Baggers Brawl

The Harley-Davidson Street Glide, Indian Chieftain, Moto Guzzi MGX21, and Victory Magnum face off in an Old West shootout

The great American West never suffers fools. When you look at the harsh conditions faced by the hardy souls who set out to claim their fortune in California’s Mojave Desert, the stakes get even higher. Do a little research, and you’ll discover an impressive number of hamlets were born, sometimes prospered, sometimes didn’t, then died – often in dog years. Most have disappeared without a trace. A few still have bits of their remains visible in the arid landscape. Still others hang on in a semi-zombie state between self-sustaining life and their final desiccation plotted by the patient desert.

Naturally, when the subject of human folly in the unforgiving wilds of the American Southwest comes up, your favorite MOrons, the Motorcycle.com staff, know that we’ll fit right in. (Don’t believe me? Remember this adventure?) So, we gathered a set of four baggers with fork-mounted fairings, packed up fresh undies and socks, then set out to visit a selection of California ghost/zombie towns east of our Los Angeles base.

2014 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special Vs. Indian Chieftain – Video

Other than my curiosity about foolhardiness, our primary reason for taking this ride was to see if the changes in Bagger Land had shuffled the pecking order. For 2017, Moto Guzzi has introduced the newest member of the club, the MGX–21 Flying Fortress. Harley-Davidson has created the Milwaukee Eight engine for its touring line, which includes the Street Glide included here. Indian’s squeaker of a win by the Chieftain in the last shootout between the two could change since the bike remains mechanically unmodified, gaining only non-functional styling elements for the Dark Horse designation. Finally, does the unchanged Victory entry in the class, the Magnum, still have the chops to hang with this crowd?

There’s only one way to find out. We are heading out of town!

Los Angeles, CA to California City, CA

Nat Mendelsohn, a real estate developer and sociology professor, had big dreams for California City. In 1958, he purchased 80,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert to create a city that could eventually be a peer to Los Angeles which is 100 miles to the south. Incorporated in 1965 and structured around a Central Park which featured a 26-acre artificial lake, Mendelsohn’s master-planned city never grew the way he had hoped. Although California City grew from 3,200 residents in 1985 to more than 14,000 by 2009, thanks to the closeness of Edwards Air Force Base, large sections of California City remain empty save for the decaying paved roads – or dirt ones, like the one shown above – laid out in the familiar urban grid in the desert emptiness. Still, despite the lack of its hoped-for growth, California City remains the third largest city by geography in California.

2017 Moto Guzzi MGX-21 Flying Fortress First Ride Review

When we needed to define this category of motorcycles for this shootout, we selected two required features: Hard bags and fork-mounted fairings. In the case of the fairings, the first few hours of our trip were spent on divided highways with the cruise controls set for maximum pavement consumption, giving our quartet of MO saddle-jockeys a pretty good idea of what the next two days would be like. While rider height – or more specifically, rider torso length – plays a role in how the wind flowing over fairings interacts with the human in the saddle, the experience is even more pronounced with batwing-style fairings. During our initial stints on the bikes, the shorter riders noted more buffeting at elevated cruising speeds.

Since both Burns and Troy share roughly the same height, their notes were quite similar with Troy’s going something like this: “I got wind buffeting at high speeds on all four bikes. The adjustable screen of the Indian didn’t make a difference.” While Tom Roderick and myself both experienced buffeting with these bikes, the intensity was lower for both of us. The good news is that optional windscreens are available from each factory for all of them.

The Moto Guzzi offers the least weather protection of the bunch. While taking the pressure off of the rider’s upper body, the fairing was clearly designed to flow a lot of air to the rider. When the temperature is high, this feature is much appreciated. However, cold weather makes the Guzzi’s airflow much less popular.

All of the riders noted that, while the Guzzi flowed the most air, it also delivered the least buffeting to our noggins. Burns notes, “For me, the MG’s double-bubble windscreen provided the smoothest airflow, and when it comes to cruising along at 80 mph, its 90-degree Vee smooth-cruise rhythm is right up there.” Seasonally-Impaired Editor Siahaan concurs, ”The airflow off the front fairing and shaped screen is nice, but not if you’re under-layered on a cold ride.”

2017 Harley-Davidson Street Glide First Ride Review

2016 Indian Chieftain Dark Horse First Ride Review

Harley’s OG bagger, the Street Glide, was perfectly fine for me up to speeds that common sense dictates I not mention. However, there were differing opinions. “I really like just about everything about the Street Glide except the height of the windscreen,” espoused Burns. “I tried to ride around on it in an open-face helmet and cool shades in the classic manner, but at any speed above 40, it jiggled my cool shades around so vigorously the road looked like WW2 aerial combat footage. It’s not so bad with a full-face with the shield closed, but that kind of defeats the concept.”

“The shorty windscreens on all these bikes impose some wind buffeting,” notes Tom, “but the Indian is the only bike here with an electronically adjustable windscreen and the ability to lessen or increase helmet buffeting to personal preferences.” Troy also noted the Indian’s adjustable windscreen as a nice feature, “But I imagine it’s even more so if you’re taller than I am and can exploit it further.”

For my body size, I experienced some mild turbulence with the windshield in its highest position that came with the increased pocket of still air I desired in colder temperatures. In the lowest position, my helmet benefitted from a greater cooling airflow and less chop.

On the Victory, I noted some mild buffeting at highway speeds that really only became bothersome at speeds above 85 mph. The rest of the time, it felt like a good combination of airflow and weather protection. Again, optional windshields are available to suit riders of various sizes.

2015 Victory Magnum Review

When it comes to carrying capacity, these baggers have a variance of 26 gallons between the largest and the smallest. The Magnum checks in with a whopping 41.6 gallons of combined capacity between its two bags, and for this reason alone, I snapped up the Magnum. With the help of several layers of foam, I turned the left saddlebag into my camera bag.

The Chieftain placed second with a 34.4 gal. total for its pair of bags, which also score bonus points for having push-button unlocking capability when the wireless key fob is within range. However, our Indian test unit then lost points for having the secondary unlock button on the fuel tank stop working. For most riders, this wouldn’t be a problem. They’d have the key in their pocket. However, with our constant bike rotation, we keep wireless fobs in the saddlebag while riding. Otherwise, we risk stranding the poor sod who was not given the fob from the previous rider. If the section of road this exchange takes place on is particularly nice, it may be quite a while before we notice that we are one bike short in the mirrors. So, for our trip home, we could ride the Chieftain, but we (well, Troy in this case) couldn’t access any of the gear in the saddlebags. Back at home a locksmith was able to open the problem bag – only that didn’t make Trizzle’s ride home the night before any warmer.

The Street Glide checks in with 32 gallons of combined capacity and absolutely no drama when accessing their contents. The MGX–21 came in a distant fourth with less than half the capacity of all the other bikes. The culprit in the Guzzi’s 15.4 total gallons of capacity is the bag shape, which tapers quite stylishly towards the rear of the motorcycle. Critiques of the size aside, the MGX’s bags close with multiple attachment points for the side opening, making sure the bags are watertight.

After this section of our ride, the MO Scorecard lists the Street Glide on top with an 89.4% in the luggage category, with the Magnum finishing second with an 81.1%. Despite the Victory’s large volume, the Harley’s easy-to-operate latches helped it to win here. We’ll get to the wind/weather protection scores later.

California City, CA to Keeler, CA

The birth and ongoing death of Keeler is inexorably tied to that of Owens Lake. Although much of Keeler’s history is the result of the boom and bust of the mining industry, an earthquake in 1872 helped to drive the town’s early growth by lifting the lakebed in a nearby town requiring that a new dock be built in Hawley. The town would later be renamed Keeler after Julius M. Keeler, who owned the mill that processed the ore for the Owens Lake Mining and Milling Company and designed the town which would support the mill. A small-gauge rail line reached Keeler in 1883 and allowed the town to ride the boom-and-bust waves of silver, lead, zinc, and limestone which finally ceased in the 1950s. However, it was Owens Lake that terminally wounded Keeler. Los Angeles’ thirst siphoned away the water of Owens Lake in the 1920s, leaving behind an alkali dust storm breeding ground, the offspring of which frequently traced a path through Keeler, making many residents choose to leave. Although the town still has a U.S. Post Office, the population has remained at just 66 in the last two censuses.

As the four-lane divided highway narrowed down to two lanes which required that we hustle by cars we wanted to pass, we began to focus on the engines. All four of our V-Twins were quite comfortable in high-velocity cruise mode, delivering pleasant sensations to all our contact points with the machines as we churned through the miles. From a powerplant perspective, we wouldn’t hesitate to straddle any one of these mounts for a transcontinental tour.

With the new Milwaukee Eight engine, Harley has refined the Street Glide’s engine manners at the same time it improved the power. “The new engine has way more power than the old one,” Burns wrote, “Hitting Resume on the cruise control gets you easily and smoothly back up to 80 after you have to slow down.” Burns also goes on to note that the Street Glide has ”a really reassuring pleasant 3500-rpm drone at 80 mph.” Troy continues the love but with a dose of reality: “The new Milwaukee Eight engine is pretty nice. Smooth, robust power down low with a decent midrange punch if you want it. Didn’t fare very well in our top gear roll-ons, but if you want a drag racer, look somewhere else.”

One engine feature that Tom was happy about had nothing to do with the Milwaukee Eight upgrades. “When it comes to baggers, I like having a heel/toe shifter,” he said, “The Harley is the only bike here that comes equipped with one.” Troy, on the other hand, respectfully disagreed, saying that it cramped his foot on the floorboard.

The other new kid, the MGX–21, doesn’t have a new engine, but Tom summed it up as being “easily the fastest bike here with an engine that spins up and revs more like a sportbike than a cruiser.” The love was universal. “Despite giving up 300-odd cc to the others, the Guzzi killed the others in top gear roll-ons,” Troy noted. Burns best sums up how, from the moment the throttle was cranked open in top gear roll-ons, the 90° V-Twin pulls away from the others: ”My favorite engine by far; it produces a major torque wallop at about 4k rpm that closes the gap with whatever bike it’s behind with one quick thwarp of the throttle.” Several of the testers also praised the MGX for its “sportbike-like transmission,” too.

The Indian has the next newest engine and received glowing reviews with one Burnsian outlier. “The Indian is plenty torquey, but it’s really low-revving blatty nature makes it my least favorite of these four. It also puts out the most heat, which wasn’t a problem at all in the perfect weather we had for these two days, but it can be a problem in Wisconsin in July.”

However, Troy shows that one man’s blatt is…well…let Troy tell us: “The Indian has a really sweet exhaust growl. More pleasing to my ear than the Harley’s, even.” (Remember, Harley made a big deal about how the new, quieter Eight allowed for more volume from the exhaust.) My opinion of the Indian’s engine is pretty closely aligned with Tom, who gushed that “the engine performance, sound, and clutch engagement are, dare I say, cruiser perfect.”

First introduced in the 2008 Victory Vision and moved to the entire Victory line in 2011, the Freedom 106 engine is beginning to show its age. That’s not to say it isn’t fun. Where it lacks the instant power delivery of the newer engines, it grunts it out in the end. Just listen to Burnsie: “The old 106 maybe doesn’t have the instant torque of the others, which shows in our little roll-on tests, but once it’s rolling, its easy free-revving nature and great gearbox is perfectly satisfactory.” Troy goes into a little more detail saying, ”In the top-gear roll-on I did with Tom on the HD, we were neck and neck at first, the Victory eventually edging away the closer we got to redline.”

If we had to point to one feature of the Freedom 106 engine that illustrates its age, we’d go straight to the cable-operated throttle. While this itself isn’t a terrible thing, riders will experience the throttle grip rotating in their hand as the cruise control modulates the Magnum’s speed. Also, the technology that allows ride-by-wire also enables things like traction control to be implemented. (To those who say cruisers don’t need TC, I suggest they go ride a Big Twin in the rain on a Las Vegas freeway during peak traffic and try to modulate the power transfer from the rear tire to the oil-soaked, wet pavement.)

The Moto Guzzi easily wins the powerplant scores with a 94.4% for the engine and a 90.0% score for the transmission/clutch category. The Harley and Indian tied with engine scores of 88.8% while the Chieftain held a solo 85.0% second place for transmission/clutch.

Keeler, CA to Darwin, CA

Around 1874, the settlement of what would soon be Darwin was established and named for early explorer and prospector, Dr. Darwin French. Fueled by the booms that accompanied the mining rushes of the era, Darwin soon had a post office, drug stores, hotel, restaurants, and saloons to free the prospectors of their money. Because of its remote location, Darwin gained a reputation for the types of activities that have kept Western movie fans interested for generations with many shootouts and stagecoach robberies taking place. At its population peak in 1877, the town supported approximately 3,500 residents. However, a smallpox epidemic coupled with an economic slowdown decimated the town a year later, dropping the population to less than 10% of its previous level. The early 1900s saw a resurgence of Darwin in a new mining boom, but two fires destroyed portions of the town. After a couple more small mining booms, several of Darwin’s mines were purchased in 1945 by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, turning the town into one of the largest lead producers in California. Today, the mines are said to be closed, and the 2010 census listed the population at just 36 hardy souls.

Our short jaunt from Keeler to Darwin gave us a small sampling of blind sweepers cresting hills and long straight roads that forced us to choose between epic views in late afternoon light and a chance to discover the top speeds of these baggers. (Preservation of our licenses dictates that we not say what speeds those were, but if we did, you might be surprised.)