this is the harley-davidson heritage classic and in this video we're
going to give it a full review we have actually reviewed this bike in the past
but the reason we're reviewing it again is because next week we've got the bmw
r18 classic the new version coming in and we wanted to get a video uh an up-to-date review
of this bike because they're very comparable so the reason we're doing it is one for that and two
because we're going to cover some things in this review that we didn't cover in our first review
now harley harley-davidson themselves described the heritage classic as a quintessential american
cruiser with show-stopping vintage details and pure rock and roll style and now i think that's
a very true statement this bike is to me what the essence of harley davidson is this is the
sort of bike that harley davidson are known for producing um and i think this bike is actually one
of the best looking bikes in the soft tail lineup minus the screen and the bags once you take them
off which we're going to do in a second this bike looks absolutely incredible now this is actually
my personal motorcycle it's a 2018 model but there's very very little difference between this
and the new model apart from some color schemes but also this has 161 newton meters of torque
which peaks at 3000 rpm and the new model is a little bit lower 155 newton meters at 3 250 rpm so
as i said the new model's a little down on the talk and that's probably due to get it through
some of the regulations and what have you so um that can be mapped out if you wanted to
change that and get one of the sort of plug-in maps and you can change all that if you want to
now before we carry on with the video make sure you like and subscribe it really helps the channel
out and you don't want to miss next week's videos we've got the brand new bmw r18 classic coming
and we're also going to do a separate video comparing the harley-davidson heritage classic
with the r18 classic so you don't want to miss it so we normally record our videos using a sony
a7iii but unfortunately the microphone port has broken for some reason so we've had to use
our other camera a backup camera which is a canon 750d so if you do notice a slight drop in quality
that's the reason why it only films in 25 frames per second as opposed to 60 so you might notice a
little bit of a difference now the harley-davidson heritage classic produces 93 horsepower at 5020
rpm and that may not sound like a lot uh because lots of sort of mid-sized motor motorbikes produce
that amount of power but it's all about the torque and this has so much torque it's monstrous
and it comes in at very low rpm so from 2000 to 3000 um that's kind of the rpm range you ride the
bike in most of the time and the talk is just so uh stump rippingly amazing we literally have uh
the bikes kept in sort of an old barn and we have to go down some steps and put a ramp up
um put lots of bikes in there and they will come out no problem when i ride this one out it rips
literally rips the step to pieces so we've got to repair that now because the torque is just huge
the great thing about a talking motorcycle uh when you're riding is it's so effortless to ride
and you just open it up you don't have to keep changing gear you go up a hill it'll just pull
up overtaking is just a twist of the wrist and you're gone it's fantastic so it really is a nice
easy bite to ride um but the talk is so tremendous it's it's hard to imagine if you compare this to
the most talking motorcycle in the world the rocket three from from triumph
this feels more talky it genuinely does because it comes in so early and um there's no traction
control and no modes and all that sort of stuff so you get everything all the time now one of the
things that's really good about the heritage classic is that it's a big motorcycle so for
taller people i'm six foot three you've got tons of space there's lots of room for your
legs you've got the forward controls your hands reach forward nicely there's plenty of room on
the bike so anyone from five foot ten to say six foot six you'd be a right on this bike
you can of course bring the handlebars towards you a little bit more if you're a bit shorter but it's
a roomy bike perhaps not quite as roomy as the indian springfield but certainly in that league
now the seat height on this bike is 680 millimeters and if you're someone below 5 foot
10 you might think that's quite appealing because it's quite a low seat height but this bike's very
long it's got a long wheelbase so if you are a little bit short below 5 foot 10 that's short
to us you might struggle to reach the bars and you you might find the controls a little bit far away
um as it's got four controls but um you can bring the bars back as the old man said
but it's pretty good for someone at my height i'm about six foot one and this feels perfect
now the wheel base on this is 1630 millimeters the rake is 30 degrees
and the trail is 140 millimeters and those dimensions combined with a 16 inch
wheels the 16 inch rims give you a very good ride it's a very good handling bike
and i've said it before but i still think this is the best handling of all the harley davidsons
it takes the corners very nicely it's very stable it's very stable in a straight line
and it takes the bumps very well the suspension is very good and the suspension
under the seat is adjustable so you can adjust it for a passenger or for your weight
so it's a fabulous ride it really is um and i prefer bikes with a
a shallower rake if you like um 30 degrees the bmw r18 is 32.7 and i like the feel of that
sort of thing it gives you a very stable very secure ride and it's very confidence inspiring
now the weight of the heritage classic is kilograms that's a wet weight so with your
fuel and your lubricants in it and that's very heavy and you do notice how heavy it is especially
when you're maneuvering the bike if you're putting it backwards it's extremely difficult especially
if you're on a little bit of a slope you've got to have the strength of a rhinoceros to be able
to move this thing now we often get asked what gear we would recommend i'm wearing a gold top
rebel 619 leather jacket which is absolutely fantastic the quality is amazing the leather
is thick but supple and soft so and the gloves as well they've got a whole range of beautiful
gloves beautifully lined what have you these are the cafe racer gloves they're fantastic so
that's what we would recommend the fuel tank is 18.9 liters on this bike and that's a pretty
reasonable size and you'll get official figures 43 miles per gallon out of this bike you're
probably more looking about 40 but will never be able to know because there's no miles per gallon
dial on here it doesn't tell you so you've got to guess but that's reasonable i mean it's the
same as an average hatchback car so if you think of how much performance and joy you get out of it
it doesn't really matter now the braking on this bike you've got a single disc at the front and
a single at the rear it's not brilliant to be on it's not the best brakes in the world
you've got a lot of engine braking with all that torque i've said in the past that there were good
brakes but that's relative because when you get on other bikes like i have some bikes brakes are
incredible so yeah they're okay they're not the best in the world but they certainly stop you
now on the old heritage the old style we used to have a fuel filler on each side but now you've
got a dummy one on the left it would have been nice if maybe they put a little dial in there
maybe even a fuel dye would be quite nice or a temperature or something would look quite
nice i think but it fits in it makes it look symmetrical so it's not the end of the world
now you've got a six-speed gearbox on the harley they're very clunky gears on
harley's but that's just what they're all like the clutch is quite firm but a decent
feel to it and it's got a fly-by-wire throttle and there's no maps on this like i've said we're
not very keen on maps anyway so you get everything all the time but you can get that tuned um with a
ecu and you can have it all changed and remapped the way you want it but once it's set it's set
now if it's raining you have to put this little cover over the air filter otherwise it just sucks
in all the water someone said on one of our old heritage videos that their one wasn't going over
but you can buy a new one of these for less than a fiber i think they're not expensive so
it's not really a big deal as standard the harley-davidsons don't sound all that loud
and the whole point of having a v-twin is to get that sound so as we have done lots of people fit
um an aftermarket slip-on or a whole pipe system we've got eliminator 300s from vance highs on this
now as a passenger on this bike this back seat can if you're going under hard acceleration
can be a little bit slippy so you have to definitely grip the person in front of you
as much as you can obviously if you bought one of the touring bikes or something you get it
or you could get a [ __ ] bar for it now riding it with a passenger on the back because it's so
torquey and it's so heavy you don't really notice the passenger so from my point of view as a rider
it's pretty good in that respect now before we carry on with the rest of the video we'd really
appreciate if you subscribe leave us a like on the video and comment below what you think of
this bike and what you're excited to see next now the controls are nice and simple on this which i
like your lights your indicator for the left and the right is on the other side and cruise control
one thing about having indicators either side is that it's harder to indicate with your throttle
hand if you're you're riding so lots of bikes have it on the left and you toggle one way or the other
and that to be honest is probably better on the right handlebar you've got your on off switch
and your starter button and your hazard warning and your right indicator i've put a little red
sticker on the off switch because in an emergency it's nice to know which one to hit if you need to
so the good thing about the heritage classic is that you can completely change the look of
it by taking the screen off taking the bags off or maybe you could take the bags off have the
screen on take the screen off have the bags on you can also take off the back seat very easily
but to take off the rear panniers all you have to do is
undo these two bolts in here which we'll do in a second and we'll show you what it looks like
without those on there and you really see that this bike looks incredible now once you've
undone the bolts you just pull it off the little rubber mount and it comes off nice and easily
now as you can see this bike looks completely different when you've
taken the screen off and the panniers i think it looks a lot better especially
once you take the back seat off as well if you're not riding with the pillion
but let us know what you think would you prefer it with the screen and the panniers or without
and also these little holes here where you've taken the bolts out you can get these bolts
that just go in to make it look flush but we haven't put them in yet we have got some
now the mirrors on this are very good because the bars are so wide you've got the sort of vape
hangers on this um they're nice and high and out of the way so i can see most of the road behind
me which is really good now this has got the very classic sort of 1950s styling very gangster era
styling on this and the mud guards are big you might not like the style but they work you see
with all the wet roads and what have you most of it gets caught up in the mud guards the rear bit's
got the sort of trim on it which has come off because it's only plastic and these little um
peg things that go in i mean they snap so easily so i wish that was metal that would
make it a lot better now the detachable screen is very nice it's nice to have it
it doesn't look as cool on of course but when it's on it does keep the wind off you nicely
at high speed you get a bit of wind underneath and on the top of your head but it depends of course
how tall you are me being six foot three i do feel it on the top of my head a lot but it's nice to
have the screen on most of the time to be honest now the standard tyres on this are the dunlop
d401f tyres they're okay in the dryer they're not bad at all in the wet they're pretty poor actually
if you're opening this bike up you can get it to wheelspin in third and fourth gear with all that
torque so it doesn't it doesn't sort of perform very well in the wet wintry sort of english roads
now the current price of the 2020 the new model or 2021 is 20 995 in black like this
you've also got 21 345 in color and then if you want to go two tones you've got two separate
colors you're looking at twenty one seven four five now don't forget to check out our
teespring store with all our t-shirts we've got some great designs this is one of them
they're on the carousel below so it would really help us out if you could
have a look and purchase one of our cool t-shirts we've got t-shirts hoodies all different colors
and styles there's new designs every week so make sure you have a look thanks very
much for watching the video make sure you like and subscribe leave your comments below