For up-to-date reviews of Harley Davidson Softail Motorcycles, go to: Harley Davidson Motorcycle Reviews 1996-2008
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In Harley-Davidsonmotorcycles, the softail frame is designed to look like the hardtail bikes of the past, while still offering the comfort of rear suspension. The shock absorbers are positioned along the axis of the motorcycle, tucked away under the transmission.
There are several Harley-Davidsonmodels with the Softail frame, including the Softail Standard, Custom, Springer Softail, Heritage Softail, Heritage Springer, Night Train, Deluxe, Deuce, and Fatboy. These motorcycles have the same engine, transmission and frame with the exception of the Deuce, which has a 2" backbone stretch, but differ in the choice of fork, wheels and accessories.
Front forks
The Softail range is the only range of Harley-Davidson motorcycle that offers a choice of front suspensions within the range. The Sportsterand Dynamodels use the thin X-type telescopic forks, the VRSC models use a fork unique to the VRSC line, and the Touringmodels use the fat FL-type telescopic forks. Softails models may use either the X-type or the FL-type, or may use the Springer leading link forks that have only been used on Softail models so far. The FXST designation is used when the X-type fork is used or when the Springer fork is used with a 21" wheel, while the FLST designation is used when the FL-type fork is used or when the Springer fork is used with a 16" wheel.
Engines
The Softail models do not have rubber-mounted engines. This led to more vibration in Evolution-engined Softails than in rubber-mounted Touring or Dyna models with Evolution engines. To compensate for this, current Softail models use a counterbalanced version of the Twin Cam engineinstead of the regular Twin Cam engine used in the Touring and Dyna models.



