Harley Davidson 1200 Custom review, test ride

Thumb the starter button and the engine thunders to life. This is the same air-cooled 1,202cc V-twin Evolution unit that’s also found on the Forty-Eight. The engine vibrates massively at idle, which could seem a bit unnerving at first. But rest assured, the engine never threatened to part ways with the chassis on our test schedule. An absolute joy is the familiar Harley rumble that emanates from the chromed, staggered twin exhausts that sounds ever so good. As you get ready to get going, the gear shift, which although light by Harley standards, is clunky and notchy. It inevitably engages first gear with a violent thud. But that’s just another customary Harley gearbox thing. These thuds will keep making appearances all through the gear-shifts, albeit without any real menace.

Once you get a move on, the 96Nm of torque is instantly noticeable, and the engine really gets going from just over 2,000rpm. Even though torque peaks out at 3,500rpm, there is still plenty of usable performance even as the rpm counter clocks over 6,000rpm until the limiter kicks in. However, due to fuelling issues, the Custom felt a bit difficult to flow along smoothly on. An abrupt throttle and a huge chunk of torque meant that a lot of involuntary head-nodding was involved in low speed city crawls. One way to work around it was to pick a higher gear; but even then the throttle response didn’t feel smooth and seemed hesitant.

The clutch also feels heavy and starts to get rather cumbersome while riding through traffic. Not to mention the massive amount of heat that creeps out from the air-cooled unit sitting right between your legs. Also, 1,200cc and air-cooled are not features you want together in one engine on a 40deg Celsius day while crawling from traffic light to traffic light!

One could argue that Harleys are meant for the highway; but most of us live in or near cities and will end up riding through city traffic at some point. If you happen to end up in this conundrum, know that my prayers are with you. On the highway the Custom felt better, but the troubles didn’t disappear. Yes, the in-saddle experience is much cooler and the Custom feels particularly serene between the 100-120kph mark. However, the meditative-cruising experience required a watchful right wrist to make up for the lumpy fuelling when rolling on and off the gas. The 1200 Custom returns mileage figures of 15.21kpl in the city and 18.38kpl on the highway, which is respectable for a 1,200cc motorcycle.