I don’t notice windshield vibration at all, having said that at least it has a windshield and a quarter fairing that actually works… and we’re going to nitpick the buttons? Geesh… You’re totally wrong on the price, the Sport Chief is like $19,995, not $23,000… need to have your facts straight… rider modes are nice, you don’t always want a sensitive throttle… the tech on the Sport Chief is completely amazing… I rode both extensively, including the ST, and at the end of the day I think the Sport Chief is a way better bike, especially for close to the same price, not $3k more… I traded my Harley for the Sport Chief and never looked back…
I have watched some of these reviews and I wish people would just say they got the Harley because they just wanted a Harley. I too looked at a bunch of bikes. I looked at the Harley sportster s, low rider s, and a breakout. I was about to buy a used sportster s but the Harley dealer just wouldn't come down in price at all. So I walked out and went next door to the Indian dealer and saw the Chief and thought it was a nice looking bike. Road it and hated the seat, didn't think the brakes were strong enough, but I loved the tech part and the one I road had a windscreen. So I told the dealer my dislikes and they told me they were getting a Sport Chief in and I should come back and ride that, which I did. When I road it, hands down it's a much better bike than the Harley low rider s. It has KYB inverted front shocks, Fox piggy back rear shocks, much better seat, upgraded dual Brembo breaks in the front, the ride command that is awesome for so many reasons but I do not like the GPS, and all lights are LED. I don't know where you got your numbers from, but I didn't like the black one they had and ordered the red and before taxes I paid $19,200 for the upgraded color. I have noticed in videos the wind screen move but I do not notice when I'm riding it. For the aftermarket parts, I can do anything to my SC that you can do to your Harley and the prices for the Indian parts aren't crazy high like Harley. You can get risers from Indian for $170 if you want. I did change out the mid controls to forward and they only cost me $200. And riding both the Low Rider S and my SC, I feel like the SC pulls way harder off the line then the Harley ever did! But again, if you got the Harley just because you wanted a Harley, that's ok but just say that. I also understand that anything with Harley on RUclips will get more clicks.
Absolutely spot on Mark! And I come from a background of over 45 years of mostly HD's, from Shovels through to M8's before I bought my Challenger. Best bike I have EVER owned. I test rode on of these though while my Challenger was getting its service. BIG mistake; I was VERY impressed with the Sport Chief. Fantastic motorcycle with a BIG grin factor.
I put about 1200 miles on my new sport chief so far. I noticed all of the windshield vibrations in the videos and thought it would bug me but i only notice it when i think about the videos. I 100% agree with the hand controls, i find myself using the rider modes to tune my bike down when I'm riding with my lower cc friends so I'm not constantly leaving them behind. I can't help not race my bike in sport mode, in standard mode, I can cruise with my Sportster buddies. Hopefully the aftermarket will catch up someday but it likely won't be for a while.
Just sold my 16 street glide special for a sport chief. I had a victory hammer S before and Indian finally made a bike that fits that mould. Look man, the video has some good points but, it also has some bad ones. Harley makes a great product. No debate there. They have a bigger network, sure. After that, it’s all preference. The things you disliked about the chief could easily be changed and from what you were saying, you wanted to change a lot on your Harley. I didn’t want a bike everyone else had and with that, try to personalize it like nobody else’s. The low rider is a dyna bro bike bud. There is no personalizing those bikes anymore. It’s been done. Your price was way off on the Indian as well as others have pointed out. You get KYB front forks, fox piggyback shocks in the back and brembo’s. Sure you get the navigation and touchscreen but to me those those things don’t matter as much as the aftermarket parts I don’t have to buy now. You get way more bike for the price with Indian. So, you wanted a Harley, great. No need to justify why. I’m going to mod my chief as well, it will be one of a kind, unlike a dyna bro claiming it is. I like Harley, nothing against them, owned one. But I’m not buying the Indian because it’s an Indian, I’m buying it because it’s the better bike. Case closed.
I heard that the Indian sport chief is extremely torquie in sport mode and in heavy traffic it would be difficult to stop and go in sport mode so people put the bike in standard mode for just that reason
Bro which one would you say pulls harder .. sport chief or lowrider S? I haven’t been able to test ride either of em yet so I’m wondering what you think.
I have a 23 sport chief and yes the controls are cheap and i hate the clutch pull, the GPS is useless it will never find anything ontime, the sportmode is super fun when you want to catch someone real fast or in the twisties other than that standard all the time, because i have ridden sportbikes for ever the handling on the Indian is not impressive to me, but better than most cruisers, brakes are excellent, the front fairing works great, i just did a 1600 mile road trip on that bike. and average close to 50 mpg 200 miles to a 4 gallon tank. The riding position isn't the ideal for long rides neither is the seat, but it can be done, i was more in pain on a sport touring machines years back on a Kawasaki C14.
I definitely think you made the right choice. The fit and finish of HD motorcycles is impressive. The after market support is never ending. You can make this bike your own then change it up if you get bored. I've been watching a lot of videos on stages 1-4. There's just so much you can do. I bought a 2023 FXLRS at the end of December and I love it so far. I too came from sport bikes. Although I don't really ride as aggressively as I used to I still like to pick up the pace from time to time and the Lowrider S is capable enough to keep me satisfied. Besides in my opinion the FXLRS is definitely the better looking bike over the Indian Sport Chief.
Good grief. Riding in the rain is most dangerous when it first starts to rain and the oil/grease on the road surfaces. It's got nothing to do with how hard it's raining. A light mist can produce a very slick road.
Better color options i think on the Indian. I do like the gauges on the Indian. But you nailed it with the controls it was one of the first things I noticed when I sat on it. Seeing that Polaris builds the bikes I think they need to look a little more towards Harley on certain items unless on their four-wheeler and side by side builds. Both in my opinion road great but the aftermarket support for Harley as essentially what brought me to it over the Indian. That said if I could open up page after page of options on the Indian I probably would have took that one over the Harley. I will say probably the biggest downside to the Harley was that hideous fender they put on the front. Make her to easily put the brackets behind the forks I don't know who was in charge of that part but I would Left them at the curb that day.
But.. you can pretty much get all the stuff you’d need to change about the bikes directly from Indian. Forward foot controls which are $300 compared to the $550 for the Harley, rear passenger seat and pegs from Indian is $230 as opposed to Harley’s costing $450-$500. Exhausts are pretty much same price , from most manufacturers. Big air breathers, yes the Harley comes stock with it but for me I’d have to buy a different one anyway to move it kind of out of my way, the technology is way better on the Chief obviously. Now it’s not that big of a deal but it’s nice to have. But I will say the fit and finish is kind of pros and cons for both. All preference there. It all comes down to rider/personal preferences and experiences. The Harley being 6lbs lighter stock weight felt a little bit heavier than the Chief maybe given to where the actual weight is on the bike. Both are very close so it’s negligible there .. lastly these are also the two bikes I’m torn between but I’m looking at the purple Chief sport and the white lowrider s. Mann decisions .. also I will say the Harley does definitely give more user customizable options for the bike over the basic normal stuff from Indian. And yesss that damn wind screen shake is……. Goofy and annoying and I feel like they should have did something to tighten that up lol
Thanks for the vid man. I'm still trying to decide between the two, I live about 20 min from sturgis, Indian dealer is right there but Harley is about an hour away. I would be happy with both but for my sake I think the Indian will be my choice, I'm finding that there are more aftermarket stuff coming out for them, I'm really liking the blue smoke sport chief. I wish they had more colors for the Harley!!
I don’t notice windshield vibration at all, having said that at least it has a windshield and a quarter fairing that actually works… and we’re going to nitpick the buttons? Geesh… You’re totally wrong on the price, the Sport Chief is like $19,995, not $23,000… need to have your facts straight… rider modes are nice, you don’t always want a sensitive throttle… the tech on the Sport Chief is completely amazing… I rode both extensively, including the ST, and at the end of the day I think the Sport Chief is a way better bike, especially for close to the same price, not $3k more… I traded my Harley for the Sport Chief and never looked back…
I have watched some of these reviews and I wish people would just say they got the Harley because they just wanted a Harley. I too looked at a bunch of bikes. I looked at the Harley sportster s, low rider s, and a breakout. I was about to buy a used sportster s but the Harley dealer just wouldn't come down in price at all. So I walked out and went next door to the Indian dealer and saw the Chief and thought it was a nice looking bike. Road it and hated the seat, didn't think the brakes were strong enough, but I loved the tech part and the one I road had a windscreen. So I told the dealer my dislikes and they told me they were getting a Sport Chief in and I should come back and ride that, which I did. When I road it, hands down it's a much better bike than the Harley low rider s. It has KYB inverted front shocks, Fox piggy back rear shocks, much better seat, upgraded dual Brembo breaks in the front, the ride command that is awesome for so many reasons but I do not like the GPS, and all lights are LED. I don't know where you got your numbers from, but I didn't like the black one they had and ordered the red and before taxes I paid $19,200 for the upgraded color. I have noticed in videos the wind screen move but I do not notice when I'm riding it. For the aftermarket parts, I can do anything to my SC that you can do to your Harley and the prices for the Indian parts aren't crazy high like Harley. You can get risers from Indian for $170 if you want. I did change out the mid controls to forward and they only cost me $200. And riding both the Low Rider S and my SC, I feel like the SC pulls way harder off the line then the Harley ever did!
But again, if you got the Harley just because you wanted a Harley, that's ok but just say that. I also understand that anything with Harley on RUclips will get more clicks.
Absolutely spot on Mark! And I come from a background of over 45 years of mostly HD's, from Shovels through to M8's before I bought my Challenger. Best bike I have EVER owned. I test rode on of these though while my Challenger was getting its service. BIG mistake; I was VERY impressed with the Sport Chief. Fantastic motorcycle with a BIG grin factor.
I put about 1200 miles on my new sport chief so far. I noticed all of the windshield vibrations in the videos and thought it would bug me but i only notice it when i think about the videos. I 100% agree with the hand controls, i find myself using the rider modes to tune my bike down when I'm riding with my lower cc friends so I'm not constantly leaving them behind. I can't help not race my bike in sport mode, in standard mode, I can cruise with my Sportster buddies. Hopefully the aftermarket will catch up someday but it likely won't be for a while.
Just sold my 16 street glide special for a sport chief. I had a victory hammer S before and Indian finally made a bike that fits that mould.
Look man, the video has some good points but, it also has some bad ones. Harley makes a great product. No debate there. They have a bigger network, sure. After that, it’s all preference. The things you disliked about the chief could easily be changed and from what you were saying, you wanted to change a lot on your Harley. I didn’t want a bike everyone else had and with that, try to personalize it like nobody else’s. The low rider is a dyna bro bike bud. There is no personalizing those bikes anymore. It’s been done. Your price was way off on the Indian as well as others have pointed out. You get KYB front forks, fox piggyback shocks in the back and brembo’s. Sure you get the navigation and touchscreen but to me those those things don’t matter as much as the aftermarket parts I don’t have to buy now. You get way more bike for the price with Indian. So, you wanted a Harley, great. No need to justify why. I’m going to mod my chief as well, it will be one of a kind, unlike a dyna bro claiming it is.
I like Harley, nothing against them, owned one. But I’m not buying the Indian because it’s an Indian, I’m buying it because it’s the better bike. Case closed.
Sounds like you are being very defensive about choosing the Harley?
I heard that the Indian sport chief is extremely torquie in sport mode and in heavy traffic it would be difficult to stop and go in sport mode so people put the bike in standard mode for just that reason
Bro which one would you say pulls harder .. sport chief or lowrider S? I haven’t been able to test ride either of em yet so I’m wondering what you think.
Liked your comment but no response...
On sport mode the Sportchief is on his own world not even a Hayabusa pulls so hard. Is ridiculous
I have a 23 sport chief and yes the controls are cheap and i hate the clutch pull, the GPS is useless it will never find anything ontime, the sportmode is super fun when you want to catch someone real fast or in the twisties other than that standard all the time, because i have ridden sportbikes for ever the handling on the Indian is not impressive to me, but better than most cruisers, brakes are excellent, the front fairing works great, i just did a 1600 mile road trip on that bike. and average close to 50 mpg 200 miles to a 4 gallon tank. The riding position isn't the ideal for long rides neither is the seat, but it can be done, i was more in pain on a sport touring machines years back on a Kawasaki C14.
Those are very stylish Gardening Gloves 💪🖐
Thank you
I definitely think you made the right choice. The fit and finish of HD motorcycles is impressive. The after market support is never ending. You can make this bike your own then change it up if you get bored. I've been watching a lot of videos on stages 1-4. There's just so much you can do. I bought a 2023 FXLRS at the end of December and I love it so far. I too came from sport bikes. Although I don't really ride as aggressively as I used to I still like to pick up the pace from time to time and the Lowrider S is capable enough to keep me satisfied. Besides in my opinion the FXLRS is definitely the better looking bike over the Indian Sport Chief.
Good grief. Riding in the rain is most dangerous when it first starts to rain and the oil/grease on the road surfaces. It's got nothing to do with how hard it's raining. A light mist can produce a very slick road.
Better color options i think on the Indian. I do like the gauges on the Indian. But you nailed it with the controls it was one of the first things I noticed when I sat on it. Seeing that Polaris builds the bikes I think they need to look a little more towards Harley on certain items unless on their four-wheeler and side by side builds. Both in my opinion road great but the aftermarket support for Harley as essentially what brought me to it over the Indian. That said if I could open up page after page of options on the Indian I probably would have took that one over the Harley. I will say probably the biggest downside to the Harley was that hideous fender they put on the front. Make her to easily put the brackets behind the forks I don't know who was in charge of that part but I would Left them at the curb that day.
But.. you can pretty much get all the stuff you’d need to change about the bikes directly from Indian. Forward foot controls which are $300 compared to the $550 for the Harley, rear passenger seat and pegs from Indian is $230 as opposed to Harley’s costing $450-$500. Exhausts are pretty much same price , from most manufacturers. Big air breathers, yes the Harley comes stock with it but for me I’d have to buy a different one anyway to move it kind of out of my way, the technology is way better on the Chief obviously. Now it’s not that big of a deal but it’s nice to have. But I will say the fit and finish is kind of pros and cons for both. All preference there. It all comes down to rider/personal preferences and experiences. The Harley being 6lbs lighter stock weight felt a little bit heavier than the Chief maybe given to where the actual weight is on the bike. Both are very close so it’s negligible there .. lastly these are also the two bikes I’m torn between but I’m looking at the purple Chief sport and the white lowrider s. Mann decisions .. also I will say the Harley does definitely give more user customizable options for the bike over the basic normal stuff from Indian. And yesss that damn wind screen shake is……. Goofy and annoying and I feel like they should have did something to tighten that up lol
You get better milage on the less HP mode.
When you say fatboy do you mean fatbob?
Thanks for the vid man. I'm still trying to decide between the two, I live about 20 min from sturgis, Indian dealer is right there but Harley is about an hour away. I would be happy with both but for my sake I think the Indian will be my choice, I'm finding that there are more aftermarket stuff coming out for them, I'm really liking the blue smoke sport chief. I wish they had more colors for the Harley!!
I do wish the Low Rider had more color options.
Sport Chief also has cruise control.