2014 Rushmore Project

In 2014, Harley Davidson introduced its new line of Rushmore Touring bikes.  After canvasing riders from around the world, this is touted as the biggest product change in the companies history.  Changes include the 103 High Output engine, basically already has bigger valves and ram air, approximately 30% more lean, factory bigger tires (180 rear), one touch saddle bags, air induction fairing, factory oil cooler,  and new color screen Infoentertainment system which includes Bluetooth, way more sound (25 watts per channel), and storage box for your Iphone/Ipod.  Because of the 103 High Output, the pipes are more aggessive from the factory.  Though not Screaming Eagles or Vance Hines, its close enough to scratch your head about whether to upgrade.  

Here's a fun video on the Rushmore Project improvements:  Rushmore Project Bikes

What it has meant for me is after 40 years of riding Metric bikes, I now own a Harley.  I've had the bike now a month and am still being surprised by it.  It handles the twisties like my metric but rides like a car on the interstates.  Its pushing a mere 2,500 rpms at 70 mph with enough low end torque to shoot it instantly to 80 mph for passing.  Its more than doubled my butt ability in regards to time in the saddle.  I have a friend who's put 350,000 on his Road King and now has 140,000 miles on his Road Glide.  These things just aren't the Harley's of old anymore.  

Just be warned, Harley's may not be oil below the news ridem fixems anymore but they sure still have a way to keep your pocket book empty.  You can modify these bikes a gazillion ways and not just chrome doodads.  For example, we're now looking at the new detachable trunk for tour riding.

Tj

You know I think we all go through phases in riding.

I rode rockets when I was young.  My reflexes were fast, I thought myself immortal, I could take more punishment, and getting time off to really take a trip somewhere on a bike damn near impossible so rare.  A big one is you have children.  That got me a regress, off a fast big bike and back on a small dirt bike.  Before that I had had three multicylinder solid lifter street rockets.  After that, I bought my first bagger.  This is my third bagger.  

Now I'm of an age unless I go bat shit crazy putting miles on this thing, it could be my last bike.  I have medical issues and what I really only wanted was a sixth gear. I test drove a Heritage Softail, arguably the prettiest classic motorcycle on the market but when I test drove this bike, it was "OMG, I can do trips again on this one and I don't have to give up its a motorcycle to do it."   I had been looking at Honda Goldwings and BMW 1200 and larger but it was like driving a car with two wheels.  

I had ridden Harley's before but this Rushmore impressed me.  The good tour ride, well, the earlier Harley Tour bikes have that good a ride too.  What grabbed me is the damn thing gets up and goes and corners on the twisties like a mid-size metic VTwin.  Its a bitch in slow tight corners like all these big tour bikes are but on the road it becomes a sweetheart.  It has only about a 10% or less more get up and go than the 2013 103cu in but its where they put it.  Its lower down, right at that 2,500 rpm sweet spot that allows you to punch and go.  More significantly is it has almost 30% more lean than the 2013.  Here I am on a monster bike catching up with bikes and cars on "The Dragon" and not a board scrape one.  

Its not a car with two wheels.  Its a motorcycle that rides like a car on the highway.  

I think we grow into the bikes we ride.  I have a cousin 70 years old who drives a trike.  Who knows, maybe me someday.  The only thing I know for sure, riding beats the hell out of not riding.  That bumper sticker slogan, "We know why a dog likes to hang his head out the window" is trues as hell.

Tj

Drag that bike down on a trailer, old friend, we'll do the Skyway, Dragon, and Foothills.  Hell, we'll even go up into the park.  

A month now and already, I've taken more flak from meteric riders than I took riding metric for 40 years from Harley riders.  I'm still going through the "can't believe this is a Harley".  

Since the picture, I've added a 8" windshield which at my height, greatly reduced interstate buffeting while still allowing me to look over the shield.  I also added luggage guards.  This is a heavy bike and here in the mountains with its often slanted steep inclines, its difficult to judge and often you go to put a foot down and only find air.  I also added a Mustang Tour seat which gave me 1/2" more foot on pavement but really it was to give my wife a much broader flat rear seat.  She found the factory seat quite uncomfortable on long hauls.  Sticking to styling, the winshield is a medium tinted so still dark and I added Harley luggage covers to flow the Vinyl from the broader back seat to the saddlebags.  The backrest and luggage rack, of course, comes off with a flip of a lever.  

We've talked removable top case, Harley or Mustang, but I doubt we go that direction.  If we wanted a top case, like you posted, we'd bought a Electroglide.  We've used bike luggage for years and like the whole take it off and throw it over your shoulder concept when taking trips.  One thing I noticed on the seat is it indeed meets Mustangs claims.  Though the 2014 seat on the Street Glide is without a doubt the most driver comfortable factory seat I've ever had, it does tend to compress and bottom out on long trips.  The Mustang does start out a tad firmer but it retains that same firmness which a hour or two later is a lot more comfortable.  

I considered the "Special" but really did not want the ABS.  I'm very use to using conventional brakes and what ABS brake bikes I've ridden, mostly don't even notice its there, I'm so use to using back and front brake together.  On the other hand, the interlocking brakes over 35 mph was something, I didn't want.  On the twisty curvies,  Its not unusaly to take one a bit too fast and I'm use to drifting the rear tire by applying only the rear brake then powering on to compensate.  That type maneuver doesn't work with interlocking brakes and its something I do on autopilot so to say.  The GPS would have been nice, however the Bluetooth option on the 4.3 works just fine with a Iphone.  Not ideal, but it works just fine.  The seeing who is calling thing like the "Rushmore" movie is really cool.  

If you haven't seen it, here it is.  Its much longer than the commercials but a good watch.  Project Rushmore

Though I'm still getting use to some things like the weight and back on an air cooled motorcycle again, I'm extremely pleased.  My wife says I'm obsessing, which I reply "Yep".  I'm 2,000 miles in one month.  Most of that mountain twisties which I'm really impressed compared to earlier HD tour bikes.

Recommendation, buy the shock pump.  Using your manual as a guide, a little fast adjustment (and its amazingly fast and easy) and the ride can be tailored for weight that's very noticeable improvement.  People complain about the short stoke shocks on Harley Tour bikes but I'm convinced they never adjust their shocks.  The Rushmore's are so easy too.  You don't even have to take a bag off just open it.  

The only downside I have.............................where I'm not dark as an Arab, I'm suburned from all the riding.  My but ability, time in seat, has more than doubled over my metric bagger.  I still don't know how far I can go.

Tj
   

I like the white.  Its amazing how people do not notice motorcycles but they can spot a cop looking bike from a mile off.  You won't need the LED highlights to make that bike noticeable.  Wear a white helmet, they'll get the hell out of your way even.

Just in case you were curious, the new Rushmore 103 High Output is not much different than the 103.  Its most noticeable in passing at highway speeds or that 2,500 to 3,500 rpm range with enough speed to ram that air through the bigger valves.   I think it makes it a tad closer to competitive with Metric Tour bikes.  Its probably not something I'd bother to upgrade, new valves and intake like the guys do the older bikes.  

There is a downside.  The higher flow engine requires more flow though the exhaust so the stock pipes are louder than previous years.  That's a downside because its not quite as loud as say Screaming Eagles or Vance Hines slip ons but close enough you scratch your head more about it.  At cruise speed, its a nice distinct rumble not so loud you can't easily here the stereo but romping it sounds more metric.  

This is the first stereo I've had on a motorcycle and to my surprise, I like the hell out of it.  For a month now I've been playing USB devices and Bluetoothing my cellphone and just this week I discovered, I really like the radio too.

Tj

That's an interesting post.  Of course, there's a few other things the Special has.  I just never considered the hand crank shock adjustment as a selling point.  It is a clever way to preload the shock spring but both bikes have the same frame (in fact all the touring bikes have the same frame which is new for 2014 with almost a 30% more lean than the 2013), same spring-rate for a given shock adjustment (by weight), and same often complained about limited shock travel (where it bottoms out and you go ouch) compared to metric bikes.  

Where the standard Street Glide gets a bad rap is many dealers let them go the door with no air in their shocks.  That would be like your Special the dial dialed all the way down, even worse than.  Just off my head, that would be under 220lbs weight on the bike which throw in a passenger, gear, and extras like backrest etc.  That's going to be way squishy.  

Obviously I don't buy the one shock is the compression shock and the other one is the rebound shock concept.  The non-adjustable side will be  a constant minimal spring rate in compression while the adjustable side will be a minimal spring rate in extension.  What that means by design then is both have to be stiffer or it would be worse than the air shock.  That being said, its really max nix since, its a mistake to ride the air shock with no air in it.  Sure no air in the air shock would be worse than minimal setting on the adjustable.  Otherwise, the spring rate to compression if set the same will be the same because what's involved here is up and down one direction movement seat to wheel, not side to side movement.  Its the same design concept advantages versus disadvantages discussion applied to mono-shocks versus dual shocks.  Assuming the same amount of travel, there simply is none over the other.  Its still up and down and a given spring rate the same for a given spring rate.  The bikes frame limits the side to side movement.  Now we could go into the shock piston diameter and sure that would increase reaction due to increased mean effective area but we're not talking inches difference but thousands of an inch.  

In the case of the Harley Tour bikes, the shocks are adjustable and its a matter of adjusting them.  There's your hurdle.  Most folks never adjust them and that adjustment is way more fine than even one up or two up let alone gear.  In fact, the Eletrglide is going to be a bit more shock adjustment friendly because it inherently has more weight so needs to be higher adjusted all the time.  What it comes down to is adjustment and arguably taking the saddlebag off and turning a knob is less technical than simply opening a lid, using a pump, and reading a scale on a gauge.  

I"m not dissing the shocks, I just don't see me paying $500 to get them.  There's no advantage for me.  I leave mine typically set half way between 1 and 2 up with gear, keep my gear weight constant, unless taking a long haul then adjust. I fall into that don't like too stiff a shock to where you feel every bump but don't like bottoming out category.  I too would like Harley to have more shock travel in their frames (that's what limits the travel) but then I don't care to add any seat to ground clearance a new frame would need to get it.    

I hope you follow this because this is big deal.  Adjusting that shock for weigh load is a major difference in ride over long distances.  It greatly increases your saddle time.  It is something most people don't even bother with.  Heck, I don't around the mountains here.  4 hours plus a day, I do and its amazing.  This is what I'm encouraging you on.  Don't rely on just the hype, adjust it.

Tj


BTW, One of the bikes I looked at was a Goldwing F6B.  That flat opposed six motor allows them to have more shock travel in a lower frame.  Far less adjustment to none needed to get that car like ride.  That being said, I prefer the higher larger profile of the Harley's.  You can see more and be seen more.  
   

I hear you but that's your buddies.  I haven't either from the guys I typically ride with.  I live in the Smoky Mountains so I ride the Foothills, Dragon, and Skyway a lot.  Any given weekend in season, there's thousands of bikes descending on this area.  You can't pull off almost anywhere without meeting folks on bikes.  Don't get me wrong, its like pulling into a rest stop on the freeway anywhere USA and how bikes all congregate together.  They're mostly all good folks, having a good time, and everyone is friendly.  When the bike talk comes around though, inevitably I get the cost and oil on the knees comments.  I just laugh and say, my Vulcan's in the garage.

Now the wannabe Outlaw Bikers, well nobody listens to them.  They give metric and Harley riders both crap.  Most of them have a bike in their bedroom tore in pieces or at most ride from bar to bar while bragging about that one trip they took to Sturgis or Daytona.  Ironically on a whole, I find the guys who actually do belong to clubs friendlier.  There's being frugal and then there's being a loser.  Taking advice from a biker wannabe is like taking advice from a guy who's been married four times on how to stay married.

Tj

Having priced Harley's used and new, that's one heck of a deal you got.

How I ended up with a new bike was how little they depreciate.  You can probably ride that a couple seasons and get your money back.  That's really not a lot of miles.  Most of the used tour bikes here are over 30,000 miles.  


BTW, You guys on 2014, another thing I learned the very hard way is close that vent in a rain.  It still saves your body but you face catches it if you don't.  You can quench a thirst..  The factory shorty 4.5" shield, forget it, you are getting wet.

To me the strangest thing, a good thing, is how these batwing fairings keep your hands from catching about anything bugs, rain, and way warmer than virgin air.  The updraft is strange and I haven't figured out how to combat that yet.  I'm thinking fork mounted deflectors but its not a high priority, just different.  

I'll post a new pick this weekend.  The bike will be in 2 up Street Glide mode.  We're doing a ride for charity followed by a dinner and concert.  That will mean, tour seat, backrest, no luggage rack, and bag chaps so quite different from the thread pic.  

That's the beauty of the Street Glide.  Its modular.  Today it can be stripped down street bike and tomorrow a Tour bike what we call "Electrogliding" it.  Though I like the trunk systems, both Mustang and Harley, we're leaning more to staying with a luggage system, which is more modular in addition to simply take it off and haul it into where you spend a night.  If you wanted to though, you could have a nice trunk that simply snaps on and off.  

So far the only real permanent concession I've made is the luggage guards.  That, IMHO, should have been standard from the factory.  Its just too functional to give up for styling. All the rest including the backrest and luggage rack shown in the thread pic are modular, pop on or off in seconds. The Harley four point docking station is an amazingly handy thing.  

Tj

Sweet bikes guys!   Rode with a guy Saturday who had a 2014, Redline Denim.  Man, that's a pretty bike too.  

I hear you on the shocks.  If you remember the old chrome top, turn the chrome hat adjustable shocks, man, they were almost impossible to change.  They were definitely set them one times.  On the metrics though you could get away with it.  They had so much travel.  These bikes, man, they have 2.13" travel.  You really got to.  

These are amazing bikes.  Though overall one could say the changes made by the Rushmore project are subtle compared to a 2009 or newer Harley, IMHO, they pushed the bikes right over that metric tour bikes are better line.  The 103 High Output, 86 bhp is not that impressive of an improvement but that 102 ft/lbs of torque at a mere 3,250 rpms is.  That 5% gain in power is right in the low power band where you ride these bikes giving them just that much more normal out of the hole and much improved passing.  The 20% lean improvement, though you can still scrape them if try, is just enough for these monsters to easily keep up with a mid-size (600 lb) metric in the twisties.  Throw in many if not most riders do like a motorcycle that feels like a motorcycle and sounds like one, they have a hit on their hands.  

I still don't know what I'm going to do with my pipes if anything at all.  With 2,000 miles on mine now, the factory pipes have settled in quite a bit deeper tone and louder, distinctly Harley.  You can, sure, get more out of some slip ons but the line of you need it much less now.  

I didn't get pics of my modifications this weekend.  The ride we took turned out to be a killer, cluster f...k is a better expression.  The people who sponsored it had no friggen clue how to do it right, turned a planned three hour leisure ride into a five hour endurance test with only one stop at a gas station no less, and due back for a dinner at seven, we were after dark.  We missed half the band and almost missed dinner.  Last 1/3 of the ride, I bailed, stop to take a leak and change to night glasses.  Knowing the roads, beat the pack back.  Man, that was one large group of unhappy bikers.  They changed the published route and had absolutely no concept of the 2 second rule and what impact that has on the accordion effect  of a group ride.  That's what happens when you get someone who only rides their bike a couple times a season sponsor such an event.  The ride had splintered into three groups before it was half way and they took first timers across the Dragon trying to make up time.  That was 170 miles, Foothills, Dragon, Skyway, most of it 40 mph speed limit with 20 mph curves.   I was thanking God for my new seat and highway pegs. Man I hit the last 20 miles four lane, I was cruise on, 10 mph over, cruise on, stereo cranked, relaxing.    All that beautiful scenery, twisties that will wear you out, the heat make you thirsty as hell, and only one stop while most of the time the lead was trying to break speed limits in straight aways  Talk about some sore pissed bikers happy to get a cold beer at the end.  

Tj

Interesting this months "Bagger" magazine did an article on the Street Glide and pictured my bike including the Charcoal Pearl color.   (I still read "Cruisers" mag so I know what's new out there.)  

Keep in mind, unlike most bikes on a Harley things like backrest, luggage rack, and even tour paks both hard and leather looking snap on and off in seconds with their four point docking system.  The Street Glide is very versatile machine for a tour bike.  They're also the most popular to "Trick Out Bagger".  Companies sell entire kits, rims, tires, long bags, pipes, trim, even the decals to customize the paint job.  I need mine to ride too much so wouldn't do that but at "The Shed" here, every weekend there's a few of them all color "LED" out on show.  

Like I posted, they're really like a boat.  You can keep throwing money at them till you get old and die or go broke.

A close friend just bought a tricked out one.  All flat black, tall custom front rim with matching fat rear rim (looks like a small car tire in the back), chopped back finder custom front fender, long front fork, and long to the end of the custom pipes bags.  Red line trimmed,  man, that's one pretty machine.  Inside the bags are signed by celebrities that liked the bike when the original owner showed it.  Seeing how much was put into that bike, man, he got it for a song too.  He was just looking for a good deal but what he got was a show bike sold by a guy unemployed that needed money real fast.  Too tricked out for me but, its pretty.

I may just stick with my classic tour luggage I've used for a decade or so.  I like the simplicity of grab it and go when you get to your nights destination.  

Tj

Hey what's that "SDM" crap under your name.  You finally get kicked out of Texas?

As for your comments, yeah, yeah, been hearing that all my life.  It started with a Red Ryder and "You'll put an eye out with that".  

LOL, In case you are curious which most who spout that crap aren't, it's 4.2 seconds on the 2014 and that's 800 lbs of motorcycle.  

That's a full 1.5 seconds faster than my Kawasaki which is 200 lbs lighter.

We are planning this sort of trip for next summer.

After observing HD owners in the wild for the last week or so, I have a question.  Is there now some obligation to adorn yourself and everything you own with HD branded stuff?  I stopped through the local dealer to look at a Yamaha they took in trade and was shocked that the crap store part of the place was larger than the actual motorcycle selling space.

Unfortunately yeah.  The old saying HD stands for Hundred Dollars has a new meaning now.  The gear.  You name the biker gear, they carry it and brand name it.  They very closely protect their logos.  Its also part of the tour/biker thing to collect pins, "T"s, etc. from the different Harley shops around the US.  Assuming you don't cheat, it shows how far you rode the bike.  Some like Sturgis or Daytona carry more prestige than others.  Women like stuff that glitters.  

Harley was very smart.  They realized its not the destination, its the ride so they gave their customers the destination, the Harley Shops.  They go in to buy a $6 pin and come out $100 poorer.  

My 70 year old cousin by last count had over 500 Harley T shirts collected over a lifetime.  Having toured the US, he has a pin vest that must weigh a 100 lbs and not a one of them a "Hard Rock".  

I guess they figured, somebody can afford a Harley, they can afford other diversions.  They were right.  I've read during the hard times, the money from it sustained them.