
It’s that time of year when every car imaginable gets an award, apparently for simply existing in some cases.
To celebrate, ScuttleShake has put together a list of models it’s looking forward to for 2010 – and there may be a few surprises.
Buick Superlative
A car widely expected to be slightly better than Buick’s previous offerings in the US executive segment.
“Bob Lutz personally kicked the asses of 18 technicians and engineers until we reached that crucial ’slightly better’ stage with the Superlative,” confirmed a GM insider.
“This is guaranteed to put BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti and Jaguar firmly in their place,” offered the insider with a watery smile.
Dodge Orgasm
Let me cut to the chase by saying Heritage Softail bars are going on the 2010 Road King Classic.
There’s a very, very long story of handlebars that goes with my FLHRC. And it’s not a good story. But it does end with finding money, and maybe flava the dragon came too …
I want beach bars. I think they look great and I think they capture how I feel about riding: casual, relaxed, chill. The opposite of drag bars. The opposite attitude of ape hangers. The kind you’d find on a 1955 bicycle if you rode to the pier and bought an ice cream cone.
Beach bars won’t work for me. They pull back a lot and my arms are very long. Yes, that long. Well, ladies, what can I say …
So yeah, no beach bars. I’d have to pull my elbows up and it’d look like I was riding a wheelbarrow (that’s “wheelbarrel” for those that have never been to a Devitt’s and seen the price sticker with the proper wasp name on it…).
What then? I really like the Chubby Wild1 bars. They all look good, and the construction videos and the customer testimonials really sold me. Or sold the bars, I should say, because I was fixin’ to pick up some. The question became which? The Road King and Road King II bars were the obvious choice, because they improved on the already-there bars and that seemed the prudent way to go. I wasn’t taken with them, though, because I want something sexy for all that money ($215 for the bars, in 2009 dollars* – then around $500 for labor, since the lines all need to be extended and the ABS and TBW complicate things). The RK and RKII bars have that crimp, crinkle, harsh bend, ugly turn, etc., that I couldn’t abide.
So I looked at baby apes, of all things. They really grew on me. They really do work with all sorts of bikes, and all eras, but they’re not really ‘me’ so I figured I’d let it go.