this is the 2021 harley-davidson
softail standard and in this video i'm going to do a full and thorough review
go a bit faster over the bumps than he can
now many of you will know if you've been watching the channel this is my own personal bike now the
first thing i noticed when they released the soft tail standard is that it's got a stupid name it's
not a soft tail standard it's a street bob and i think it should have been called the street
bob classic which i've said before in a previous video the only difference is the fact that most
of the finishes are either this brushed steel or any whatever you want to call it and the chrome
whereas the street bob has that wrinkled black paint which i don't look of personally
i know a lot of people do but i prefer this look and i think they've got the name all
wrong and the first thing people say when you say i bought a soft tail standard is
oh what a great base for customization i think well actually it looks amazing
as it is so i mean obviously that's personal preference but i do think the right was marketed
wrong
now this bike has got the 107 milwaukee 8 and this thing produces so much torque i'll go into
the figures in a minute it's absolutely amazing even so this bike is a2 restricted because of
my age and we live in nanny state britain we have to do at the government tell us
and this has still got plenty of talk because you're only restricting the power
from 86 horsepower down to 47 so i'll go into a little bit of detail on how it feels to ride
i've got a lot more torque than that
quarter
yeah it's got plenty of grunt to overtake and that's what you need that's all harley's all about
all the talk in the world and even though this is a2 restricted it's still got plenty
i promise you that so if you have been watching the channel and seeing our community posts
i recently passed my test and i took my test on this bike which is a shock to a lot of people
like why did you take your test on a harley but i couldn't get in with a riding school until
september or august or whatever and i'll say i'm not waiting that long
so i did it on my own bike and as you can imagine the soft tail isn't the best bike for
doing your mod one on so that was a little bit tricky but i'll go into the detail on
how the test went and all of that sort in the next video but this video is all about this
what do you bike my turn bloody indicator
that is one thing i have noticed about this bike or well any of the harleys is that if
you're not doing a sharp turn you do need to remember to turn those indicators off because uh
otherwise you end up giving someone a full signal uh you don't want that happening
the 107 that's in this bike produces 144 newton meters of torque at 3250 rpm and that's the key
figure with harley's it's all about the torque as we go on about all the time it's about low down
grunt and this has plenty of it and it produces 86 horsepower at 5020 rpm and as this is an a2
restricted bike it doesn't produce that figure it produces 47 but once the restrictor comes
off when you turn of age to do that license this thing is going to be another animal
the soft tail standard has a 13.2 liter fuel tank and it does 43 miles per gallon which is not bad
it's not great as far as bikes go but compared to the average car you're getting the same miles
per gallon and a lot more fun out of it i'll tell you that this bike weighs 297 kilograms which is
heavy-ish um but not that heavy as far as harley's are concerned and to be honest once you're on it
it doesn't feel heavy at all even maneuvering about it doesn't actually feel heavy it's
almost as nimble as a sportster with a lot more grunt so if you are coming from a sportster and
you're thinking of upgrading this would be perfect because it's got the same agility as a sportster
but a lot more power and a lot more torque so you'll be having a lot more fun on this bike
we've come to the beautiful countryside in the middle of nowhere and we might as well
be in central london there's about a car every five minutes it's absolutely well less than that
every five seconds you'd think we were um in oxford street it's absolutely ridiculous i'm
jealous of the old man in wales he can probably film for hours and not see a single bloody car
absolutely beautiful countryside around here really is this view as you come over this uh
around this corner wow just look at that look at that that is just something else bit jealous of uh
the whales views uh from the old man though i must admit but this is the best we've got in
leicestershire and rutland uh it's pretty uh it's pretty good it's not half bad
the soft tail standard has a rake of 30 degrees a trail of 157 millimeters
and a wheelbase of 1 630 millimeters and those three figures are what gives this bike its
stability at speed it's very stable up at motorway speed 70 miles an hour
it's absolutely fine it can go on for ages and you don't feel like you're unstable or twitchy
and obviously around the corners it's not a racing bike it's not going to be getting a knee down
but it is much more agile than a lot of the other harleys which is what i got drawn to with the soft
tail standard the seat height is 680 millimeters i am six foot one and i am on a slope so it's a
bit of a false um view because i'd normally be at that angle but you can see that this bike
is absolutely fine for me a lot of people say oh you want four controls
no i don't actually um i don't like floor controls i don't really want my feet there
i'm quite happy with my feet here i feel a little bit more in control of the bike but that's just me
i can understand why people like forwards but my first bike was an enduro bike so it's very upright
so this feels much more natural to me so if you are my height or taller if you are taller then
fair enough you would want forward controls but for me i think this is perfect and if you're even
five foot five you'll be fine on this bike as well the brakes on this bike are okay you've got single
disc on the front and rear and the stopping power is enough for what this bike is it's not amazing
but it is all you need as we said in the street bob 114 video it's a safety feature
the suspension is very nice and this bike is nice and plush it soaks up the bumps very well
so there's no problems there the mirrors are okay i'm reasonably broad so i only see sort of half
of what you can see in the mirror you could get them under hanging or get some aftermarket ones
that come further out um so that's very easily done harleys are very customizable um but as they
are for me i find it hard to see out the back uh the rear view out the back it's not a car but if
you're someone who's a bit shorter and a little bit narrower you'll be absolutely fine with these
i really like the digital display on this bike it's the same on the street bob 114 which it is
now and it's the same on the breakout i believe it's very minimalist you haven't got a dial or a
old-fashioned sort of rev counter you've got your speed and then it tells you your
rpm underneath tells you what gear you're in and you can get it to tell you lots of other things
like how many miles you've done and the time etc the uh the horn's very good on this bike
wow i literally heard that echo throughout the entire valley so you can certainly horn people
if they're getting in a way or if there's a herd of wildebeest crossing the road
you can hoot them and they'll get out of your way now you might be wondering what i'm going to do
with this bike as it is my own and i have actually ordered the first customization which is noise
related but obviously i've just gone for well actually i'm not going to tell you what i've gone
for because that be is part of the surprise but this bike has to be a2 restricted so it's probably
going to come up with error codes saying that i'm not allowed to do it but we'll live with that
another thing i want to do to this bike is put a rear seat on it i'm thinking the same one
that's on the street bob 114 now it's nice and slick it keeps in with the shapes of the bike
it doesn't look out of place i think some seats look really big i don't like the saddlemen seats
that everyone loves i think they're too big but i'm probably going to get yelled at for that
and i also like the standard seat that is on this bike i think it's perfectly comfortable enough
if you're going for really long journeys a lot of the time you probably want to change it to
something more comfortable but that's fine and then i'll also have to get the rear pegs
and the mounting kit and that way i can take people on the back including my lady friend
the six-speed gearbox on the harley is uh clunky as they always are which is a characteristic of
the bike and these bikes are full of character when you put it in first gear get a big
um and i really like it but if you haven't
ridden a harley before and you put it in gear you might think you've broken the bike
but that's absolutely normal and when you're going through the rest of the gears
it's actually pretty smooth so there's nothing to worry about there i really like the gearbox
um they're always saying oh bloody hell another car this is the 10th one no not the 10th the 100th
car that's gone past this evening from sports bikes or nakeds or whatever you're riding they
oh my god another one this is ridiculous now a lot of people who come from sports bikes or naked
or whatever you're riding they see harley and they go oh they've got no power they're not quick blah
blah but anyone who i've spoke to who's come from a sports bike and got on a harley they say the
complete opposite obviously it's not about power it's about torque and these have got oodles of it
seriously it's like a rhinoceros as we always say it is amazing and there's nothing on
earth like it it's completely different feeling because you're not revving it out to 10 000 rpm
you're short shifting at three or four and that's where all the enjoyment is with a harley
another thing i've noticed is the engine braking is absolutely fantastic
it might just be because i'm new to bigger bikes but from anything i've seen it's uh absolutely
brilliant you stick it in third go down a really steep hill and there's one near where we live
and uh there's a speed camera on the hill and he's just sticking in third and don't touch the
brakes don't touch the throttle and it just stays under 30. absolutely brilliant now with the bike
being restricted if you are 19 or whatever age you've taken your a2 license test at and you're
thinking of getting a big harley like this or 107 because you can't restrict the 114s you'll
probably be thinking is it worth it or should i just get an iron and restrict that because
you're only restricting it by about three or four horsepower um and i'd say it is worth getting this
even over a non-restricted iron this has got way more um because of the amount of
torque that it produces the iron doesn't have anywhere near as much torque as this
and this bike once you do your a license and take the restrictor off which is just an ecu map
then you're going to have loads more fun because it's like getting a new bike again
unleashing all the power that this engine has to produce
now this bike although it is a2 restricted it um load down up to sort of even up to 50
you don't really notice it if you're keeping it below sort of three and a half
it's uh it's got plenty of grunt
and around town it really is just lovely because you can just burble along use all the torque
and it's just absolutely something else honestly i'll tell you what i went out for a ride with one
of the mechanics from sycamore harley the other day and he's got a 103 heritage classic and
he said i'll tell you what it's a good job that bikes restricted because i was struggling to keep
up with it and uh that just says something for any of you who are looking at getting a bigger
cruiser style bike and a2 restricting it but actually it's still still going to give you uh
plenty of smiles per mile i can assure you that there's going to be loads more videos
of this bike and every other bike you can think of we're going to be reviewing them
and we're going to be doing a tour of wales me and the old man on his heritage classic and
this seeing all the amazing scenery and all the beautiful hot spots so you don't want to miss it
now big thanks to me julie for filming the video it's been a massive vote being it
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