That bike was a 2000 model with 2-tone paint, and I have to say I was impressed in the main. Detail touches were nice: I loved the forks, deep dish headlamp, tank top console and seventeen-inch rear wheel shod with a low-profile tyre, but was less enamoured with the line of tank - exacerbated by the shape described by the two-tone paint's coach-lines - and the humpty-back seat, and the jury was out regarding the rear mudguard. So much for the looks - but they are often the primary means of determining what you want and it can be useful to restrict yourself to such an introduction before being wooed by the experience of the bike itself. For the record, while I liked a lot of the bike's bits, I wasn't as excited by its whole as I'd need to be to wholeheartedly endorse it - or want it.

This year was another matter entirely. We picked up the Deuce and the Night Train at the same time and I didn't get a fight off Rich as to who was on what: he'd been waiting for the Night Train for four years and had no eyes for the Deuce. For my part, I was looking forward to any Twin Cam 88 Softail to purge the memories of the engine noise from the behind the Heritage Softail's removable screen.

We got the plain finish injected Deuce this year, and the single colour paint made a significant difference to the line, both helping to lose the broken-back line where the bottom of the tank meets the seat, but the poorer for its simpler style: it works better in single colour black and the darker tones. In fact, the tank's line is similar to that of a Dyna and it is the significantly lower pilot's seat rather than the line of the tank that breaks the shape up - further emphasised by the line of the rear mudguard strut and rear mudguard. It isn't that it doesn't look good, it's just that it doesn't work with the classic lines of the Softail as well as it might and you could point at a dozen or more aftermarket tanks that would look "better", or at least more in sympathy with the existing shapes.

Well, that's laid that one to rest then. Swing a leg across and fire her up.

Once you're on - or in, in this case with such a deep bucket as a perch - you can't see the bike sideways on and you're looking down at the unique speedo and dash panel, pullback risers and low-rise handlebars. The stretched tank looked better from here and I settled into a better feeling towards the bike but it was as nothing compared to actually riding it.

Let's get this straight. We ride the bikes we love because they have power characteristics that suits our style of riding, and they are contained within a package that looks right to our subjective eyes. We have turned a blind eye to a variety of problems over the years from tea-trolley handling to suspect brakes but that's the price we've paid. Today's Harleys have few vices in any departments, but there is still a suggestion at the back of my mind, whenever I see the latest styling cue, that wonders where the trade-off is. And so it was with the Deuce. A bike with so many new touches, that represents a potential new line in bodywork, can easily be seen as a dress-up kit for an old chassis and that is exactly what I saw, but the reality was something else entirely.

Tucked away at the back end of the bike is that wheel. Not the stock Softail solid wheel as introduced on the FatBoy and used extensively elsewhere ever since, but a new wheel: a smooth cast wheel that screams "Turbo" to me but probably no-one else. This wheel is tucked under a mudguard that the copywriters of the catalogue go into raptures about, but it is a wheel that is seldom referred to, and it is this more than anything else that makes the Deuce more than live up to its promise.

What is significantly different is that the wheel is a seventeen-inch item. Moreover, it is a seventeen inch item with a low profile tyre wrapped round it, and that tyre affords better handling characteristics than any Softail has any right to exhibit. It makes very little difference to the ground clearance or gearing because the rolling radius of the low-profile seventeen-inch tyre isn't significantly different to the deeper walled sixteen-inch tyre it replaced, but what it does give you is another 3 to 5 degrees of lean round corners with the greater increase being on the right - undoubtedly aided by the higher positioning of the lower muffler which is almost always the first part to hit terra firma. Jamming down the empty A-roads back from Towcester to the Cheshire Plain, I noticed how easily Rich was decking the Night Train ahead while the Deuce made the same bends with ease. It'll still touch down, but you'll have to work harder to do it and in normal usage I didn't drag either side along the tarmac, which is a first for a Softail in my experience. The lack of sickening metal scraping noises adds another dimension to the Softail experience previously lacking, and it is for this reason that the Deuce doesn't get written off as a cosmetic folly.

I fully expected a broader range of Softails to harness the technology for 2001 but was disappointed to see the status quo maintained, but then if H-D were to offer such characteristics in cheaper machines, I'd suggest that the Deuce would lose one of its primary sales advantages and that advantage doesn't come cheap. The same could be said of its stunning looking, and quite competent forks which really make the items used on all other custom models look like they are from another age - which they are: not an issue on a Heritage model when it would be actively sought, but very much so on a custom where form over-rides function in most cases, although there is no such trade-off here. The new forks were great and properly fitted giving no clashing or jarring under heavy braking - which was an easily resolved problem on all but one of the other customs tested this year.

I did have a problem with the headlamp in that it was a little bouncy. Not the headlamp itself, obviously, but its bracket seemed to comprise several pieces which couldn't be bolted together without retaining some degree of springing. All very odd and in direct contrast to the Sportster Custom, which has a very similar set-up and is as rigid as the fork legs either side of it. Picky? No. Not if you're bouncing down country lanes with your headlamp on - which is the only option these days - and a car is about to turn across your path because the driver could misinterpret the headlamp's exaggerated gyrations as your flashing them to pull in ahead of you. It doesn't matter that we are advised by the authorities that flashing your headlamps should only be construed as a warning not an invitation, because there will always be people who'll read it wrong. Personally, I'd have the screwdriver out as soon as I got it home to work out what could be done about it - which we can't do with test bikes. I'd forgive it were it only on the one machine, but Rich on the 2000 model followed me in a car and it drove me mad - forever thinking he was about to overtake or wanted me to slow down or something … and that was in daylight. Odd, and needs sorting.

The other parts specific to the model are the seat and rear mudguard. The mudguard bears more than a passing resemblance to the V-Rod's and, while it is obviously the source of some delight to the aforementioned copywriter, it does nothing for me except to reaffirm that it would suit a Dyna better than a Softail. The seat is another matter. I can't love the seat for its shape either but whereas a mudguard can be any shape you like with a minimal impact on the rider, the seat has a direct bearing on the practicality of the machine, and in the case of the Deuce, it was exemplary. I could, and did travel miles on the Deuce with none of the problems normally associated with having all your weight on your backside and arms straight ahead. The back of the seat was near-vertical and supported my back just nicely, giving me something to lean back on when arm strain started to take its inevitable toll - although that was reduced by being low in the saddle with the windstream taken largely over my head. The seat height isn't as low as the other "finished" custom softail but that is more a consequence of having more foam under your backside than the minimally upholstered Night Train. Again, once on the bike you get the benefit from it without having to look at it, and its appearance is compromised for me, but I'm on record as being more prepared to compromise my bike than my comfort so I'll zip it and get on.

I'm also on record as preferring the rubber-mounted vibes of the Dynas and Tourers to the balanced smoothness of the Softail, but in the Deuce's case I'll make an exception because it adds sophistication to a bike that already exudes development. On the traditional customs, I'll side with the die-hards who want engine feedback, and for whom vibration is not a bad thing, but while the Deuce is a custom, it has taken the genre to a new place. The rawness isn't there in any other respect so the silky smooth-running 88B doesn't feel out of place, and while I'd still prefer something, and rubber-mounts would give that, it doesn't detract from this bike as it does others in the range. If anything it takes on the Japanese cruisers at their own game and comes out on top, combining the sophisticated engineering and efficiency that their reputation is staked upon with a power delivery that still evades their best efforts to reproduce.

To finish, the Deuce is very much the finished article itself. It requires no other work, and for the price tag that's got to be a good thing. It seems odd that it comes in carburetted form as well as injected because the carb wouldn't fit with everything else that the bike is trying to do. It's not trying to woo the traditionalists, but to demonstrate the benefits of progress. It does offer a means of saving £300 and easing tuning, but I've yet to see much evidence of the impact of tuning on the 88B's balancing act.

The thick end of £14k is a lot to pay for a custom softail when the standard model - which represents a major bargain - comes in at a staggering £3,200 less at its cheapest. That model lacks those forks, that back wheel and a lot of the tweaks and twiddles of the Deuce, but the saving adds up to a major amount of parts and accessories to make the bike that you really want: I'd start with lacing a seventeen-inch hoop to the rear hub and sticking some decent rubber on it, and then a stretched tank to show off rather than work against the flowing lines of the base frame.

That said, I don't think I'm in the target market for the Deuce: I've not got enough spare cash to shell out for Harley-Davidson's interpretation of the custom bike at the turn of the 21st century and am more likely to build - or more likely commission someone more competent - to build the bike that is my interpretation of a 21st Century toy.

It is too expensive, too complete, but not quite right enough for my taste, but it has demonstrated without a shadow of a doubt that the Softail chassis is a deal more solid, stable and competent than I, and a lot of others, have given it credit for. The lessons of the Deuce will ultimately filter down into the rest of Softaildom and I'll raise my glass and toast their arrival with relish … I wonder whether they'll do a seventeen-inch wheeled FatBoy with low profile tyres?


Second Opinion:
Words: Rich

After quite possibly embarrassing myself massively by gushing so enthusiastically about how absolutely wonderful the 2000 Deuce was (well, on the whole) coming to the Deuce 2001 should have been rapture re-visited. But from the very start, this particular Deuce was up against it. Firstly, as Andy has mentioned, we picked this Deuce up with a Night Train, a motorcycle I'd always admired but never previously had an opportunity to ride ... so sorry Deuce, my sweet, I'll ride you next week. (Bet you can't wait, huh?) And secondly, rather than garbed resplendent in some dark and richly layered pigment, some prat had painted it grey. Oh I'm sure there's some fancy name for the hue (or indeed absence of it) like Spangly Burnished Titanium Mist. or Cutlery Drawer or something, but in reality I felt it sadly looked like carefully laquered primer. The colour certainly did nothing for the bike in my view, while for Andy the single tone helped bring the whole bike together, for me, its very lightness made this Deuce look so much more ungainly than the elegant blue butterfly we'd had the previous year. it just looked - plain.

While in no hurry to swap bikes a week later, once seated back in the Deuce and manouvering out into Manchester's traffic I very quickly remembered why I'd enthused so about the previous Deuce. Because moreso than any other Softail I've ever ridden the Deuce works! Supremely comfortable to ride, the Deuce also inspires confidence by feeling so secure and, despite its size, handling so well. Certainly, for not much else differs significantly from your 'average Softail' much of that ablity to be confidently thrown about has to be down the the Deuce's spectacular solid and sculpted rear wheel. Previously I would not have believed just how much difference the change of rear wheel could make to a motorcycle, but this wide and low profile shod beauty challenged that preconception. However, the front end too has seen development and is entitled to its fair share of handling praise.

While the front wheel is your standard H-D 'Hey let's build a custom' skinny 21-inch, with its less than favourable reputation as a high performance sporting item, it actually performs much, much better on the Deuce. The reason must be the simply stunning new forks, which manage to combine modern expectations of function with quite breathtaking form. The forks tame the normally skittish front wheel to a degree where for much of the time I'd forgot just how little rubber was in contact with the road ahead ... pretty damn impressive. I wonder, bearing in mind how much difference the change of rear wheel has made to this Softail, how the Deuce would take to a more substantial front wheel too? It might not look quite right to the 'custom 21' purists, but it might be a real hoot for the rest of us. Or it might not work at all.

I, like Andy, don't think the Deuce's petrol tank is quite right in profile, but unlike Andy, the tank jars me still when I'm sat in the machine. To me the tank when viewed from above in the rider's position, is too rectangular. Although the Deuce chrome console is quite a thing to behold, the tank itself I feel should narrow towards the back, as much as it should curve around the motor in profile in fact. Trouble is, I reckon then the seat wouldn't look anything like right - and that would be a real pity if that had to be changed, because the seat is brilliantly comfy and supportive, and plumper than it appears - which is a term which could actually be used to describe the Deuce in the whole - 'plumper than it appears' - Yup, like it. Because even in this less attractive 2001 grey/silver livery the Deuce appears quite elegant, perhaps because it is such a large motorcycle there is room to re-work lines and lead the eye.

As a crowd puller, even this grey Deuce attracted admiration, the oodles of deep chrome triggering the instinctive, Magpie-like, love of all things shiny, deep down in our souls. But the grey one didn't quite pull as much as the blue it has to be said.

The Deuce remains a supremely competant motorcycle, a year after its launch, it still sets a new standard for many other cruiser manufacturers to desperately try to emulate just when they thought they were getting close. Moreso too than any other Harley Big Twin, the deuce is a 'finished' Harley, with little scope, or indeed necessity, for owner customisation after purchase. The Deuce IS, while other Harleys evolve over time but maintain some vestige of their original identity, a changed Deuce would very quickly cease to be a Deuce.

Though I like the motorcycle - a lot - it's not quite my cup of tea, it's not quite right, it's not perfect enough to live with, as is, forever. Although I wouldn't throw one out of bed, don't get me wrong, in reality the Deuce is too expensive for my taste. I'd want to change it. And if I want to do that, why buy it at all

Specifications        

Engine:	Twin Cam 88B (balanced). Air-cooled 45° V-twin.
Displacement:	1449cc (88ci)
Compression Ratio:	8.8:1
Bore & Stroke:	95.3 x 101.6
Torque:	105@ @ 3000 on injection
Fuel System:	FLSTCI Sequential Port Electronic Fuel Injected (SPEFI) model tested. FXSTD Deuce also available with Keihin 40mm Carburettor
Exhaust System:	Over/Under Shotgun Duals
Oil Capacity:	3.3 litres
Fuel Capacity:	18.5 litres (includes reserve on carb model)
Wheels:	Front: 21 x 2.15 laced; Rear: 17 x 4.50 DOT disc
Tyres:	Front: MH 90-21 56H; Rear: 160/70 B17 67V
Brakes:	Front: 292mm disc; Rear: 292mm disc
Primary Drive:	Double-row (duplex) chain
Final Drive:	Kevlar belt
Overall Length:	2424mm
Seat Height:	719mm
Ground clearance:	140.9mm
Rake/Trail:	34 degrees / 126.9mm
Wheelbase:	1690.3mm
Dry Weight:	305kg
Lean Angles:	33.2° left / 36.7° right
Instruments:	Electronic speedo with odometer and resettable trip meter. Fuel gauge, low fuel light, oil pressure light, engine diagnostic light.
Colour Options:	Vivid black, luxury blue pearl, diamond ice pearl, real teal pearl, luxury rich red pearl, concord purple pearl. Two Tone schemes: Luxury blue and diamond ice, luxury rich red and black, concord purple and diamond ice
Price:	FXSTDI EFI Models: £14,095 single colour £14,295 two-tone FXSTD Carb models: £13,795 single colour £13,995 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)