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Harley-Davidson Print FXSTB Night train

All or nothing

You had a dream. Saw you slide out of the heat of the afternoon into the coolness of the evening, still felt the dust of the day and already the rising mist of the night. Setting sun flashes in bare metal, rhythmic pounding drives the ribbon of the street away from under you. The rat race at work, demands and duties dissolve in the rearview mirror. You found the key to your dream. It’s called the Night Train.

Actually, I have no problems with flip-up helmets. These things are extremely practical, especially for people who wear glasses like me.
Meet all conceivable requirements. There is no more sensible one
decision.
That is exactly the problem with flip-up helmets. Worse still, it’s the problem with travel enduros, sport touring and all those other egg-laying woolly sows. They’re as damn sensible as the job your father advises you and the woman your mother advises you to do. So sensible that no argument against it except one: emotion.
So what, you say now, motorcycling always comes from the gut. It’s cold coffee. With a Harley no different than with
a Duc or a GS, each has its own. Admittedly, that’s what I thought before I was allowed to play with the Night Train for a few days. Even when I was standing in front of her: extended fork, low saddle, forward footrests, high handlebars ?? I was afraid of reliving the glorious memories of the 68s for the thousandth time, as if remote-controlled to immerse myself in the glory days of Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Rubin and "Do it!", Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and "Easy Rider". Yawn.

I’ll spare you the cliches. The Night Train taught me something with its unruly nature, and it convinced me: you don’t need to dig up a history to understand it. You just need to drive it with your senses open and take what it offers you.
And that’s pure feeling. Feel life now. A presence that only knows one role: the main role. Compromise? Not with her. In their low Badlander saddle, you ride them their way or not at all. Nothing works with her with force. Even when you are maneuvering out of the garage, the short handlebars make it clear who is sitting on the longer lever: It’s the 21-inch front wheel in its long fork. Should you consider snaking her way through the traffic jam to the office with her in the morning? forget it. And a night train has no place in front of a supermarket like the terminator on a children’s birthday party. Too great the potential for destruction from broken wine bottles and melted butter in the backpack.
Not that everyday life is a completely unthinkable category for Harleys. Deep in their genetic makeup, the Milwaukee tribe also has one
Utility gene. It was used in servicars and police motorcycles, even an Electra Glide has something of it. After all, she is dragging two tourists and their luggage.

In the Night Train, however, this gene is clearly recessive. It doesn’t want to be practical, otherwise it might be called Topper like the angular scooter Harley built in a fit of disturbance in the early sixties. On the other hand, they designed the Night Train in full possession of their magical powers: long and narrow and with this sloping silhouette that signals a Harley for ten miles. But that also lets you know that she doesn’t intend to take you with your sleeping bag, tent and who knows what through the Alps
to haul, unless you send the clutter ahead by courier. Not even her loved one really likes to carry her through the summer, she presents a torture bun as a deterrent.
The Night Train does not want to be a means. It is a purpose, a purpose. So solve the seven puzzles of the immobilizer, and if your neighbors don’t massacre you with flowerpots by then
you will understand their secret.
It’s called hedonism, enjoyment for its own sake. None of the commercial variety that depends on social status and performance data. But if you’ve forgotten acceleration values ​​and lean angles, you’re on the right track. If you don’t really care whether the inclined audience prefers to applaud chrome-clad kitchens or parrots scratching footrests this season, you’re close. When your head, your knees on the tank and the next bend in the road become one and the same, when you glide through the universe satisfied with the day and the rumble of the ship’s diesel engine beneath you, you have finally understood the Night Train.

Your V-twin is amazing time and again. He lives, he rumbles, he shakes at every speed, and yet this rough-hewn servant Ruprecht obeys every word. Modern Sauselmotoren may win tests, but hearts don’t win. They get boring and the only fun is squeezing performance. Even the most skilful V-twin imitations appear lifeless against the original.
So that is clear: The Night Train is not a fossil, but a Harley of the anniversary year 2003 and as modern as classic Harleys can be. Belongs to the genus of Softails, has the 88 twin cam engine. But she’s not one of the softened ones
want to please everyone. No running boards, no deer antler handlebars, no touring windshield. No fringes on
Saddle, no chrome hangings, nowhere. The crankcase is black as night. And the drag bar handlebars so narrow, so high and so far away that
you immediately understand: Like lounging in the sofa and yourself
Watching even while cruising, that’s not possible with the Night Train.
Then again she will surprise you with something reasonably sensitive: with the hydraulic valve clearance compensation or the noiseless toothed belt-
drive. Logical, because if you want to enjoy, you don’t need to fumble with chain spray in the evening. If you just want to lean the Night Train casually on the stand after the ride, sit next to it,
let your eyes wander and listen. How its metal crackles when it cools, like ice cubes in a glass
kneck. And know: you have arrived.

Specifications – Harley-Davidson Night Train

Engine: two-cylinder four-stroke 45 degree V engine, displacement 1449 cm3, bore x stroke 95.3 x 101.6 mm, Keihin constant pressure carburetor, Ø 40 mm, output 46 kW (63 PS) at 5300 rpm, Torque 106 Nm at 3200 rpm. Frame: double loop frame made of tubular steel, telescopic fork at the front, triangular swing arm at the rear, two spring struts, single-disc brake with four-piston fixed calliper front and rear, wire-spoke wheel at the front, 21 inches, aluminum disc wheel at the rear, 16 inches. Empty weight 305 kg, wheelbase 1695 mm, seat height 639 mm. Driving performance: top speed 163 km / h, 0-100 km / h in 6.4 seconds. Price: 17,400 euros.

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