Harley-Davidson Night Rod

My first impression of Harley-Davidson’s 2012 Night Rod Special was this: I’ve never ridden a motorcycle that propelled me f
orward with such velocity. The slightly scary part was that it wasn’t even that difficult. No thinking, no shifting, no timing. Just. Go. Forward. No, Harley-Davidson hasn’t outfitted its latest V-Rod with an automatic transmission. It’s just that, even in first gear, I could get the motorcycle to 60 mph without even red-lining. For me it was a new experience.

  What we have here is one of the latest entries into the power cruiser arena, and here are the vitals: Folks, for just $15,299, you get a slammed-black liquid-cooled V-Twin fuel-injected two-wheeled 5-speed dual-exhaust motorcycle. In retrospect, I guess that “two-wheeled” part was redundant. Anyway … Harley sells the Night Rod Special with the idea that it is the perfect combination of power and swagger, and, for the most part, I think they hit it on the head.

Displacing about 1,250 CCs, the Night Rod Special makes about 85 ft.-lb of torque and 125 horses at peak power, and for me that was plenty. Leading up to my picking up the motorcycle at H-D headquarters in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, I was worried about the feat-forward-hands-forward seating configuration, but after about 20 miles on I-94 heading back to Madison, I was over it—I felt fine. In fact, for this V-Rod model, Harley brought the footpegs and handlebars a few inches closer to the seat. Near the end of my first 90 miles on the motorcycle, my posterior was almost pain free, and my back was fine, too.