this is the 2022 harley-davidson lowrider s with the 117 engine in it and i want to
establish today one whether it's a good bike and two whether this 117 engine is worth having or not
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it's a name you know and you can rely on them i've ridden the harley davidson cvo which has the 117
cubic inch engine and in the cvo it doesn't seem drastically different or different at all in fact
from the 114 and the other models so i really wanted to see if it makes a difference on the
soft tail chassis with this 2022 model there's a few differences from the 114 model and look at our
review of that a couple of years ago one of the obvious differences is that the clock now is here
on top of the handlebars rather than down here which is a big improvement because i did find
you have to look down so far you can't see the road with the other one this
is absolutely brilliant and it's a rev counter in analog and i love analog it's fantastic and
it's a rev counter because this is a performance cruiser and when you're riding hard you want to
know where your revs are so you're riding within the talk or the power and with this you can see
at a glance without looking down really exactly where you are with the rpms which is fantastic
and under that you've got the digital stuff that you normally have with harley davidsons
which you scroll through with your thumb on the left there so this is brilliant i love that
i must say that this bike is super cool it really is absolutely gorgeous um i like this
little screen thing here it doesn't do a lot but it does stop the buffeting and it
does take a bit of wind off of you you've got nice big wide meaty forks upside down forks
and take note other manufacturers you don't have to have them gold anodised black looks better
it's very cool you've got the alloy wheels here in the bronze color dual disc brakes
and sometimes one forgets when you look at other bikes attention to detail and with
this you've got the down tubes here but sandwich between them is the radiator for the oil cooling
and you don't see it from the side it's not just this great big radiator stuck on
so that's a great detail now of course you've got the 117 engine which we'll come on to how
it rides in a minute you've got mid controls and actually i prefer mid controls i must say now
to forward controls you get a better control of the bike your feet are more in the center
of gravity you can stand up easier on them if you go over a bump or if you want to stretch
your legs so they're great no problems with those you've got the mono shock here underneath the seat
to give it that hard tail look which is the point of the soft tails the exhaust pipes
here have a nice deep sound to them you can hear it with the helmet on it does sound deep
and rumbly i must say very nice and they look kind of nice too and they're minimalistic so
if we have to get to that point where we can't have louder pipes i'd be happy with these nice big
fat rear tyre this is very nice this clear thingy here we have a guillotine on the back ready to
slice your leg off as you get on and off courtesy of the british twits in parliament who have never
thought about anything other than their wallets so i really do like the styling on this bike
the seat's very good it's very comfortable and it's good on a long ride and you've got this
thing at the back to stop you shooting off the rear end because this does have some acceleration
let me tell you and we'll come on to that i like these risers on the bars it's very cool and it
gives your hands a nice position and it's very commanding and you've got a good view of the
road ahead the mirrors are hopeless and i think they're designed more to face you so you can see
how cool they look on the bike as opposed to seeing behind but that can be changed as well
and you've got this crinkled black paint finish here and there it's on top here now and i like
it and it's here and down here and along here and on the triple clamps and around the speedo thing
actually i do like it it does suit the bike it's kind of gnarly and it does look good
so overall the styling of this bike is super cool and very good looking
on the low rider s you've got a 28 degree rake which is a bit steeper than the other soft tails
which are 30 degrees that gives this bike slightly sharper steering and more responsiveness not too
much so which is not a good thing and i think any less than 28 personally i don't like it you
get too steep and you start getting twitchy and i don't like that you keep the stability with
this but you still get that sort of handling and this is a performance cruiser i'm going to say a
number of times in this video and that's one of the elements that gives it its cornering ability
and the engine again i'm coming on to in a minute size wise again i'm six foot two
and that's the riding position which is very nice my arms are nicely stretched out in front of me
and my legs aren't too bent i feel very comfortable it looks amazing and it feels amazing
so on to the 117 engine and the question is whether this is worth going for over the 114 or
the 107 and the answer is absolutely emphatically yes this is just an incredible engine and you
notice it on this bike way more than you notice it on the cvos it has the usual low down grunt that
you get with harley's so from 2000 rpm if you open the throttle you're accelerating hard it pulls
like a train it's fantastic but with this engine you get a little bit more mid range so when you
rise up to three and a half thousand say rpm it pulls really hard and this is a bike you can rev
a little bit more and get more out of so it is a performance engine as well as being a deep
throaty rumbly uh talky low down engine but it gives you the best of both worlds
so riding this bike it is tremendous i can tell you it's fabulous when i got on the bike
i just dropped off the harley davidson nightstar which i reviewed before this
and jumped onto this and it does feel big it's a big meaty bike it's a full-size motorcycle
and straight away you can feel that talk the difference is night and day absolutely
night and day the nightstar is very high revvy this is just deep traditional highly
and it's got tremendous grunt i love it and if you open it up and keep it opened up it really does
fly it's a very fast motorcycle and it corners nicely too it's not a sports bike and you know i'm
not a sports bike kind of rider and i think riding ridiculously fast around corners is dangerous
but this is fast enough you don't need to go faster than this it's brilliant and it's just
a wonderful experience it's like darcy said many times when you ride a bike like this
it's an event it's more than just getting from a to b it's doing it in style and exhilaration
and it's just wonderful i can honestly say now if you're thinking about a harley davidson
one of the soft tails this is the one to go for this is now my favorite harley davidson
because this engine just brings it up to another level it's just incredible and it's extremely
cool and it sounds amazing i mean change the pipes for some slip-ons or a full system my
goodness it will roar and echo through the valleys it's just unbelievable the design is brilliant the
seat is brilliant the clock on the the rev counter is brilliant the mirrors are rubbish
but apart from that it's just the most incredible bike i've ridden on the harley range ever it's my
favorite harley without a shadow of a doubt so as i said if you're thinking about a harley this is
the one i recommend now if you're thinking about an indian get one of these it's just phenomenal
the brakes on this are superb absolutely superb um i can't say any more than that it's just perfect
the gear change on this is very good indeed most of the time you get the harley clunk into first
but not all the time once it's warmed up you don't tend to get it but the gear change is faultless
as is pretty much everything on this bike i can't find anything seriously wrong with it it's just
all good on this and all the other soft tails you do have a little usb charger point there which is
great to have so if you've got a phone or a sat nav you can charge it while you're on the move
and that's something that nightstar didn't have and my battery went flat and i got completely lost
so if you've got this that won't happen on the low riders you've got a taller rear shock same
as the heritage classic and the last model of this didn't have that that gives you
a little bit more height which gives you a plusher ride but also a bit more ground clearance which
improves your cornering angles as well so that all helps to make this a performance cruiser
the quality is very good indeed first class there's nothing on the bike that looks bad
the welds are good the paint finish is good everything is top-notch so let's go over a few
facts and figures the price is five hundred 17 thirty dollars in the usa or eighteen thousand
four hundred and ninety five pounds in the uk it's got the 117 cubic inch engine which is 1917 cc
massive which gives you 125 foot pounds of torque at three and a half thousand rpm or 168 newton
meters which is tremendous 105 horsepower at 5020 rpm it's got a 5 gallon united states gallon
tank which is 18.9 liters and that gives you 47 miles per gallon usa gallons or 5.5 liters per
100 kilometers in the rest of the world who are metric and i must say i do prefer feet in inches
and uh imperial so uh maybe well they said they'd go back to it they won't it was just a
stupid government being stupid as usual the weight of the bike is 308 kilograms or 679 pounds
and that sounds a lot but it doesn't feel particularly heavy
but that heaviness is a result of quality metals and parts it's strong and strength is going to
give you a long life so all these things are very good to have on a motorcycle it's not
built out of rubbish plastic and it's going to last five years you could keep this bike forever
comparing this bike to my personal bmw r18 they are very similar
and the r18 the forks stick out further and it's a longer bike so the r18 is bigger
the engine on the r18 you've got the boxer twin instead of the v-twin um i do feel that the
torque comes in harder and stronger at 2000 rpm on the r18 than it does on this but once you open
this out it's got more torque and more power so it is a faster bike and um you know if i hadn't
got the r18 and i was back on the market looking for a bike this would be the harley that i would
buy of course you know i can't keep changing bikes i love the r18 and i'm very happy with it
but if you're you know comparing the two bikes in your head which one would you go for it would be
down to style and whether you want the sort of bmw engine or the harley engine because obviously you
can change things you can customize these bikes and make them your own but they're both very cool
so that's what i would say
no i don't know about you but it worries me a little bit that bikes like this won't be around
for a long time because you know with the new revolution max engine for instance which is a
very good engine but not my kind of engine i like these deep chalky air cooled engines and
i just hope that they're going to stick around for a bit longer because
there's nothing like it on the planet and if they do end up having to be discontinued then
i strongly suggest you buy one and keep it forever because there's never going to be a bike like this
so let's summarize about this bike the low rider s it's very cool it looks amazing it's stylish
it's meaty it's talky it's what we know harley-davidsons are good at and it is
one of the best cruisers out there without question the 117 cubic inch engine is just
incredible absolutely fantastic the handling is very very good
the design and the ergonomics is very good like with the speedo and the rev counter
the mirrors are not very good but on the whole it is just one tremendous motorcycle so as i said
in the video if you're thinking about it do not hesitate this is one of the best harleys ever made