I had high hopes for Harley Davidson’s sporting new Street Rod as the original V-Rod was already one of my favourite cruiser style bikes. The lack of rigidity, particularly in the forks and triple clamps, and disappointing ground clearance were my main two complaints while the poor fuel range also scored a mention when I reviewed the original V-Rod model in 2002.

Obviously I was not the only one to make those comments as all this and more has been remedied in the Street Rod.

In fact Harley has gone so far with the improvements to the Street Rod that no other cruiser on the market has a snowballs chance in Hell of keeping the Street Rod in sight once the road tightens up and serious cornering enters the equation. That’s a big call but it’s one that I have no hesitation in making.

The new 43mm inverted forks offer no adjustment and the twin shock rear end only preload adjustment but it certainly doesn’t hold the V-Rod back when things turn serious.

Up and down the tight and thrillingly tortuous Australian Alps roads around Mt Beauty, Mt Hotham and Omeo the Street Rod left me gobsmacked.

It performed more like a sporting nakedbike than a cruiser.

Now I know that more than a few readers will be sniggering into their weeties right now at the idea of the words ‘Harley-Davidson’ and ‘sporting’ being used in the same sentence but make no mistake, this thing is quite a weapon in the tight stuff.

The original V-Rod touched its undercarriage down frustratingly early. However, the new Street-Rod offers plenty of ground clearance and that fact combined with the rigid new front end raises the machine to a whole new level of performance.

In tight sub-80kph corners I have little doubt that a good rider on a Street Rod would be able to stay ahead of an average sportsbike rider in tight terrain.

And yes, I am serious. There was certainly some tight sections of the run up Mt. Hotham that I really don’t think I could have done any faster on a sportsbike. Roads like this will prove happy hunting grounds for Street Rod pilots I’m sure.

And what’s going to make that claim sound even more totally ridiculous is the fact that the Street Rod weighs in at a very hefty 280kg. Now I know your sides are really splitting with raucous laughter at my previous handling comments. And if I was reading this without actually riding the bike I would almost certainly be laughing even harder than you. Once rolling the weight is only noticeable in quick changes of direction where a fair bit of pressure on the bars is required but that’s easily manageable and the specially designed new Brembo brakes cope amazingly well with the mass.

The only time I ever found the weight annoying was picking the machine up off the side-stand. In faster terrain you are aware of the amount of mass being exerted on the front tyre and it’s once the speeds rise that the Street Rod will lose out to more sporting motorcycles in faster corners. The chart below shows the difference in available lean angle between the V-Rod and the Street Rod and also the ergonomic differences between the two models.

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