Road tests are always my personal favorite articles to read and write. To me, they are the most useful and easy to read articles. For the most part, you don’t need an extreme technical knowledge of motorcycle function to read one. Riding, after all, is what I'm after when I consider a bike. Yes, there are stylish aspects up for consideration, but the ride is still the most influential part of my decision. Recently, I got the chance to test ride a Big Dog model K-9 chopper. Let me tell you, this bike is a blast. So sit back, open a beer, and relax. I have prepared the most exhaustive ride review in the history of Bikernet and I hope the big guy doesn’t edit half of it out. He gets a jealous mean streak from time to time and will viciously cut an article to pieces.

About 2 months ago, Bandit called and ordered me onto a flight for Wichita so he could get a road test of a couple of Big Dog mototrcycles.

“You better be on that plane or I will hunt you down and make you clean my feline’s litter box with your tongue,” he growled over the phone.

I swear I could smell the Jack on his breath through the receiver! I began to pack a few of the essentials for the trip when my wife walked in the room.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m packing, Baby. Why, what’s up?”

“Where are you going?”

“Bandit’s sending me to Wichita to ride a Big Dog and get him a road test.”

Why is it we are such ignorant creatures? I truly didn’t think I had said anything wrong, so the next thing I heard caught me off guard entirely.

“You ain’t going nowhere without me!” She glared at me with her emerald green eyes blazing. The look in her eyes confirmed that the battle had just begun.

“Look, I don’t have time for this crap. I’m not dragging you to every one of these reviews, so you had better get used to me taking these trips.” I was serious, too. There was no way she was tagging along on this trip. What the hell kind of guy does she think I am?

So, a few weeks later, we landed in Wichita, Kansas. We picked up our rental and headed to Big Dog for the beginning of our adventure aboard a Big Dog K-9. Luckily a Big Dog staff member understood my situation and had the bike set up to carry a passenger so my wonderfully understanding wife could ride along with me. Great!

We arrived at the Big Dog World Headquarters and were immediately greeted by one of their top salesman, Brian. We told him we were there to see either Paul or Julie, and he smiled happily while telling us some of the features on their K-9 model.

“These bikes get all the attention when we go out on rides. The lines, style, and performance are all people can talk about after trying one of these bikes. I believe you will be extremely surprised by the ease at which you will be able to handle one of these bad boys,” he explained. He believes strongly in their product and it shows in his presentation.

Paul Hansen, BDM’s marketing genius, then walked over to us from the offices wearing a smile meant to melt icebergs. Amazingly fit, Paul is obviously a man who has spent many nights wrestling with iron at the local gym. Very different from the balding and overweight yuppies that have overpopulated the biker world, Paul seemed very much like me; a man who believes in developing mind, body, and soul.

He was very courteous and walked us around the factory as we snapped shots of the bikes and manufacturing process. We were introduced to BDM’s President, Nick Messer, who welcomed us with a warm smile and invited us into his office for an impromptu interview. Look for that next month when I release our factory tour article as well as the one-on-one interview I had with Mr. Messer, “The Knife”.

Paul interrupted, “Well, are you ready to see the bike?”

He was right, I needed to ride.

As we rounded the corner of the warehouse, the gleaming red steed sat, sparkling from the fresh detailing job that had recently commenced. Long, powerful, and freaky, this bike has the looks of a custom show bike! I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and my tongue seemed to swell two sizes too big in my mouth. I felt exactly the same as I had just before straddling my first street bike years earlier. I could only imagine what it would feel like to ride her.

Paul began giving directions when I jumped aboard and thumbed the starter switch. The bike immediately coughed to life and a decent rumble barked from the Mean Mother exhausts. While an upgrade is available for all their bikes, Big Dog left this one in its “stock” form. Trust me, “stock” really doesn’t apply to these bikes, but you will see more of that the further you get into this review.

“You can ride her around the block a few times to get familiar with her before taking off, if you want,” Paul offered.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Hop on, Baby,” I invited my wife as we mounted the beast. I immediately shifted the weight from one leg to the other as I tried to acclimate myself to the feel of this 9 foot monster.

I’ll be honest with you, my riding experience is almost exclusively aboard a H-D. I was really curious to see how these bikes measured up.

You can feel the 117-inch S&S thumping beneath you, but it isn’t uncomfortable. While I had to reach back with my left foot to lift the bike off it’s awkward kickstand, I clicked the shifter into first. As I gently let off the clutch, I felt the healthy pull as the bike rolled forward. I wheeled her around a corner and headed to the freeway.

Paul had given me a map to head towards a scenic route many of the locals rode on regularly. My heart was pounding so heavily at this point, I couldn’t tell if the motor was giving me a massage or if my senses were just in overdrive from excitement.

This bike has a very distinct feel to it. You can feel the weight of the beach ball sized 300 tire when taking off from a dead stop. While these bikes are never going to be winning drag races, they have more of a “steady pull” when taking off from the line. I can only relate it to a locomotive taking off. While it takes it a second or two to transfer the power from the motor through the wheels down to the pavement, once it gets rolling, it steadily picks up speed. Once the acceleration started, this bike had plenty of pull for anyone. It pulled as hard through first and second as it did from fifth to sixth gear.

I pulled onto freeway 254 steered the bike West on the freeway. The tall gas tank and handlebars sit directly in front of your lower chest and this bike is definitely designed for highway cruising. I let the gears wind up a little and shifted up just as the tachometer glowed 300 rpm’s. The tach on these beauties is an arc of successive lights as you pass through the rpm ranges, glowing green until you get higher, then yellow, and eventually red, I guess. I never saw the red, so that is purely a guess, but I did see yellow on a fairly regular basis. Don’t be fooled by that however, as you have to throttle pretty hard to wrap these bikes into the harder rpm ranges while still staying within the legal speed limits.

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