2012 Harley-Davidson Dyna Switchback Review

[Buzglyd]

Originally Posted by sarnali2

I assume you had a Gadsden Flag sewn on your T Bag??.....

Yeah it was either that or a rainbow.

[Captain Steve]

Originally Posted by Kevin_Duke

Ethanol, IIRC, produces less power than petrol on a lower-tuned engine, but its higher octane allows one to build a higher-compression engine, which can make more power. A higher octane doesn't deliver more power unless an engine has sophisticated knock sensors.

Ethanol has less specific energy than gasoline. The energy in gasoline is packed in tighter than in ethanol. This means that an engine using 1 gallon of Ethanol will do less work than 1 gallon of gasoline. You get much less mileage on a tank of pure ethanol than a tank of gas.

Octane is a measure of knock/ping/detonation resistance. The higher the number, the less likely it is to explode under pressure. Since it's not going to explode, you can build the engine with higher compression.

Duke is right that a higher compression engine can put out more power for the same displacement. You need higher octane fuel also because the cheap stuff will explode before it's supposed to. You'll probably need more of the expensive stuff (by volume) to get from point A to point B though.

[Dennis Chung]

Originally Posted by guns90

Need to do a recheck on the price. As of Aug 7, the price is now $17,559 for black and $17,999 for silver or red.

Are you looking at Harley-Davidson's Canadian site? H-D Canada lists $17,599 for black, $17,979 for silver or red in Canadian funds.

Harley-Davidson's U.S. site lists the Switchback as $15,999 for black, $16,384 for the color options.

[Buzglyd]

Originally Posted by Dennis Chung

Are you looking at Harley-Davidson's Canadian site? H-D Canada lists $17,599 for black, $17,979 for silver or red in Canadian funds.

Harley-Davidson's U.S. site lists the Switchback as $15,999 for black, $16,384 for the color options.

We gotta stick it to them Canucks!

Frogs too.

[Dennis Chung]

It was easier to swallow the higher prices when the Canuck dollar was much lower than the greenback. Earlier today the Canadian dollar dipped just below parity for the first time in six months and is now back up to just a bit over the US dollar, so that CA$17,599 is now worth US$17,743 at the moment.

[12er]

I have a T-bag for my BMW, no rainbow patch though...

[sarnali2]

Originally Posted by Buzglyd

Yeah it was either that or a rainbow.

It's so hard to get the rainbows to coordinate with the fringed arm chaps, at least the Gadsden gives you a solid color to work with. Plus you can add little sequins for the snakes eyes for that fresh-n'-frisky look

[guns90]

Dennis Chung, My bad. Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't even realise that I was on the Canadian site.

[bbtowns]

When they said dual purpose I figured Harley was coming out with a dual sport. C'mon, virtually every bike can go from inner city cruising to weekend touring. That's not particularly special.

[theDuke]

I like the wheels and the general look of the bike. I sat on one at a local NHRA race where H-D had a large display and it felt much lighter than that published weight would lead me to believe. I think on paper it's only about 75 lbs lighter than a Road King, but picking it up off of the side-stand was an entirely more pleasant experience. That RK must have all 75 lbs at tank level or something.

What is with these high bars on all of the bikes today? I really don't like having my hands fall asleep when riding for more than 20 minutes. Swapping bars should be a relatively easy task, though.