Harley Davidson FXS 80 Low Rider

Harleys dont  get tested very often. The reasons ■ are within the deeply-entrenched standard test procedures which quantify in absolute figures  and with Harleys these just don't apply. Harleys don't get tested very often because they are a world unto themselves, reaching a market most motorcycle publications have little experience with and tend to avoid.

The "New Wave Technology" tests are not only inappropriate to the living antiques of liar ley land, but are largely unable to test the intangible  that sheer presence which a Harley creates. The mighty V-twins still carry vestiges of their 1903 beginnings and certainly the current models still bear a more than passing resemblance to the first big 1200 offered in 1923 (the same year incidentally, in which BMW introduced its basic boxer frame/engine).

Harleys don't get tested very often; but then Harleys don't change very often, either. Many of the changes of the 70s came about through Government interference and regulations rather than through rider/buyer demands. But throughout these changes the ideology of Harleys has remained unwavering Heavy Metal, and today the Milwaukee Iron dominates any gathering of bikes as the most aggressive and muscular image machinery you can straddle.

At a time when the Computer Bikes from the Big Four are squeezing —hard — on the market arteries around the world with their advertising, racing, brochure image, annual "technodelic" and "powerdelic" overkill (and all within the crippling regulations which are castrating bikes) Harleys have extracted the most intense rider following. Now the world better understand that the alternative motorcycle has a set of values all its own.

It's truly unique. That corporate image of the West ("Wild?") versus the East; the indestructible museum machine against the Vanilla-Fudge, missile-quick, cat-agile, mega-bikes. Pansies need not apply to the Harley cult and if you're not limp-wristed from the Day-Glow Wild-Flow Oriental-Fours, you'd better not be limp-kidneyed either because the Harleys make no pretence at blending total comfort with function.

Hiding a Harley is visceral. In Australia the Harleys sell well; expansion from the biker-only image (although they still are the basic biker bike  before getting chopped and customised), to encompass tourers, trippers, commuters, daylight stagers and midnight-only ragers. In essence the Harleys have reached beyond the fierce, violent biker audience and provided timeless music which nothing else can match.

As John said (he drives Tramways buses on shift work), "After eight hours bored out of my brain in suburban Melbourne I always have a smoke and an hour cruising on my Sporty (chopped) before heading home, and I'm ready for the next day."
With competition from the Orient becoming tougher each year other marques must settle for a narrower demographic area for each model to retain their market. But Harleys created and capitalised on image in much the same way as Jimmy and the Boys did it in music  offering scope for the wildest fantasies with an implicit rejection of superbike disco!
Like the J&TB first album "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" there is no niche, no simple category for" the Harleys. Their appeal is widespread, intangible and unlike the majority of bikes, which are aimed at satiating the urge for speed and complexity, Harleys pre-empted the current Japanese pre-individualised bikes.

Harleys are still engineered for your soul as well as your ego. Like Bob Jones, Melbourne-based Karate King, man behind the Bob Jones Karate Schools; guards to Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker etc, whose house in Ivanhoe is aptly named "Shogun". A rugged, ageless (45 to 55?) eight-hours-trailing-a-day veteran: "I've been tough so long nothing looks tough no-more!"
Harleys are the Jimmy and the Boys, Bob Jones and the original Wild One skeleton in the closet of motorcycling!
And really, it is good to get one ('cause I can't afford one) to have and to ride. And to watch closely, lock and chain heavily, for Harleys are amongst the top name in Bikes To Be Stolen. Image has a price!

Riding the 1980 Harley Davidson FXS 80 Lowrider wasn't easy. Because of some basic intransigence at Stanco, the Victorian distributors, I had to get to Sydney and use the facilities of Burling & Simmons in Parra-matta Road, Auburn. The last time I was there was back in '74 to get parts for a Norton Interstate. And before that was back in '69 when I bought my 750 Fastback Commando while on leave and back in Australia.
The truth isn't in type!

Didn't get out to the shop as the big mutha Lowrider had been used by TW staff for a week. Some down comments there too. Hmmm, was the giant that bad? The answer was no, which brings me back to the philosophy of current test mentality. For more than 15 years now the test procedures have been moving towards a format which, following the car mag idea, have favoured the technological student — the measurable qualities which, back in the petrol-forever days, made GTHOs the ideal Young-Buck-about-town four-wheeler; and Mach III Kawasakis (providing you didn't suffer from vertigo from the height of the front wheel) an excellent match for the GTHO.

But the four-wheeler format is dead serious and emotion is a dirty word. Following that format with bikes where emotion is everything has left magazines struggling to equate Triumph, Ducati, Laverda, BMW, Guzzi, Morini, Norton (before it fell into the void) and last but certainly not least, Harleys, with the contemporary, instant-appeal and numbers game of the Japanese smoothbores. The schism is there, real tangible. The answer lies in the intangible area which thankfully makes us all different, buy different, think different.
The magazine format which has culminated in two-page specification sheets, massive detailing of everything measurable, from dyno power to detent pressure on the
indicator button — okay for superbikes but not the whole sum, not the reason for why people want something. Dyno-testing a standard, emission-controlled Harley would be as practical as giving the SS400 metre times and speeds of the latest 100 and 125 cm commuters.

Sitting on the Lowrider in the bluestone dungeon parking below the TWO WHEELS office, listening to the previous rider rattling off the problems, idiosyncrasies and details of the bike, doubting my chances of getting to the Hornsby pub, let alone 500 km north, all the above went through my mind. And later when cruising.
Magazine format tests have catered for, preached to and promoted the image of performance, statistics and the cafe kick. Perhaps half the buyers believe that is right, but there is sure a large group who are into bikes as impressions of art, something that looks different, handles different and is strongly individual in a raw-boned, gut-tough kind of way.
So while the czars of type-set purity continued on their premeditated handling, power, technological detailed comparisons and tests, Harley went about making sure the untapped market got what it wanted. And by 1979 the Japanese had seen the source and began the custom range which is still expanding.
Stanco reports that it sells more than 200 Harleys a year (and at more than $5000 minimum that is big bread). In fact Harleys in Australia are the largest selling brand (second to Ducati in some states) of all marques other than the Japanese Big Four!

The FXS has been around for some years now; the 1980 version differs from the previous 1200 FXS by being a monster 80 cubic inches. This increase in capacity against the old 74 cu 1200 comes about by increasing the bore from 87.3 mm to 88.8 mm (increases of 1.5 mm) and the stroke from 100.8 mm to 107.9 mm (increase of 7.1 mm). This move is part of the Harley image strategy and perhaps something to do with the lough emission controls in the USA. The 1200 74 was 'The Biggest" in motorcycle-dom. Then out of the Rising Sun swooped the leviathan Z1300 Kawasaki six. Forget that it was just another Technological Atlas Rocket Bike. Despite the six cylinders it was bigger than a Harley and the Vee-twin had to be biggest.

The '80 Lowrider is still strong despite the emission controls, the lean-running 38 mm Keihin pumper carby and the oh-so restrictive two into one dumper style drag cutaway pipe (which is bulky looking and stuffed more than the Guzzi SP1000 Strada pipes). The neat and light and efficient staggered dual pipes have long vanished but would be the go out here.
Gettin' it right for Oz

The 80 was almost unridable in Sydney traffic — no idle and fluffing and missing, with improper clutch disengagement along with it. A short day followed. The next day I tripped out to Chatswood to see Nick Gina who runs the 24-hour Ampol Auto Spares and Service Station on the Pacific Highway. He is an old bike enthusiast with BSAs and Enfields and had the tools and experience to get at the Harley  along with plenty of cool drinks on the steamy-hot late-afternoon Diesel City day.
The Lowrider FXS 80 sells for around $6560 and there is no tool kit at all. The
economic version, the FXE/F 80 Fat Bob, comes with the traditional steel wire spoke wheels, no kick starter, no highway pegs and a price-tag of only $5999!
After checking the plugs we removed the carby, took out the plastic plugs which the EPA in the USA requires to stop "fiddling", adjusted the thing so it was a lot richer than previously, added colder plugs for the highway Open Road (the bike was pretty new and not fully run in), adjusted the clutch and the friction throttle (to remove the incredible slack), added more air to the tyres and checked it out.

The big 80 immediately sounded smoother, would idle and run without the spluttering and missing. How the others rode it I don't know. On two occasions in the next three months I would pull over into garages and tell the rider peering into his new Lowrider 80 what to do and leave. The bikes are not, it seems, tuned for the leaner, hotter conditions of Australia and need to be lots richer.
The long night ride north led me to reflection. How many people know the Harley 74 (1200) and now 80 is known for its exceptional reliability? Low revs and tall gearing mean long life no matter what, and the Harley has it all. Someone once said that Harleys had about 40 percent of the world's known motorcycle torque reserves! With two 670 cm pistons providing the impulses at a low 8.1:1 compression, the 80 pumps along nicely in fourth gear (the other three gears are only there to get you moving), with a steady 125 km/h registering on the speedo and the tacho hovering between 3800 and 3950 rpm.

The instruments are set onto the Fat Bob tank (13.5 Litres
) and rubber-cushioned from the impulses. There is no redline on the tacho but no-one needs one — when the engine starts working a rider knows and after he swallows or spits out all his fillings he will know he revved it a little more than the bike was happy with!

The 80 Lowrider ridden was finished in metallic silver/grey with black and red highlights. The quality of the finish was excellent. The 80 features a small, snug sissy bar complete with leather stow-it bag; the beautiful 1917 metal logo; nine-spoke 19-inch cast alloy front wheel from Morris and nine-spoke 16-inch Morris mag at the rear. There is electric start with a very strong engine to get the 1340 moving; a new digital electronic point-less ignition system; the traditional two-piece Fat Bob tank with two filler caps (which you have to use to fill the bike completely), extended front end; neat, low, drag-style bars; freeway pegs as well as normal pegs and controls, neat twin discs with compact trailing calipers at the front and a larger rear disc.

The forks are made by Showa in Japan and have as much seal stiction as some bikes have damping! The rear units are Gabriel non-rebuildable with good damping rates but come with USA 85 kilogram male springs and adjustable pre-load. The ride is rugged, no two ways about it.
The rear units are mounted well forward (about mid-way) on the box section swing arm, and have been for some years. But this long travel rear set-up is not for supple ride. The rear wheel travel is 104 mm but doesn't feel like it while the front wheel travel is around 153 mm.

The tyres are Goodyear raised lettering A/T Eagles; 3.25 x 19 and 5.10 x 16. The brakes require strong pressure to work and there is little chance of ever locking up the front unless you're in the champion arm wrestling category. The rear can be locked up under duress.
The FXS comes with a two-tier widespread lowrider seat; the rider's seat height is a mere 685.5 mm (27 in.) and I love that because unlike some of the other multi-cylinder mammoths around, short riders can easily plonk their boots onto the ground. This means easier control of the 273 kilogram twin.

The big engine has an external oil cooler and the full flow oil system and dry sump (the full bath bottom end lubrication replaced the old squirt per revolution system in 1973). The overhead valves are operated by pushrods set into chrome shafts which run up the outside of the cylinders. Power is transmitted to the four-speed gearbox through a double row chain. The clutch on the 80, following the 74, is one of the toughest in motorcycledom; a beefy multiple dry plate with excellent mechanical multiplication to give leverage offering two-finger pull and predictable take-up. And a cable as thick as Crosby's index finger. It just don't break that cable!

The gearbox ratios are the same for the FXE Superglide and FXE/F Fat Bob. These are widely spaced and massive cogs. Veteran Harley riders can shift silently every time but they don't have to do that often since the Harley technique is get into the highest gear and just let it chug-ka-chunk to whatever speed you want, although over 140 km/h the massive lumpy note and vibration lets you know you have reached about maximum cruise for any long distance.
Wheelbase is a whopping 1613 mm (63.5 in.) with a fork rake angle of 34 degrees and 153 mm trail. This means slow and somewhat heavy steering in tight traffic situations but it was never awkWard and the short, low bars did not take anything away. I think they suit the bike completely.

The shape of the brake lever is annoying — sharply angled away from the bars, it requires a Real Hand to get in at it. But the 80 has solid engine braking in the lower gears, which alleviates much of the general braking around town.
Firing the Magnum!
In Diesel City every Harley rider is a Clint Eastwood and getting out of the city with "Magnum Force" was steady and easy. The freeway ride and smooth road response on the Lowrider is fine.

The joints between the concrete slabs on Sydney's roads don't move the forks  it's a firm ride but the bike is rock-solid while the seat absorbs most but not all of the shocks. If you go for the highway pegs you have to be prepared to move your feet back for the rear brake and gear-lever in the city. The large, chrome air cleaner cover for the single Keihin forces itself into a rider's leg. Not a big bitch really.

Expressway riding is easiest of the lot; the engine coasts nicely between 3000-4000 rpm. The headlight is not gear but it suits the bike and will suffice Harley riding, which in standard trim is a long, long way from the Edge.
The incredible feel of the Lowrider, any Harley really, is the Rhino-like pulses which transmit themselves from the bike to the rider; low-key monstrous pulses as the bike runs from 800 rpm in fourth all the way to a shaking, rocking 4000 rpm. There is no real thunderous syncopated exhaust note  the indiscernible rumble is a legacy from the caverns of government. But the feeling and the large amount of engine noise as the bike runs over 3500 makes the rider part of the bike  you never forget you are on a Harley.
On the undulating rougher sections of the Pacific Highway the bike, by sheer weight, reacts in a slow, ponderous way but the sudden back-jarring jolts which come with most of the Japanese bikes, are rare. The heavy springs allow the Lowrider an easier ride but it is never completely comfortable, The big twin is steady up to 140 but even using the highway pegs and with the neat, flat bars aiding in a reasonable riding position, the 80 takes a few days to become familiar with, and about that before one can run continually over long distances.

The bike is not really suited to tighter hill country, the back road into Forster for instance. The pipe starts gnawing away at the bitumen at shallow lean angles on the right and although better on the left everything starts hanging up before the Goodyears get anywhere near their limit. The long wheel-base and slow steering also make the bike better for the long, straight run. Long steady curves, gradual sweepers, are where the Lowrider fits in. Changing down is rarely required.

The ride is far easier, more comfortable and less harsh with a pillion. The rider can lean into the pillion lady (has to be a female) and relax. Can't say the pillion agreed entirely with the long run comfort but loved the ride more than anything else. Comes back to the soul tradition of Harley iron.
The fuel return figures were similar throughout the ride; a worst 16.3 kmfl (46 mpg), a best 19.5 km/1 (55 mpg), with the average being 17 kmfl (48 mpg) which gives a riding range of around 230 km.

The 80 was not without its share of minor troubles on the fast summer run up the coast. The crankcase pressure on the new bike, still running in, was high and this pressure caused oil blowback from the breather during long runs. But one imagines it will diminish as the bike loosens up. Once, in heavy traffic, one cyUnder oiled up.
But on a relaxed crystal moonlit night run (after the heat and haze and fumes of Smoke City), heading past Taree at 125 km/h, the massive pulse of the twin is an experience unto itself. Not entirely comfortable but matching the macho image to perfection.

The Harley still has the friction throttle — something every long haul rider could do with. It means relaxed cruise using the friction lock and it was a high point to get on the open road once again with the throttle.
Returning to what I said earlier about a clear run out of the city. Well for some reason, as mentioned in a column some time ago, regarding riding a friend's Sporty Chopper from Central to Sutherland, Harleys have a way of creating space. No one, no sedan driver, no taxi driver, not even a truck, presses in on a Harley. Sounds weird; well, get out and try and see the difference.
The meaning of machinery!

To use one of the cliches: We are what we buy. Our possessions speak for us and about us. Vehicles, the four and two-wheel variety, not only carry an image but also broadcast that image in a constant public display. The obsession man has for machinery, for engineering artifacts from the placid to the potent, extends from the wind-up toy in the playpen to withered, translucent-skinned old men's reminiscences about the machinery which gave them their greatest pleasure/ pain. Bikes are the ultimate melting pot for those two qualities.

The Harley-Davidson, more massive in appearance than even the bulkier Kawasaki Six and GL Gold Wing Honda, transmits a muted tone of aggression, veiled in modern colours (from the days of black) which affects those around the bike.
The Harley commands space; it never goes unnoticed. Among all the bikes ridden the 80 Lowrider attracted the most interest from the widest audience eclipsing the extravagant Martin/Honda special, the MV Agusta 750SS and even the CBX Honda -even though there were only three CBX-registered in Australia at that time. And because I didn't look straight outlaw, many people in cars and trucks offered compliments on the big silver-grey custom.
In busy city traffic there is far more courtesy for the Harley than if you were riding a Japanese machine. There is never any close-in-and-trim-your-mirror actions, never any intimidatory pressure by those operating from the safety of a "big cage". You always seem to have more freedom in the city than is usual.
It reminded me of the time in the mid-'60s when down on special assignment from New Guinea at the Royal Melbourne Show. Must have been half the population of Melbourne pressing in towards the turnstiles (the other half were inside). This guy with me had his dog  a cross between a Rottweiler and a Doberman — some 47 kilograms of Black Power. In addition to the dog, he carried a very serious-looking Mt Hagen axe, a Goilala multi-point fighting mace and two razor-sharp "Bushknives" with 510 mm blades (I know they were sharp because I had seen him shave with one). Just four display items for the Show being carried by a man dressed in conservative grey suit with a dog at his side. But while everyone had their elbows pinned to their sides and anyone under six was in danger of being crushed, we had a clear pocket of space around us; people edged away.

The Harley has that effect in traffic, in parking lots and on the highway. It may be artificial but it is there; it exists. No other motorcycle on earth has that effect on the public.
In Forster whilst doing some shopping for a summer fruit salad (lots of Rockmelon, Strawberries, Kiwi fruit and Tequila), the Lowrider refused to start. It had done that for a few minutes one other time but this one was not a few minutes. The crowds came and went; slipping past, stopping to ogle, check out the lady as well as the bike, try chatting (I was hot and the ice cream was melting and I had no tools and wanted he thing to go). Then along came John — a true local who runs a business there. He has owned two Harleys and numerous bikes. He is also into the Camaro/Corvette/Mustang mid-'60s power trip and has built many of them to full custom standard.
His truck had tools and we found the loose wire on the starter solenoid and that was all. He gave the Lowrider a run, came back stoked and it was the start of a friendship, because I have dropped in there on numerous occasions since.

John built a mean house for Marion (his lady) and child but still has a very special 430 hp (yeah horsepower!) '67 Chevy Camaro fully blueprinted and hot, complete
with chassis-to-show rebuild of the body and all in immaculate detail; gas suspension, discs, the works. I couldn't raise the $9600 he wanted (to pay off the house and get a bus for a round-Aussie trip). He is determined to get back on some Milwaukee Iron when they finish the trip.
I'm glad I was on that Harley because anything else would have meant I wouldn't have met such a fine guy. Harleys are a total experience, different from anything else in the motorcycle world. Love 'em or hate 'em (without understanding why) but you can never ignore them. The Lowrider is a bike which demands understanding; potent, full of thunder but not revs — it gives an unqualified image and status. Owning one is like having a tattoo you can take off! You can buy a Commodore for the price of a Harley but I'd take the bike anytime.

The choices
A few letters have asked and certainly many rider groups have posed the question, of what bikes I want and in what order?
I have never spelt it out before: It is fantasy, not reality, because no-one I know who types or takes photographs for a living could ever do more than own (or be paying off) two of these at the most. In order I would choose a Martin cantilever frame for the Phase 4 MTC superbike Kawasaki 1000 engine; a Honda CBX (modified a little); the FXS 80 Lowrider Harley-Davidson next; a Melbourne-built Cycle Gear custom Lowrider with Honda/Kawasaki engine; the MV Agusta 750SS, Laverda 1000 Jota; a Guzzi 850 T model with the LeMans engine pieces to give it more top end, and the new Suzuki GSX1100.
And what chances of ever getting any of them? About one in ten of owning one and maybe one in a hundred of two. If only two then there has to be a profile bike, a laid-back image one to balance the performance cafe one; so the Harley would get in close.
So rather than just go on and knock them, think about what is implied when you next see a big Harley —• and don't tell me , -■ you never notice them!

Source Two Wheels 1980