AVID motorcycle fan James Yap has, of late, been proudly showing off on Instagram his beloved BMW big bikes: either the built-for-business R 1250 GS, the elegant R 100, or his modded R nineT Urban G/S.
Then, yesterday, the Rain or Shine big broke out another old favorite: the Harley-Davidson Breakout.
He first posted about this Harley Softail way back in September 2019.
You can spot it again on his IG feed when Yap then took it out for a Taal ride in September of last year, and then, two days later, this dramatic night shot from photographer Lito Sy.
So what is the Harley-Davidson Breakout?
This Sotftail a low-slung street cruiser — or, perhaps more accurately, battleship — built for butt-clenching acceleration. It’s aggressively styled, with a wide rear wheel and low wheelbase to help get you to top speed in a blink. The Milwaukee-Eight 114 powerplant cranks out 119 pounds of torque at 3,000 rpm to propel the 284-kilo beast forward.
As Ultimate Motorcycling cheekily noted in their review back in February of last year: "I can’t imagine anyone who wants a motorcycle that changes direction to bother considering the Breakout 114." But if speed, and not agility, is what you're looking for in a bike, "it’s badass, and you look badass when you’re riding it."
No wonder James Yap loves the Breakout.
According to Top Gear’s Aris Ilagan, it got a huge price cut in the Philippines on November 2018, down to P1.3 million from its original P1,770,000. A look at the Harley-Davidson site shows that the price hasn’t changed since then.
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