2025 HARLEY-DAVIDSON LOWRIDER S – “LET’S GO HOWL AT THE MOON!”

IMAGES BY MATT McINTYRE

 

Dear beloved fellow rat-bastards. Got a few minutes? We need to chat.

 

Been a trip thus far, huh? We’ve howled at a bunch of moons, partied with legions of strippers, and had a fat old time of it, didn’t we? Some of us are still having it – even though we have had some moderation force-added to our excesses. Age is a treacherous swine.

 

But never mind. No-one gets out of here alive.

So, here’s the thing. And it’s a hell of a thing. It’s called the Lowrider S. It’s like Harley figured out there’s still some heinous, evil-grinning rat-bastards left on this earth, and decided to love them up some.

 

Harley’s love in 2025 extended to the whole Softail range, of which the Lowrider S and the Lowrider ST (that’s the one with the panniers and bigger fairing) got the saltiest end of the love-stick.

Those two bastards got the 117-cube High Output motor. And greater love hath no motorcycle company than to put unholy mad-bitch engines into a bike, specifically so red-eyed rat-bastards like myself can get their fiend on.

 

Ya’ll remember how we would spend endless nights in our sheds trying to get our Harleys to breath actual fire? They made lots of noise, but they really did lack the bang we wanted from them so we could make a better job of running from the cops. You can’t have a high-speed pursuit when there’s no actual high speed, right? Pigs would just follow you until your Harley shat itself. Hell of a thing.

And you’ll remember what happened when you ran out of mechanical talent in your shed, or you’d smoked too many bongs, snorted too many lines, and drank too much Jim Beam (or Jack Daniels if the girl got paid that week)? Yep, you’d be forced to throw everything you’d taken off your bike into two red-plastic milkcrates, call the mate with the ute, toss the crates and your bike into the back and drive it all to your Harley shop.

 

Where they’d laugh at you.

Months later, you’d slam three-months’ rent and that week’s pay-packet on the Harley shop’s counter, and ride out of there like a pagan god, your newly-enhanced high-performance stroker barking extra hatred at the heavens. And for a period of time – sometimes hours, sometimes weeks – you’d be the king. And then there would be a loud noise, followed by a profound silence, followed by swearing…and you’d be back in your shed once again.

 

Halcyon days, brothers, halcyon days!

I am glad they’re over, just quietly.

 

Anyway, what Harley has wrought in this year’s Lowrider S is just the damn thing we were all trying to create in the bad old days. But without the explosions, crying, and despair.

 

The Lowrider S is one evil goddamn hot-rod sumbitch. Especially in all-black with extra black – because nothing says “Psychopathic Motorcycle Hooligan” quite like this bastard.

This is the Harley you’d buy if you want to do wheelies, go around corners, and watch fathers lock up their giggling, moon-eyed daughters when you show up. This is the Harley you’re riding when that moon needs to be howled at. This is the Harley you’re twitching next to when the cops are re-charging their Tasers. This is the Harley parked outside the very finest strip-joints in those late, dark hours when demons walk the night. Yes, brothers. This is the Harley for every one of us hell-bound, mean-eyed, rat-bastards.

 

Why? Glad you asked. It has Modes. You only need to know about one of them. That’d be “Sport”. Put it in that one. Leave it there. But, do not let your mates ride it in that mode. They can have “Rain” or “Road”. Let them tell you what they’re like. I don’t know and I don’t wanna know. Because Sport mode is when that 117-cube HO engine starts doing everything you’ve ever wanted a Harley engine to do. Without the commensurate explosion.

Also, Harley has thrown away the evil progressive springs and replaced them with constant rate jobbies. Yes, I know it sounds counter-intuitive. And yes, I was one of those geniuses who’d put progressive springs in my Harleys to make them…well, behave and stop powdering my spine. Thing is, when you have only modest suspension travel, you don’t need it to get firmer at the bottom of that travel. Thus has the Softail been transformed. Sure, it ain’t perfect, but the improvement is great – and you can certainly get some even sexier Screamin Eagle Öhlins suspension if you wanna climb higher up on that King Hill. Yep, you read that right. Öhlins, bitches. On your Harley. What a time to be a living rat-bastard, huh?

Coming out of corners and whacking open that throttle is revelatory. If that don’t get you grinning, you’re dead inside. “HO” might just as well stand for “Hail Odin!” or “Hell’s Ovaries!” as “High Output”.

 

The difference between this year’s Lowrider S and the 2024 version is so vast. What Harley should do is let you ride them back-to-back. Or if you have an old Lowrider – and let’s face it, I know some of you evil mongrels do – I dare you to go ride one of these new ones and not start cackling like a lunatic. Which is exactly what Benny Foster and I ended up doing at the recent launch.

Yes, beloved rat-bastards. Your time is not yet over. You are not yet done. The new Lowrider S is here, and that moon is still there, and it surely needs to be howled at. And who better than you?