Harley-Davidson Deuce
Harley-Davidson Deuce
The Motor Company's latest Softail should be truly contagious
"IT's THE PRETTIEST Softail Custom we've ever announced." says Willie G. Davidson, Harley’s iconic styling director, of the year-2000 FXSTD Deuce. He's right. Harley’s newest Softail builds on the same mechanical hardware of other Y2K Softails-a redone chassis and the counterbalanced Twin Cam 88 “Beta” engine-then adds sleek, refined components and styling. The end result is a custom motorcycle that makes other FX models look dated. The goal for the Deuce, says Willie G., was “to create a world-class custom, to recreate the excitement of the original Softail. It’s not a radical custom, but a foundation custom, a canvas for our customers to paint on.”
The look begins at the front, with a clean fork wearing coke-bottle-shaped sliders carrying a 21-inch tire and minimalist fender. It continues up to redesigned triple-clamps and handlebar risers, along with new, smaller turnsignals. All of the front-end components are particularly simple and unadorned. The Deuce's gas tank is about 1 */2 inches longer than other Softail tanks and carries a particularly curvaceous, organic-appearing dash panel. The horizontal line of the rear fender also aids the stretched-out look, as do elegantly curved fender stays that support the rear sheetmetal with no visible fasteners. In a first for Harley, the rear w heel is a 17incher. carrying a wide-by-MiKvaukee-standards 160/70 tire. The overall effect is long, low. sleek and elegant-perhaps almost too much so for some Harley traditionalists. A few mutterings about “too Japanese” were heard at the press introduction, as if a certain level of crudity is essential for an American-made custom motorcycle. But that view wasn’t reflected by Harley dealers when they saw the bike. Says Willie G., “They thought we hit a home run.” Accordingly, Harley intends for a significant percentage of its year-2000 Softail production to be the Deuce, and in typical Harley fashion, already has a line of accessories just to fit the new model. Combine the bike’s sleek appearance with the . improved acceleration, braking, handling « ff and reduced vibration of the new Softail * Fat Boy (CW, October), and when it • comes to Deuce sales, the dealers T ■ 1 Probably know of what they speak. 'j&^A -Steve Anderson
