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Half car, half bike, it’s the 2010 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Trike

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Before I rode Harley-Davidson’s new Street Glide Trike, my attitude about three-wheeled cruisers was that they were geezer machines – ridden by old guys whose backsides were as big as their bikes’. The thousands of dollars riders paid to convert their motorcycles into road-going half-breeds seemed a steep price to pay just to avoid putting their feet down.

But riding Harley’s latest, I learned otherwise. The trike’s attraction is even broader than its car-like width, appealing to the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl (who was the first to get one -- as a custom -- even before the Street Glide Trike went i to production), the gang-bangers in my Northeast L.A. ‘hood and the guy in the Scion XB who threw a complimentary devil horn from his window less than a minute after I’d taken possession of my temporary wheels.

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Powered with a 103-cubic-inch twin-cam engine, rather than the 96-incher on the regular Street Glide upon which it is based, the sporty 2010 Street Glide Trike is the second modern-day Harley-Davidson to be released as a three-wheeler. After a 36-year hiatus from triple-wheeled machines, Harley debuted its Tri Glide Ultra Classic last year, responding to customer requests for a trike that could be purchased off the floor and ready to ride instead of making buyers jump through the hoops of buying a motorcycle, purchasing a kit and ripping the motorcycle apart to convert it. The added benefit of a stock trike: matching wheels, matching paint and a full factory warranty that wasn’t voided by the conversion, all of it for less money.

‘Less money’ these days, is, of course, a relative phrase. The Street Glide Trike starts at $26,999. Add the highly advisable option of an electric motor to power the reverse gear that rolls this 1,071-pound behemoth backward, and you’ve raised the price to $28,194. Add a security system ($370), cruise control ($295) and upgrade the color to red ($800), and you’re looking at almost $30 grand. It isn’t double the price of a regular two-wheeled Street Glide, but it sure is close.

At least the $11,000 premium riders pay for their third wheel doesn’t just go to a cast-aluminum rim wrapped in rubber. It’s to cover the re-engineering of the bike so it’s actually fun, and safe, to ride. Built in partnership with ‘leader of the three world,’ Lehman Trikes in South Dakota, which engineered Harley trikes’ suspension and assembles the bikes at their factory, the Street Glide Trike uses a rear differential to transfer power to the two rear wheels and an Ohlins steering damper on the front end to stop the back-end wiggly-jigglies from affecting the steering, which would be uncomfortably squirrelly in its absence.

Controlling this trike is still a little jumpy on rough roads, but not scarily so, thanks to the Ohlins and rear differential. Unlike the two-wheels-in-front Can Am Spyder, there are no electronic systems monitoring stability. That, dear rider, is up to you.

There isn’t any leaning on this trike, and if there is, well, you’re pretty much in deep doo. To take a turn on this thing, there’s just a whole lot of pulling and pushing. After two days of riding, I was feeling muscles in my shoulders, upper back and arms that I hadn’t felt since the time I was training to be a body builder. But I digress. Let’s just say it takes some muscle. And the higher the turning speed, the more muscle it takes. I never felt in danger of tipping or flipping because my strength was maxed out before the trike’s capabilities. Riders who are more ripped than I could, possibly, tip it, but the trike is built to understeer like a car when ridden hard – to lose grip on the road before it would fly a wheel.

This bike wants to be ridden like a mechanical bull at closing time. Before I took it for a spin, I was faked out by its fat butt. I mistakenly believed that the additional seven cubic inches of displacement would be entirely offset by the 439 pounds this bike gained in its expansion from two wheels to three, but I was wrong. This bike can move. Fast. It has an exhilarating 101 pound-feet of torque, which shocked me, even with the 103-cubic-inch V-twin, because of the bike’s heft and dimensions, which are both long and wide.

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It’s a fantastic straight-line bike for wide-open roads. That said, it’s a bit of a hell ride in traffic because, a) you can’t split lanes, b) the clutch is stiff and heavy, and c) neutral is hard to find to give your hand a break. But it’s great in moving traffic and for long hauls (thanks to a spacious trunk, mini windshield and Harman Kardon stereo). Just don’t expect great gas mileage.

Despite Harley’s claims of 33 mpg in the city and 48 on the open road, I was averaging 30, which makes it on par with a car. For a bike, it’s quite the heavy drinker. If it weren’t for the rumble of the dual pipes, I’m sure I would have heard slurping. Still, for a bike that’s half a ton, it ain’t bad. I’ll take a third wheel over a fourth any day.

2010 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Trike

Base price: $26,999

Powertrain: Fuel-injected, air-cooled, V-twin, six speed

Displacement: 103 cubic inches, or 1690 cc

Seat height (unladen): 28.4 inches

Dry weight: 1,071 pounds

Claimed MPG: 33 city, 48 highway

Road test MPG: 30 (based on 344 miles traveled)

-- Susan Carpenter

Video: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

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