Wife is looking at a Harley with mid controls. She prefers a bike with floorboards (except for the boards) but has always had bikes with pegs, so she might get a different model. Sitting in the dealership on the bike, she worries about not having as much control, speed and stability with boards. She won't test ride. Never has, until it's bought. I've got bikes with both and couldn't care less. I'm just not that aware, I guess. Pegs for sport bikes or even sport tourers, sure. But a big softail or dyna ain't a sport bike. So, anybody get floorboards and end up hating them or have issues with braking, shifting, getting your feet down fast? She's looking at a Softail Deluxe w boards and a Street Bob 103 with pegs. Riding will be 50/50 suburban and trips. Thanks.
Don't know if this will help you or not but just our experience. My ex-wife rode a 883 for a very short time several years before we met, I'm talking maybe 50 miles in the saddle. Few years later we meet and she rides pillion for a while until all the ladies in our circle start riding their own. Now she is (was) only 5'3" and about 110 lbs with less than average upper body strength. We decided a "bigger" HD would be better than a Sportster as many of the ladies who started on the Sporty eventually moved up to a bigger bike and we had aspirations of doing some long distance riding. We found her a used '02 Lowrider with mid (for an HD) controls and she liked it alot but what she commented on was how she would have liked the option to move her feet around just a little bit. I looked into adding boards on the Lowrider but it was really expensive, not to mention you loose some lean angle. I found a very large mid control foot peg made by Kuryakyn, sort of cross between a true peg and a floorborad and she really liked that. About a year later we in a dealership away from home and the Softail Deluxe had only been out for about 6 months. She sat on one in the dealership and it fit her like a glove....her comment was "if I was rich this is the bike I would have". Several months later I found a used Deluxe and bought it for her aganist her wishes (we ain't rich). Needless to say she liked the Deluxe much better than the Lowrider as it really is an easier bike to handle than a Dyna for a small sized lady with limited experience and she had no problem transitioning from mids to boards. In fact she "handled" the Softail better than the Dyna and she rode that bike across county ( her first trip longer than a 3 day weekend), Tail of the Dragon, mountian twisties in NC/TC, CO, UT, WY and through the flatlands of the midwest and east coast and never had an issue going from mids to floorboards. I think the biggest issue people have going from mids to forwards or floorboards has to do with a perception that they won't have "control". I personally have never had a problem with that as bikes with floorboards are generally much heavier with lower centers or gravity than bikes with pegs so using the pegs for control is not nearly as important as say with a lighter bike with a higher center of gravity and greater lean angle. A lot of it simply has to do with the way a cruiser style of bike is riden My advice, if she feels comfortable sitting on the Deluxe with her feet on the boards she will do fine with it on the road and buy which ever she likes the best. Either choice is a great bike.
More feet movement required with floorboards, as in reaching the shifter and brake. Feet are farther forward while cruising, putting more weight on your butt(can't unweight yourself for bumps). I've got a Roadking with boards, and feet forward scooters, plus a strom, strom's more comfortable for long rides.
"Good" problem to have and very nice that she enjoys riding, but these subjective fitment threads are more anecdotal food for thought than genuinely helpful as even when 99% pick option "A", Murphy's Law dictates she will be a 1% . Seriously, if she intends to ride, try again to convince her to rethink Not wanting to test ride and/or renting for a couple days (our local shops will apply the rental cost toward a purchase), It really is important stuff for any rider to assess and there are differences in these two bikes that go way beyond pegs VS boards. Good luck, perfect timing for the perfect Christmas gift..
So I have floorboards on my vstar and love them compared to my 3 cruisers with pegs. Much more comfortable and can shift my feet around more on the longer rides. I don't think there will be any issue learning to ride with them. They aren't big enough to hinder putting your foot down at lights, you just recognize that your foot will be 2 inches wider. No biggie on a shorter cruiser. Braking and shifting will just come naturally and I have no doubts she will pick it up quickly. Even if it has the shifter where you can use your heel to up shift. I think the problem may come in cornering clearance. You will drag the floor boards sooner than you will pegs. Especially on a mid controls bike. I have gotten used to sharp curves and knowing my floorboards are going to slide on the ground and bend up slightly. When my wife rides my vstar it scares the hell out of her though. She is fairly experienced on multiple bikes, cruiser and sport touring, but just doesn't feel comfortable with the floorboards sliding. If your wife understands that they will slide and gets used to it, there may not be a problem. That all depends on how she rides and wether she is comfortable with that or not. Just get the bike that is best suited overall for her and try it out. Test ride one or borrow buddies. If she's comfortable on the bike shell pick up the floorboards with no problems.
The vast majority of bikes I've owned have had pegs, but I don't mind floorboards. They're comfortable and allow me to move my feet around more than pegs. The only problem I've had with them is that if I haven't ridden a bike with boards in awhile, I sometimes forget that I have to move my foot to get to the brake pedal. The first time I go to slow down, I push down on the front of the board and wonder why the rear brake isn't helping any. It only happens once and then I'm fine until the next time I haven't ridden the ElectraGlide for a couple weeks.
I've had cruisers with both and I find dragging floorboards fun, dragging pegs on a low bike scares the hell out of me. It is definitely more difficult to modulate the rear brakes with 'boards, much easier to rotate a foot on the peg to grab the rear brake pedal over picking up a foot to get to the pedal, then keeping your heel on the 'board. I think that for a rider with 50 miles experience I would point them to a bike with pegs, especially mid-mount for better control. They probably won't be pushing corners hard enough to drag pegs and the easier access to the controls is a major plus.
She decided to go with pegs. We pick it up tomorrow. Super Glide Anniversary. I'm happy, it has ABS. And my riding partner is back!
SWEET!!! Wife and are now divorced and I don't know which I miss more, the wife or the riding partner? Enjoy her while you have her and best wishes for a lasting limitless riding partner.
Those are great looking bikes. I was drooling over one in my local dealer's showroom earlier today. Congrats.
Not a HD, but my '95 Goldwing came with aftermarket floorboards, and despite having a 34" inseam, I could not reach the ground. The boards were right square in the way. The heal and toe shifter was also awkward and clunky. I wasted no time getting the stock pegs and shifter. Wow, what a difference it made. The bike suddenly felt several hundred pounds lighter, handled much better, shifted perfectly, and I could flat foot it at stops. I thought I had made a big mistake when I bought the bike, but it was all because of the floorboards. It was my first bike with floorboards. Now I know better. Someone on one of the Goldwing forums wanted the whole setup, and I sent them to him for the cost of shipping. I hope they work out for him better than they worked for me.
Lovely bike. Big congrats. I really like those anniversary badges. I went the other way with my Softail replacing the footboards with pegs giving me more legroom, natural ankle bend, and cornering clearance. That, and I can stretch my legs out and rest them on top the pegs. Have fun, Mark H.
Great choice and one of the best color combinations IMO that flat works on the Dyna, Hope she enjoys many happy miles on it and please post a few photos and both your thoughts on it after a few rides. Cheers
