I'd feel more self-conscious now, several years on and sick to death of the boom-box generation's desire to assail my ears with sounds that I scarcely recognise as musically derived. Christ! I'm getting old. I also have to say that I'm equally tired of unspooling miles of magnetic tape from jammed mechanisms. A multi-change CD option is available if you're prepared to sacrifice a corner of your tourpac for the biggest component, but I can't help feeling it detracts rather than adds to the motorcycling experience. You've also got to bear in mind that a Stage 1 exhaust would both render the stereo irrelevant, and provide its own soundtrack.

Big fairings are often the source of major mechanical noises as they amplify what comes from the engine, and combine that with a lack of wind noise to give you terrible visions of untold horrors below - it certainly did with my Shovel to the extent that I took the screen off and slept nights - but there are no such concerns with this model. In fact, it is hard to imagine a quieter-running bike and I can only put this down to the amount of work done on the new engines with piston technology and tighter tolerances, combined with the rubber mounting preventing the remaining mechanical noise from being relayed and distributed through the chassis. It is truly wonderful, but it could be more wonderful still if the fairing was removable because great as it is, in high summer it is like a sauna and there we have my only serious insurmountable problem with modern Electra's.

Bear with me, gentle reader, while I expound - or skip to the next paragraph.

The Electra could retain the flexibility that it used to have with but a few subtle changes: the Road King's headlamp nacelle and tank - complete with big-clock speedo and fuel gauge - and a four-bolt mounting for the screen, and a wiring harness block into which you could plug the fairing to give additional gauges, rev-counter and stereo - complete with integral speakers. If the plug for the CB/Intercom were moved to the screen too it would tidy up the centre console, and were the tourpac / rear speaker set-up removable - along the lines of the Road Glide's Ultra-Style accessory kit - with the quick-release mechanisms that Harley designers have shown themselves more than capable of developing, you could have a truly versatile bike that would meet all day-to-day street use and touring.

Sorry folks, but it's something I have to do whenever I get opportunity just in case someone is listening.

That said, Electra owners have lived with the permanently fixed screen for twenty years and more without a whimper, so perhaps it's me that is out of line.

Back to the plot, we have the other big pull of the full dressers - luggage - of which there is plenty. I can easily live without the pockets in the fairing lowers, which are too small to be of major interest, and too wet in poor weather which is probably due to the oversized drain hole that makes sure that any water that gets in doesn't stay there: do not use these for holding paper documentation.

The panniers we know from the standard Road King and have remained largely unchanged in shape since the Electra's inception in the sixties, but the detail modifications are worth a brief mention. With the arrival of the post-4-speed touring frame came a wider, squarer bag - when viewed from the rear - with two fundamental problems: the pre-'93 pannier lid was hinged at the front, as it had been the tradition, but it made it difficult to open without clouting the tourpac that had become wider with age; and the battery intruded greatly into the right-hand pannier until 1993. In '93 a couple of major relocations made the while plot a lot better: the oil-tank moved to its current home beneath the engine, for better cooling, a lower centre of gravity, and to get it out of the way; the battery could now move into the space vacated by the oil tank rather than hanging off the right-hand side of the bike, half buried in the pannier; and the panniers themselves were treated to a new hinging mechanism that held them captive and unable to hit the tourpac. This new hinging system enabled the use of a more clever opening mechanism cunningly disguised as a massive lump of chrome on the outside of each pannier - incorporating a lock - and the resulting opening action left each lid outboard of the pannier with easy access to the space within. It also allowed the use of more dress-up bits to adorn the tops of the side boxes without rendering them completely useless. A nice touch - and a common one among two-wheeled limousines - are the soft liners in the panniers that allow you to just lift out an inner bag and carry that into reception: so much more refined than half a dozen black bin bags. Being realistic here, there is every likelihood that this sort of bike will see more hotel receptions than camping fields, but I would defend it's camping credentials, as it has the capacity to carry a two-man ridge tent in one of those panniers across the longer diagonal dimension, with ease … just pray for solid ground on which to park.

At the back of the bike, and clobbered by a thousand up-and-over garage doors the world over, lives the tourpac. A truly massive, sideways-opening box that will swallow two full face helmets with ease and still have space for the waterproofs. If you have any desire to try and upset the balance of your motorcycle further, you could add a little rack to the top of this too and on a lesser machine introduce a level of instability hitherto only attributable to a shopping trolley, but the sheer weight of the rest of the Electra Glide endows it with a rock-solid stance. A word of warning here, though. The higher the weight, the worse the handling will become - even on an Electra - and there are two recommendations: don't exceed the weights stated on the insides of the bags, and don't assume that the weight for the tourpac refers only to the contents of the tourpac, because it means everything on the rear rack. Common sense should tell you that the heaviest items in your luggage should be stowed at the lowest parts of the panniers, and the light bulky stuff is better in the tourpac. Here endeth the condescending bit.

Why is hard luggage better than throwovers? Because it is secure, it is dry, it is always there and because when added at source and incorporated into the design of a bike, it adds to the shape and style … at least when done properly. And, as a sad reflection on our society, it is lockable.

The seat is, without any question, the most comfortable perch that I have ever rested my skinny arse upon, and the one that is least likely to give me grief from the pillion. Soft but still supportive, I have ridden one of these half-way round Europe and can report that it was as comfortable after Lichtenstein as it was after Luton. It's not especially pretty with the tourpac off, but who cares?

And that brings us to the engine. Injected as standard, and strangled by legislation the Electra Glide Ultra Classic still manages to most of the things it needs to deliver but a few more horses wouldn't go amiss. Knowing that Boz has already got a low compression version of his 96-cube Dyna T-Sport awaiting Dyno time to qualify, and that it is destined for Road Kings primarily, it made me wonder just how much more tractable the big bore would be. Even without the extra cubes, given the range of options available from Harley themselves, as well as further afield, it would be unusual not to find a slightly less muted exhaust note being emitted from the standard pipes on our testbike and it wouldn't necessarily be for the ultimate performance, but just to get some more of the power that we know to be available through to the road. But power isn't the last word in touring: nice but not essential, which is just as well or else the 1800 Gold Wing would be unassailable.

In the metal, the presence of the Glide is accompanied by a new experience in modern motorcycling. This is no beginners' bike, nor one that you can straddle lightly because even if the weight does disappear at touring speeds, it is a handful at standstill and low speeds until you've got the measure of the thing. There is a knack to picking it off its stand, another to manoeuvring it about, yet another for pulling away and one for stopping. First time out it is intimidating with the sheer bulk but after a period of acclimatisation, you forget most of your initial concerns. Happily, once you've gone through that initial learning curve, further meetings with the model bring it all back - probably through a mental switch being thrown as you haul the bike upright, and it is only seeing an Electra virgin struggling with the beast that brings it all back. You can pick out the virgins quite easily: they're either blue in the face trying to pick it off its stand, or pinned underneath one having raised it only to see it overbalance to the right-hand side, catching them unawares. After a day you'll pull it upright without a thought as to how you did it, or the vaguest idea as to how you'd explain the technique to anyone else.

Manhandling it with the engine off is another steep learning curve, and the best recommendation is to more it around while straddling the bike until you are wholly familiar with the weight. This has problems of its own as there is a lot of ironmongery around your ankles, more so if you forget to lift the passenger floorboards. You can wheel them around while standing alongside, but I would advise you very strongly to do so from the right-hand side which makes it a maul to pull it upright from the "jiffy" stand, but which means that you have the front brake lever available to you at all times. Once one of these babies starts to roll, not a lot will stop it, and if you're casually wandering alongside it on the left, you'll be astonished just how far away that front brake lever is when you need it most.

Sounds like personal experience? You betcha!

Such experience can put the potential Glide owner off, but persistence pays off and for your money you get the most relaxing tourer that money can buy … probably. How so? Because the low-revving V-Twin masks the sensation of distance. An unhurried power delivery couple with an almost-idling exhaust note, and just enough damped vibrations from the motor gives you the idea that the expression "going nowhere fast" was coined by an Electra owner. It's more than a mile-eater: it's a journey-shrinker.

Failings? Okay, there's always going to be some if only because the bike is so ideally suited to one role that it must compromise others, and it does. It's like threading a needle with rope in city traffic, but if you spend most of your time in a city, buy a Sportster and put up with the compromised distance work of the XL. Less forgivable, is the aforementioned static screen, which slowly cooks the rider in hot weather: especially noticeable in city traffic when it is verging on the unpleasant. Everythging else is a matter of taste and personal preference.

The only other thing that lets it down isn't so much a fault of the bike, but of its owners, and that is a tendency to cover every square inch of its ample surfaces with something that either shines or lights up: it's very much a personal thing, and it does nothing whatsoever for me. Yes, it was the assembled staff and friends of an embryonic American-V sitting on the steps at the York HOG rally singing "We wish you a merry Christmas" while the Electras twinkled and shone outside the bar. Each to their own, but there is a tendency to lump all Electra Glides into the glitz and bauble category, and that can - in itself - deter ownership. It could be worse, the rivals have more bodywork and their riders less taste.

Shame then that the Electra Glide Standard no longer reaches these shores to give the more self-effacing among us opportunity to run an understated example of the breed.

Understated? An Electra Glide? Surely not!

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. No chrome to polish, no radio to distract, no tourpac to get hit by the garage door, no legshields to cause weird windstreams and less likely to be seen as a tarts' handbag by those who remain ignorant of the Electra Glide's strengths. I mourn the passing of the "Standard", in the same way that I don't miss the Road Glide at all. I never rode the Road Glide, but I've sat behind frame-mounted screens of similar proportions and the experience is not one I'd care to repeat, but a plain finish - dare I say "entry-level" grand tourer has its place, especially as the competition is taking the fight to Ultra Classic country, and especially at the price they sold for. There is an alternative, and I keep banging on about this too, which is a Dyna frame Electra Convertible: wideglides and big mudguards, removable screen, the aluminium headlamp nacelle, comfy seat, slantbags and a detachable tourpac. But I've been saying that for nearly ten years - in fact since the Dyna Sturgis came out - and no signs yet, although I have heard that someone did exactly that and it was featured in Easyriders. Anyone got a copy and a scanner?

Second Opinion:
Words: Rich

American-V was lucky enough to have both the Ultra and the Road King out on a two-week test at the same time, and while on rideabout for a few days we took the opportunity to swap machines.

The seating position was the very first thing that struck me, the Ultra Electra Glide's pilot position feels very much more forward than had even the Road King's. Presumably necessary to 'fit' all that top box and unbelievably plush pillion's throne onto just one self-contained motorcycle, I'd expected to feel cramped but hell, Harley have been perfecting the long term comfort on Electra's since the year dot. Even on non-stop 'full to empty tank' blasts it never once even stiffened my coccyx ... to say 'pretty impressive' is an understatement of immense magnitude. The sheer scale of the Ultra - the length, width and probably most of all, the towering height of the machine, overawes most people. I was nervous the first ever time I put a leg over Harley's very full dresser a few years back and despite knowing better this time, some primal and irrational part of me still squealed and whimpered when I came to tackle this years model. The insane thing is that you really can move these babies around. You do not need a supermodel's inside leg measurement to get your feet planted easily on either side, a quick flick of your body and a gentle push of your left leg is all it takes to tilt the glide up off its side stand and solidly onto it's wheels.

However, it does help if you think about parking the beast. Although you can shuffle the Ultra backwards out of most places as long as the immediate terrain is flat - gawd help you if you need to back it up even a slight incline... like out of the gutter onto the crown of a road for instance. So notes for later okay ... this is not at all cool: Thunder into town, quickly park outside chemists in flurry of noise, chrome and awe inspiring hogness, front wheel tucked neatly into kerb, kick stand down and leap off beast in skin tight leather - okay so far? Collect your 500 prescription condoms to protect the maidens of the parish from your irresistibility, drop into top box, virility shining, leap back onto beast, fire up motor and turn fifteen shades of purple before exploding head spectacularly trying to back Ultra up camber unaided. So yeah, brevity apart, even the relatively diminutive should be able to manoeuvre an Ultra around ... as long you've thought about where you've parked it.

Under power this stock Ultra proved extremely competent if not breathtaking. The rubbermounted 88 Twin Cam shuffled merrily away and was more than capable of effortless 80 plus cruising if the road conditions (i.e. likelihood of pull) and your pocket allowed. Like any other Harley I've ridden, it drunk petrol above 80 and was frugal below. The fairly full fairing was on the whole, excellent, doing a fabulous job of keeping the wind off the rider, but did the strange upwards raining thing in wet conditions which Andy's probably already mentioned.

Unlike Andy (I believe anyway, he may well have been belting out his King Crimson and Earth, Wind and Fire tapes while alone) I must admit I made full use of the stunning sound system. Considering it had a radio and cassette player I figured, why not make the best of it, if only for the novelty value. While a sound system has NEVER been on list of options or modifications I would require for any motorbike I'd want or have owned ... I must admit it was fun and kept me entertained trying to find a decent radio station in the London area (proved impossible BTW). Dangerously though, I realised that once or twice I'd allowed my attention to wander more to finding a decent channel than watching the road - so yeah, radio/cassette sort of fun but potentially fatal then.

Finally, in my opinion, as a laid back, relaxed, but dead serious touring package the Ultra Glide is very hard to beat. While the other hugely expensive intercontinental tourers like your Wings, Ventures and Pan Euros offer equally as much comfort, and probably in many cases, even more utilities … at the heart of the Ultra is the Harley-Davidson 88 Twin Cam rumbling away. The feedback from that friendly and fairly powerful engine adding to the riding experience immeasurably. The motor effectively becomes your companion on those long, long rides, rather than just an efficient and hidden powerplant.

Specifications        

Engine:	Twin Cam 88 air-cooled 45° V-twin.
Displacement:	1449cc (88 ci)
Compression Ratio:	8.81
Bore & Stroke:	95.3 x 101.6
Torque:	110.0Nm @ 3100rpm
Fuel System:	Sequential Port Electronic Fuel Injected (SPEFI) model tested.
Exhaust System:	Crossover duals
Oil Capacity:	3.8 litres
Fuel Capacity:	18.9 litres (includes reserve on carb version)
Primary Drive:	Double-row (duplex) chain
Final Drive:	Kevlar belt
Overall Length:	2500mm
Seat Height:	692mm
Ground clearance:	129.9mm
Rake/Trail:	26 degrees / 156.3mm
Wheelbase:	1611.6mm
Dry Weight:	385kg
Lean Angles:	30° left / 31° right
Instruments:	Electronic speedo with odometer and resettable trip meter. Tacho, fuel gauge, low fuel light, oil pressure light, voltmeter, clock (in stereo), oil pressure gauge, ambient temperature, sound system with handlebar and remote passenger controls, cruise control, cigarette lighter, oil pressure indicator light, engine diagnostic light, security system light (optional)
Colour Options:	Vivid black, luxury blue pearl, jade sunglo pearl, luxury rich red pearl. Two Tone schemes: Luxury blue and diamond ice, luxury rich red and black, suede green and black, concord purple and diamond ice
Price:	£15,495 single colour £15,795 two-tone Prices include usual otr inc. PDI, full tank of fuel, 12-months tax, first service, 12 months membership of Harley Owners Group (HOG) including their European roadside recovery
Test bike kindly supplied by:	Harley-Davidson UK. Oxford Business Park, 6000 Garsington Road, Oxford England OX4 2DQ Tel: 0870 850 1903 (UK)