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I just saw a 2012 Softail Deluxe.

Due to my age and background in motorcycles, I've spent decades stripping things off of a bike. I kind of figured I would never lust after an Electra-Glide-ish bike, and that was that.

However, today I saw a new candy red 103-inch Softie Deluxe. Wow.

It had more chrome than my Aunt Clara's hip replacement. I even liked the whitewall tires. But it was when I sat on the thing that love blossomed.

I have a love/hate relationship with the suspensions on Dynas and Sportsters. I like those bikes, and I figure I can use the stock suspensions to "hold the bike upright" until I get something decent in place. But I've always admired that old saddle design with the chrome bar wrapped around the rear lip of the seat. Cushy.

Now, I love Betty, but I think it's about time she's leaves home and finds someone else to try and kill. I need a little spitfire for around home, and I need a road bike. Not a rolling entertainment center, but a bike for miles.

Yikes, I'm falling in love with a dresser...
 
I saw one, too... With that two-tone paint job, she was gorgeous! I sat down on it and the saddle was perfect, the handlebars were too and it just felt "right!" I love my fattie, but, wow... It would be a TOUGH decision if they were sitting next to each other! GORGEOUS bikes!!

Den
 
However, today I saw a new candy red 103-inch Softie Deluxe. Wow.


Yikes, I'm falling in love with a dresser...

You can relax - the consensus is that a "dresser" is a bike from the Touring family - saddlebags and a fairing, with the exception of the Road King. Softails can be used for touring but are not technically dressers.
 
You can relax - the consensus is that a "dresser" is a bike from the Touring family.

LOL. Well, it's a dresser to me. I come from an era when Harley only made two bikes--an Electra Glide and a Sportster. Then one day they glued a Sportster from end on the back end of a dresser. Everything else to me is a variation on a theme.

I could live with a Deluxe, however. I envision that bike in my life for wandering around on a Sunday afternoon. No plans, just quiet reflection and five gallons of fuel.

dbmg said:
Remember some day you will own a Bagger....

Yikes! :small3d031: If that day comes, just shoot me!
 
I could live with a Deluxe, however. I envision that bike in my life for wandering around on a Sunday afternoon. No plans, just quiet reflection and five gallons of fuel.

I ride quite a bit with one of our members who has a Deluxe and she absolutely loves it! I did a demo ride on one at Bike Week and I can see why - sweet ride!
 
Nooooo. It will be like you have died and gone to heaven.

Perhaps an explanation as we laugh together. Seriously, it centers on why I ride.

Even as a boy, I sought riding to decompress. There are jobs, mind chatter and people I want to leave behind. For example, I do carry a cell phone, but for emergency road service and a weather service I use to alert me to thunderstorms. I do not carry it for clients and work.

I don't camp anymore. I don't want to carry a GPS, or a seat warmer, or a lap-top or a portable stove. There are just things I want to leave behind.

People steal time. And when they want to intrude they feel we should respond. We all have gotten complaints like, "Why don't you answer your cell phone--I called seven times..."

I think this Deluxe offers me a great ride for that purpose. Enough fuel to roam, a small rack for a loaf of bread.

But, hey, you might get the last laugh yet. If I get this bike, numerous friends will point and laugh, "Hey, Tourist, you're on a dresser!" To my friends, it's an Electra-Glide (perhaps a Duo-Glide) as well.
 
I ride quite a bit with one of our members who has a Deluxe and she absolutely loves it!

Oh, that brings up a question I want to ask!

In the +40 years I have ridden bikes, I have never ridden one with floorboards. I was an HD mechanic in the days of the pan and shovel, and I did have to take out the police bikes for a test ride after tune-ups. These were brief rides, and I did them sitting mostly straight up.

I'm not Johnny Road-Racer, but I have scraped a warning ball on a Sportster foot-peg in my day.

How far over do you have to push a dresser before you're dragging chrome? Will I be able to take corners in a "regular" fashion, or is there a learning curve, like on a trike?
 
Oh, that brings up a question I want to ask!

In the +40 years I have ridden bikes, I have never ridden one with floorboards. I was an HD mechanic in the days of the pan and shovel, and I did have to take out the police bikes for a test ride after tune-ups. These were brief rides, and I did them sitting mostly straight up.

I'm not Johnny Road-Racer, but I have scraped a warning ball on a Sportster foot-peg in my day.

How far over do you have to push a dresser before you're dragging chrome? Will I be able to take corners in a "regular" fashion, or is there a learning curve, like on a trike?

In the 3 years owning the Glide I have only hit the right floor board twice. The reason being I was rolling along at 55 on a 35 mph road and here was a right hand turn. What I am saying you will really have to try to touch the floor boards down. Not saying I am against trying though. You will find that the Deluxe will exceed your previous statements in your post. You will find your self riding farther and farther and enjoying every mile of it.:s
 
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