2023 Harley Davidson Breakout FULL review and TEST RIDE!

foreign [Music] thank you what's going on guys I'm Blair Snipes this is throttle blip and today we're going to review the 2023 Softail breakout now the breakout was gone from the U.S market for a few years they did stay in other markets Harley has done some redesigning on the model reintroduced it back to the U.S and we're going to go over those changes in this video all right guys before we jump into the review I'll give you a quick walk around let you see this bike and all of its Glory so this is the Vivid black color option you can get the breakout in four different colors this year this is the Vivid black scheme you can also get it in denim black you can get it in Baja Orange and you can get it in Atlas silver so personally I like this Vivid black colorway the best I think it's very Harley-Davidson with the black the little splash of orange and gray right there on the tank that logo looks really good so I'm a fan of the Vivid black let me know in the comments which one you guys like and we're going to jump into this review so there have been a few things that have changed on the breakout uh at least since we saw it last here in the U.S one of the big changes for this year is you now have the Milwaukee 8117 in this bike this is the biggest engine Harley puts in their bikes from the factory at least currently there's rumors you know there always is next year they're going to do something bigger better better I hope they do but for now the 117 is the biggest engine you can get in a stock Harley and this being on the Softail platform you lose a little bit of weight say compared to like some of the big touring bikes we have the street glide St here with the 117 and it still makes a ton of power and moves down the road really well you just have all the extra weight that you do not have on the breakout the next big change was the gas tank so I'll give you this view it may look a little bit different so you now have the five gallon gas tank I think the breakout was coming with a three and a half gallon gas tank before which did give it in my opinion better lines but as someone who now owns a Harley Davidson with a three gallon gas tank and a big engine you do not get far you literally have to stop at every gas station you pass so I think this five gallon gas tank was a much needed improvement from what I remember they also kind of changed the handlebar position to make it a little bit more comfortable you'll see on your risers here they are a little bit taller and they kick back gives you a little bit more reach to it they've also changed the seat they change the seat to accommodate the fuel tank from what I understand I've done a test ride on this bike you'll see that towards the end of this video this thing is extremely comfortable when you're sitting on it but when I was stopping and I mean I'm 5 11 I'm six foot with these boots on um this part was like really digging into my leg and I hate to be all whiny and complainy but it was it was so much that it was noticeable now your seat height is only 25 and a half inches so you wouldn't think it would do it but it just for some reason at the red light stop signs just was not working for me but the seat itself while I was riding was extremely comfortable it's got this pocket that may not translate on video but you're really locked in here you have a little bit of lumbar support here with this like the help of the passenger pillion it's kind of angled to match the seat so you do sit in there well it's great while you're riding I just didn't like it stopped now Harley has chosen to go with their like what I'm I've been calling the minimalist display this is what came on my bike I'll pop it on Just for those that haven't seen it it gives you all the information you need it's just in a smaller form factor and I know based on comments a lot of guys miss the analog Speedos and tachometers but this is what you have now so trip a trip B uh how many miles till empty your clock and then your RPMs are going to show digital here and that's kind of what people didn't like I don't mind it but after having owned a bike with one of these I do get what they're saying as far as your shift points and all that kind of stuff I mean I just I like the analog it's just what I'm used to but I like how clean and small and compact this is I wish it was a little more digital could do a few more things but it does the job now while we are up here on the handlebars I'll show you so this is a cruise control bike a cruise control button right here all your other controls typical Harley-Davidson stuff and I'll show you the handlebars they're what I call a drag bar they're not quite straight they do have a little Bend back to you but overall they're a pretty straight handlebar so when you're riding this bike you'll see in the test ride your feet are forward with the forward controls that come on this bike and you're also reaching for the bar so it's kind of got you bent over in like a a v position so I'm not sure how comfortable that would be on longer rides but in my personal opinion people buying the breakout are not buying it to do long rides they're buying it because of the looks so we'll move around to the front here uh this bike has a 34 degree rake which is a lot more radical than most Harley-Davidson models it kind of gives it that Chopper look you've got a big 21 inch front spoke wheel on here I do like that wheel I think it looks really good I've said it a few times I'll say it again Harley Davidson has really stepped up their game when it comes to Wheels I think the factory wheels are looking better and better every year which is something that has been lacking in previous models now based on other videos I have watched the headlight is where a lot of people were pretty divisive it's a kind of a love it or hate it type thing so from the side profile you'll see it's pretty low profile and this bike to me is is pretty classic Harley Davidson styling kind of reminds me of the fat boy over there I mean you can spot it from a mile away it's a Harley Davidson this headlight kind of brings it into current Day Led which as you guys know I am a big big fan of puts out a lot of good light but some people didn't like the look they wanted a little more conventional round headlight on here uh Harley went kind of oval I could go either way I mean it doesn't drive me crazy you know it doesn't bug me but I'm not in love with it either let me know what you guys think about this headlight down in the comments so coming around to this side like we talked about this bike does come with forward controls I'm sure there is an option to switch this over to Mid controls which may make the riding position a little bit better a little bit more aggressive not as comfortable I will agree there but it may be a little more fun to ride with mid controls however you do not have much ground clearance so you're not going to be leaning it over too much like we talked about there is a passenger opinion and there's passenger pegs so this thing is set up for a passenger from the factory and another big thing with the breakout one thing I think a lot of people like is this big fat 240 rear tire on the back now it does look cool it does look good like I said it's kind of like the Choppers they were building in the early 2000s but I feel like maybe they could have left it in the 2000s and I say that because while I can really appreciate the look it is it does it's got a tough look it just it does you know and I'm nostalgic I like those bikes they were building with the big tires back in the day but riding this thing it kind of it's hard to describe and it kind of rolls it it doesn't act like a normal motorcycle tire that you're used to so it's going to take some getting used to and it's just real weird in the turns it's not hard to ride or anything it's just a very different feeling than most people are going to be used to now before we jump into the test ride I do want to point out that this is one of Harley Davidson's models that they offer with this adjustable shock they make it super easy to adjust here and it's going to tell you in your manual based on your weight and if you've got a passenger you've got luggage whatever based on the weight where the best setting is going to be guys it takes two seconds and I promise you will have a much better ride so we you buy this bike you buy it brand new if it's just going to be you you know set it based on your weight if you're going to have a passenger or whatever check the manual see what it recommends you will get a lot more out of these motorcycles if you take the time to dial in your suspension I've been critical of Harley-Davidson suspension in the past and the fact that they're starting to make some adjustments and make it where you can adjust your shock make it super easy you've usually been able to adjust them it's just you need to take the seat off you need a special wrench to do it now they give you a knob that you turn so take the time do it I promise you'll enjoy the bike a lot more I'll give you guys one more quick walk around of this bike before we jump into the test ride and I give you my thoughts on what it's like to ride this motorcycle I kind of try to give you the feel of what it would be like if you were on it so it is a helmet mounted perspective and then there's a few like riding shots as well and I'll give you my thoughts on it in the test ride all right guys so the audio got messed up on this test ride my apologies so we're gonna do a voiceover but I want to start trying to give you guys the experience of what it's like riding these bikes and then I'll kind of talk about who I think this bike is for so as we stated and part of the review you do have forward controls on the breakout as well as this more drag style handlebar the seat isn't too bad but it does kind of sit you back so as I've mentioned you're kind of bent over and almost like a V position I'll show you guys here now with like a side by riding shot um and and the v may be a little bit exaggerated but that's just to give you an idea of you know kind of the position that you're in and what I'm getting at with that is I truly think the person that buys the breakout is buying it because they really like the way that it looks they're not necessarily buying it because the way that it handles or its ability to do longer trips so the person I see on the breakout would be someone who's doing mostly around town stuff that's not to say you can't go a little farther with this bike but again it's not going to be that comfortable you're also going to have to come up with a solution for carrying things if you want to take anything with you that could be as simple as a backpack there are some saddle bag options but it almost seems like just uh it almost seems like a sin I guess to put bags on this bike especially if you're buying this bike based on the looks because any saddle bag that you find I promise you will kill the looks of the spike and if it's something that's easy to put on and take off then maybe that's not as big of a deal you know a lot of times we'll sacrifice the looks of our bikes just to make that storage make more sense the other thing you would need to take into consideration is passenger so like I mentioned it does come set up with the passenger that pillion that's on the back although I've never sat on one I don't have any miles to speak of as far as Testament to This I Gotta feel like your passenger is going to want more in the way of padding so once again that puts you in the position of sacrificing the looks of the bike and yeah you can have two seats I know plenty of people that do that but if you're gonna go a little bit farther your passenger is going to want more so you're gonna need a passenger backrest but you can do the detachable that's no big deal and you're probably gonna want more of a seat now this fight coming with the 117 Milwaukee 8 makes really really good power um didn't feel quite as peppy as say like the low rider STS and stuff but the 117 uh it felt very on par with like the touring bikes and I know I said in the review because it weighed a little bit less it should be a little more peppy it just for some reason it didn't give me that it felt about like the St models that have that 117 on them [Music] now everybody's gonna you know put exhaust on I would imagine I mean you don't buy a bike like this and not put exhaust on it um if you just do the Mufflers you'll get that Harley-Davidson sound a lot of people like to call it but you will not change the performance I think putting full exhaust you already have an open air cleaner and then you just need a tuner uh would open this thing up and really let you get all of your 117 now in doing so I want to talk about the tuners because um I know Vance and Hines is doing the 49 state legal setup or whatever which is weird I think they're calling it 49. I don't know the one state they're not legal in or why they can't do it and maybe that's California go figure but with the tuners the Harley tuner the Vance and iron sooner a lot of these tuners uh are fine for stage one applications like the one I was talking about but if you plan to go any bigger so if you want to do stage two which would be changing Cam and stuff uh those are not going to be good options so I would buy your tuner based on what you think you may do in the future not what you're doing today unless you're just really worried about compliance which I've never met one person that seemed to care at least not in the Harley-Davidson World about being EPA compliant now you may have uh you may have the uh the checks in your state where you have to go and pass smog and emissions and all that kind of stuff here in South Carolina where I'm at they literally do not care there are tons of cars out here on the road with with no Muffler at all and there's no issues I don't necessarily agree with going that far with things either but that's just saying that you know here it's not a problem where you live you may want to check on that now as far as the breakout the value I think that's going to be based on your personal preference you know again it's I just I personally don't see it as a bike with a lot of extra utility other than the looks you're going to be able to take this thing to bike night you're going to be able to take this thing to bars not that you should be drinking riding but to each their own we're all adults here and can make our own decisions uh it's it's kind of a show-off bike it looks good in the garage looks good when you're showing it off to your buddies but that's that's about the the capabilities of this motorcycle so for me personally for the money of the breakout you guys you know especially if you watch the channel you know how I feel um I just I want something with a little more utility I would look a little more towards like the low rider St you get the 117 you get the bags you get it's hard to say more performance because it's the same engine but man it just feels a lot different to me but you do have the possibility for a little more aggressive riding with mid controls and I get a lot of comments whenever I say that people say oh well I'm tall and I need the forward controls what you can throw on a highway bar that's what I do on my personal bike so on those longer stretches of road I can throw my feet out but I still want to shift and apply the brake from the mid mid control position and that's just so when I'm in curves and stuff my feet are underneath me and I mean you can even go as far as you know say sport bikes have rear sets for that reason because that's even better than the mid control but Harley's with rear sets um it's something you have to do yourself and and then you're really to me uncomfortable but I'm 35 with a bad back so if if you're down to do that then good luck to you so I'm gonna end this uh in this voice over section of the test ride here and we're going to wrap the test right up in just a second those are just my thoughts on this bike guys my recommendation go to your dealership especially if you have your motorcycle endorsement go ride the bikes you know so if you think the breakout is for sure the bike for you ride the breakout but ride something else man ride a Heritage Softail ride the low rider St heck ride a Touring bike you know just to make sure you're making the right decision because I've seen it so many times working in sales the bike that someone comes in you know dead set on that they're already in love with was oftentimes not the bike they left with and it wasn't for financial reasons that they couldn't afford it or whatever it was just that after some questioning some probing we found out that the bike that they were going to buy was just not going to meet their needs and that's not an upsell a lot of times we'd buy you know sell them something cheaper for some reason people tend to think I get some kind of Kickback if you guys go buy expensive bikes I wish that were the case um and if you know any way to make that happen let me know because that would be great that's going to be it for this one guys subscribe if you're not already hit the like button if you enjoyed it and I'll catch you guys in the next video [Music]

Channel: Throttle Blip

Views: 343,294

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Id: cmwyccb3_2M

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023