The Ultra comes off the side stand easily, and urban operations are made simple by the happy combination of generous torque, the right gearing and light clutch operation. By the same token, René must be a heavy user of the brakes, as they grabbed easily and effortlessly at both end, again like a well broken-in Honda.

The one blot in the Ultra’s copybook hits you at roughly 90kph: unreasonably strong turbulence at head level. This gets worse as speed rises, reaching intolerable levels for cruising at 120kph. – at least for touring purposes, which is what this bike is all about after all! Put your hand out at eye level, and you can feel the choppy air spilling over the windshield from 80kph on. René also rides a 2010 BMW R1200RT, the current paragon of calm, and agreed with me on this point. Other owners of Touring models I spoke to mentioned that they use an after market screen for touring and keep the more stylish stock units for urban posing. Style is still king at The Motor Corporation.

Photo: Harley-Davidson

2011 Ultras are flying off the dealer floor, so true fans must know something that escapes my mixed-up mind. I found the Ultra to be sound, super smooth at lower speeds, with the extra torque from enjoyable TC 103 engine adding to the fun.

Riding at a touring pace demonstrates the bikes agility in nice gentle bends at less-than aggressive speeds. If developers are ever allowed to smooth out that airflow, it would easily go past very-good on its way to excellent in my book.

Look for a more thorough test report from Daytona in early March 2011.