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2001 Ford F-150 Harley Davidson
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| Ford taps biker mystique with its latest special edition pickup |
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| Updated |
Jul 7, 2004 20:38:15 |
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 311 ( -44 -14.14% ) | | Author | Marc Stengel |
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Description:
I ride motorcycles. I used to road-race motorcycles. I suffer recurring bouts of obsession with motorcycles. But I have never entirely understood the deification of one particular brand of motorcycle observed by otherwise right-minded people. The Harley-Davidson thing, in other words, escapes me.
Yes, the distinguished H-D marque dates to 1903, and it remains America's longest surviving motorcycle manufacturer. But technologically, the "Harley" is state-of-the-art 1950s at best. They're loud, lumpen, ungainly to watch and to ride. (For this last sentence alone I expect my full share of death threats in the coming days.) Meanwhile, Harley-D is selling all the bikes it can make, without requiring my permission certainly. I need help to understand what's going on here. As luck would have it, help has arrived in the form of Ford's 2001-model F-150 SuperCrew "Harley-Davidson" model. This special edition pickup truck is bedizened with enough chrome, leather, and H-D logos to bring a RUBbie (Rich Urban Biker) weeping to his knees.
Actually, this four-door SuperCrew version of the world's best-selling pickup represents Phase II in the interesting collaboration between Ford and Harley that will climax in 2003, when these American business icons jointly celebrate their centennial anniversaries. Phase I, which I drove last fall, was a similarly costumed two-door truck whose limited run of 8000 units sold out faster than it takes to kick-start an old shovel-head Harley "hard tail." This year's limited-production H-D commemorative truck is hitting the showrooms as you read this; it costs $34,495 (base price); and it turns more heads at more construction sites than any vehicle I have ever driven.
Lumbering ride After a week of lumbering around in the thing, I can honestly say that I'm beginning to develop a chrome-plated, leather-wrapped view of the world. I love the truck, actually. I already think Ford's four-door cab design is supreme in the biz. In the standard-issue Lariat and XLT trim levels (that start at $8,000 less) you get two captain's chairs up front, flanked by a three-person split-folding bench in the rear. It's a five-passenger family sedan that just happens to have this six-and-a-half-foot open-air cargo box for a caboose.
This Harley model does something a bit different, however. Instead of a rear bench, there are two more captain's chairs in back, separated by this big plastic bubble of a center console with Harley-Davidson stitchery gracing the padded leather lid. Depending on your outlook, it's the size of a motorcycle sidecar or a small beer keg, and it resembles the similarly sized and leather-padded barrel that separates the driver and front passenger.
So here you have these four seats richly upholstered with tucked-and-padded black leather and a big H-D medallion in the middle of each seat back. There's a front and back seat on the left, a front and back seat on the right. Remind you of anything?
Heck, yes. With every seat full, it's like having two motorcycles side-by-side, riding buddy-up. I swear, if you put all the windows down, it's the next best thing to floggin' a Hawg out on the open road. Think of this truck as a big H-D Wide-Glide with training wheels. If you're one of the unlucky ones who doesn't have a sense of balance without a kickstand, it's probably the only way you'll ever know what it's like to go Harley-doggin'.
Big guns The comparison extends beyond seating aesthetics. Like a Harley among bikes, this is one big truck among pickups. It rides on huge, 20-inch, five-spoker wheels plated with so much chrome that every retina within 50 feet is at risk of getting scorched on a sunny day. Underhood is Ford's 5.4-liter, single-overhead-cam "Triton" V-8. The 260-horsepower output isn't especially champ, but the 350 lb-ft of stump-pulling torque are a gut-busting thrill every time you mash the accelerator. It's just like a real Harley, in fact, whose horses don't count for much in this age of superbikes but whose torquey takeoffs from a standing stop are still legendary.
That's not all: Ford has dialed in this special rumbly, grumbly exhaust note for its H-D version of the Triton. No, it can't compare with the syncopated staccato of a two-cylinder Harley; that's a sound that has literally been patented. Then again, Harley-D will be a while catching up to Ford's 21st-century engine technology.
You don't so much drive this giant truck as navigate it. It plies rather than rolls through traffic. Turning it is akin to piloting a boat: you plan ahead and execute your maneuver several moments before the rudder catches and responds to the tiller. Spoiled by racing bikes, I recall feeling the same way about my first ride astride a Harley. After a few days in Ford's four-wheeler Hawg, however, something very interesting happened. My internal clock slowed. I eased around town. When I needed a pick-me-up, I goosed the throttle and snorted out a little fanfare of exhaust notes--just to show I had it in me. Then I clamped the binders on those monster four-wheel disk brakes, settled back into slow traffic, and winked at all the wide-eyed folk looking my way.
I felt like Clint Eastwood of High Plans Drifter vintage: alone, aloof, self-sufficient, ultimately benevolent. It dawned on me then what all these RUBbies must see in their Harley-Ds. I used to think of them as weird transvestites who trade business suits for leather chaps and handkerchief head-wraps just to enjoy a weekend's worth of alter ego. Now I believe I know better. They're just taking the slow road to nowhere; creating a little commotion to compensate for the numbing daily grind; perplexing a few strangers along the way whom they hope they'll never have to see again. |
| Similar news: | - Harley-Davidson Sales Disappoint - Harley-Davidson Inc. reported a20 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but itsshares fell on a sharp drop in U.S. retail motorcycle sales anda lower-than-expected production goal for 2005.
- Harley-Davidson profit falls - Motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc. on Wednesday reported higher-than-expected secondquarter profit as sales stabilized from a weak first quarter,sending its shares up nearly 5 percent.
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