Harley-Davidson Softail Breakout review, test ride

The Breakout's seating position is aggressive, and you sit leaning forward, although not enough to get really uncomfortable over long rides. I’m 5-feet, 11-inches tall, and found that with some adjustment, I could fit in well with the Breakout’s ergonomics. You also need strong legs while parking, because the Breakout weighs 322kg, and rolling it around requires a lot of effort. Harley-Davidson motorcycles are built to be ridden on highways, and the Breakout conforms to that. It loves to be ridden on long straight stretches of tarmac, throw turns its way however, and the Breakout will protest. It takes a lot of effort to tip the motorcycle into corners, and you will have to push quite hard on the handlebars and lean in, to translate intention into action. The safe, available lean angle capability on the Breakout is also limited, and you could easily end up grinding the footpegs when negotiating fast curves. Tight turns are a pain, and you will have to strategically preplan your lines into U-turns and hairpin bends. Undulations in the road also upset the Breakout quite easily while following curves in the road, especially the rear section of yhe bike, which bobs up and down quite a bit. It is also quite low, and with a ground clearance of 120mm, which means it doesn’t take too well to speedbreakers.

The Breakout is air-cooled, which becomes an issue when negotiating the congested city roads. Heat coming up from the engine becomes quite difficult to bear, and if your leg touches the exhaust pipe by mistake, expect a nasty singe. The brakes on the Breakout feel quite progressive, and offer decent feedback at the control levers. They do lack an initial bite, but they never claimed this to be a sportsbike, and that’s not too bad because you can make them work harder with confidence. The Breakout is equipped with an Anti-lock Braking System, which is a boon, especially while trying to avoid the villagers crossing our highways, as I found out. As we said earlier, the Breakout is not made for the city. The right place for this big, low set Harley bike is on the open highways, to ride into the far horizon. Despite this, you still feel like a rebel because the design and seating position is not typically Harley, and will encourage you to make quick dashes too. At Rs 16.98 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai), the Breakout fits the bill for those looking for a simplistic, yet attention grabbing motorcycle to take out on weekends, and on long road-trips.

Arpit Phillips