FIRST RIDE: H-D SOFTAIL STANDARD
Entry level Harley is the real deal, but entrée to club H-D is now £13k.
There’s a reason why the first question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? rarely requires a postgraduate diploma in quantum astrophysics, if that’s even a thing. When you’re just starting out, accessibility is key – and that’s true whether you’re buying a motorcycle, or staring at Jeremy Clarkson.
Since 2014, Harley-davidson’s welcome mat has been their Street 750 – a friendly, smooth, watercooled, Indian-built roadster with a bargain sixgrand price tag. The level above it was their 883 and 1200 Sportsters: more traditional, rawer, air-cooled, American-made and phenomenally popular. But cast an eye over Harley’s 2021 UK line-up and you’ll find neither family. The Sportsters don’t meet Euro5, while the Streets fell victim to Harley’s decision to pull out of India.
All of that leaves this, the Softail Standard, as the most affordable Harley-davidson in the UK right now. Entry-level this very clearly isn’t – not with a £12,995 price, a gargantunormous 1745cc V-twin, and a hefty 297kg kerb weight. But stripped-bare and intentionally uncomplicated the Softail Standard is Harley’s blank canvas – a machine to either be cherished for its back-to-basics engine-and-twowheels simplicity, or used as the starting point for all manner of madcap custom extravaganzas.
The colour, however, is fixed. There’s just one: black. Just one seat too, set down low and intimately close to the mid-set footpegs. Combined with the high and wide mini-ape hanger bar, the laid-back, scrunched-leg, straight-arms riding position looks natural in pictures but feels pretty preposterous at first. Thankfully, after a couple of hours it all settles down to merely feeling a bit awkward.
More affable and engaging is the Milwaukee-eight 107 motor. Gruff, butch, meaty echoes of air-cooled combustion reverberate out the twin exhausts, packed with all the rich, rounded bombastic charisma you’d hope from a proper Harley motor
– but with remarkable refinement too. Long gone is the harsh, violent vibration of past 45° V-twins. It blurts and braps and blasts its way down the road, clicking crisply through the surprisingly slick six-speed gearbox. The ratios are tall though: maximum torque may be served up at just 3250rpm, but cruising along at 60mph in top gear leaves the engine turning over a full 1000rpm slower than that. So despite having a whopping 106 lb.ft of torque on hand, you still need to change down to fourth for brisk A-road overtakes.
Suspension and brakes are basic for £13k (no damping adjusters; short-travel shock; single disc at each end) so the ride is never going to be a magic carpet, and the dynamic isn’t especially, err, dynamic. Steering needs less muscle than you might presume given the whopping weight and ultrarelaxed geometry, and it does generally go where you point it within the limit of its 28.5° of lean angle. But it’s a cruiser, at its happiest when cruising. Luxuries are thin on the ground, in keeping with the Softail Standard’s prioritisation of tradition over tech. Rider aids extend as far as keyless ignition, selfcancelling indicators and ABS. A microscopic LCD strip built into the handlebar clamp contains the speedo, fuel gauge, trip meter and gear position. The fuel tank’s titchy 13.2-litre volume is offset slightly by an admirable 48mpg, giving 100 miles to the fuel light. Plenty really – you’ll fancy a stretch anyhow. The bottom line is that while the Softail Standard might now be the most affordable route into new Harley ownership, it is in no way a starter bike. It’s a full-bodied, red-blooded Harley. Not made in America any more, granted – all Eu-market models save the CVOS, Trikes and Livewire are now built in Thailand to escape US-EU import tariffs – but avoid looking at the badge on the frame and you’d never know a difference. If you’re after a raw, nofrills Harley riding experience for the least money possible, the Softail Standard is where to go.
‘All the rich, rounded bombastic charisma you’d hope from a proper Harley motor’