2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide

Stripped down touring at its finest is what the 2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide is all about, and the personality that surrounds it has always been good at defying convention. This is one of the large Touring model Harley-Davidsons that appeals to the more sporting individuals that like to ride a full sized dresser motorcycle. The Street Glide, while offering room for a passenger, is a motorcycle that more than anything, was created  for the joy of solo touring, of finding that inner peace with the outer world, all the while laughing at Zen. Feel a need to get away? The 2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide is there waiting, eager to chew up another mile or fifty of road. You can fit the necessities in the Street Glide’s hard saddlebags, and the batwing fairing does a fair to decent job of blocking the elements. This is a bike that doesn’t need to be heard- it’s your own personal sounding board, ready and willing to take you away.

The Street Glide has a slammed (lowered) rear suspension, dispenses with the Tour Pack and excess chrome and sets its sights on the long lonesome highway while maintaining enough hot rod spunk to blast around the local metro area going to work and running errands.  If you would compare the Street Glide to anything, it is probably the closest to a stripped car with no frills but high performance engine, like the original muscle cars. The blacked out aluminum wheels and low profile 18″ front wheel are a nice touch.

The Harley Street Glide has been made for a number of years and it is attractive to some of the shorter individuals who want to ride one of the big Hogs. The seat height is lower by a couple of inches than the normal Electra Glides and Road Kings. That lowering is accomplished by shorter shocks and shock  travel so that is a minus from a ride and handling standpoint.  More and more women are riding their own motorcycles today so the Street Glide and the Softail Deluxe and Heritage models have a lot of popularity.

The cargo capacity is less than the other Electra Glide derived models because the Tour Pack that usually rides above the rear wheel of most of them is not included.  The bike has a pair of key lockable hard Fiberglas saddlebags that match the rest of the metal work. The locks work with the bike’s ignition key so the same key turns it on, locks the steering, and locks the luggage.

The distinctive bat wing fairing with full instrumentation is included and the dual rear view mirrors are integrated into the fairing rather than projecting from the handlebars like on the other Electra Glides.  The rear fender is redesigned and includes ground effects and covers the gap between the saddle bags with body color panels.  The rear fender has three lines of fender lights and LED license plate illumination as well.  The bike has rider footboards for the operator and similar design pegs for the passenger so it is basically set up for solo. If you plan on carrying a passenger much you probably will want to add larger footboards, seat, and backrest for comfort.
Instrumentation includes Harmon Kardon 40-watt, two-speaker Advanced Audio System with CD/MP3 player; electronic speedometer; tachometer; fuel; voltage; oil pressure, and ambient temperature gauges.  There is a cigarette lighter outlet to charge your cell phones and other accessories or to power a GPS system if you bring one along.

The 2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide may be a bike prone to multiple personalities, but its air cooled and rubber mounted twin cam 96 engine is all power. Rated at 92.6 lb/ft of torque at 3,500 RPM, the 2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide is purpose-built for highway cruising, offering a Cruise Drive six-speed transmission with a newly designed helical 5th gear to eliminate transmission noise that was evident to some on earlier models of the Harley 6 speed. The transmission gives the Street Glide just the right gearing for passing, as well as keeping the RPMs nice and low for those all-day highway rides. Gas mileage doesn’t suffer, either, with the 2010 Harley Davidson Street Glide realizing 35 miles per gallon in the city and 54 miles per gallon on the highway thanks in part to the use of Harley Davidson’s electronic sequential port fuel injection system. Exhaust is routed to the rear with a two into one header that exits through a single muffler on the right side. A six-gallon fuel tank ensures you’ve got plenty of range, and the fairing-mounted CD player / stereo ensure that the miles won’t go by without some riding tunes. Braking is accomplished with 32mm, four piston fixed Brembo front and rear brakes,  ABS brakes and cruise control are available options. As in all Touring models, the Street Glide has the redesigned frame and suspension that makes the platform more rigid and tractable and the wider rear tire and improved exhaust header that passes the heat to the rear more efficiently than the older ones did.   This also gives the passenger less hot pipes to look out for.

The Street Glide fires up with ease by turning on the main switch and the kill button on the right handle grip. The fuel injection makes the motor much more tractable and you can ride off quite soon after it fires up, the ESPFI controlling the engine enrichment for cold running.  If you are used to operating a carbureted bike, you will notice the difference in ride ability right off.

The bike accelerates with nary a stutter due to the excellent fuel injection these newer Harley’s have.  In city traffic I stay in the gears 4 and below and the bike will run all day because 4th is equivalent to top gear in the bikes a few years back.  Fifth gear and 6th gear get the rpms of the motor down close to the wheel rpms so you need to be going above 90 klm/hr to take advantage of the higher gears, otherwise you will be downshifting too much to keep the rpms up for maneuverability if you are in traffic.
The bike accelerates up through the gears and on the Interstate it keeps pace with the traffic and has plenty of passing power.

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