$12,495
Tempe, Arizona
Category
Touring Motorcycles
Engine
1,803 cc
Posted Over 1 Month
2007 Harley-Davidson CVO Screamin' Eagle Dyna, 2007 CVO Screamin' Eagle Dyna - Settle into the firm yet comfy bucketed seat and you're closer to the pavement than on a standard Dyna, though those forward-mount foot controls can be a stretch for anyone under 5-foot-10. The handlebar enforces straight-arm riding that's more Dennis Hopper than Peter Fonda. Grips? Chrome, from the H-D Knurled Collection, as are those pegs, foot controls, battery box accents and coil covers. The only place you'll find nicer production paint and chrome than a Harley-Davidson is on a CVO Harley-Davidson, and there's enough shiny stuff here to make Maison Cartier reach for the sunglasses. Concessions to pure fashion are surprisingly few. Rearview mirror images, for instance, turn into a blurry mess on the freeway, but there's some functional bling here as well. Turn the key and seven LED dots appear in what looked like a simple chrome cap just below the fuel cap, letting you know the 5-gallon tank is full of super-unleaded. Though you'd never guess to look at it, the cruiser from Planet Bling is practical as daily transportation, even if it is drastically overqualified. OK, not many people are going to commute on a $25,000 Harley. We did. And unlike the average Prada-clad star, the CVO Dyna isn't afraid of the daily grind. It threads through clots of urban traffic much more readily than a 709-pound, 8-foot-long motorcycle should. The clutch is light, precise and suffers all manner of abuse without a whimper. Since most of those pounds are situated close to the pavement, steering effort is refreshingly light despite chopperesque steering geometry. As opposed to the fashionably phat rubber on other upscale factory customs, a sane, 170mm-wide rear tire helps handling everywhere. The 43mm inverted fork does a worthy job of keeping that skinny front tire accurately aimed. Harley's fashionably low, 27-inch seat height, however, helps limit rear wheel travel to 1.9 inches, which does nothing for the ride. It's plush enough at a conservative clip over smooth pavement, but the impact from one nasty crater at 45 mph will rearrange your viscera such that you'll do whatever it takes to miss the next one. Otherwise, the chrome-encrusted chassis bits go above and beyond the average upscale urbane lunge lizard's performance needs. Sixth gear turns 2600 rpm into 70 mph. Cuing up fifth to dispatch the inevitable dawdlers brings the needle to 3100, but thanks to those carefully calibrated rubber engine mounts, all you feel is a strangely satisfying throb. The 292mm discs and four-piston calipers at either end do a commendable job until you try to scorch 'em on a rapid mountain descent--purely in the interest of science, of course--wherein power and feel get cooked out of the equation halfway down. But ratchet the pace down to a more appropriate level and the resplendent hipster happily inhales a
