Harley-Davidson Rocker C FXCWC - 2008 Motorcycle Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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Writer

GeorgeChabot
Conyers, GA

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An all American custom from Harley-Davidson

love boy toys, quality conscious, daily driver

Pros

Clean, 96 Cubic Inches, Classy

Cons

Expensive

APR

2008

2008 Harley-Davidson Rocker C FXCWC

This is the latest creation of the wizards at the Harley-Davidson design shop and hearkens back to the original choppers with its clean lines and low seating position.

A member of the well received Softail family, the Rocker C stretches the idea of factory custom to the outer limits. To get a bike this clean you will need to invest much more cash for a custom chopper by the aftermarket builders, so the Harley-Davidson Rocker C is probably going to throw a wrinkle into the sales expansion of those other bikes.

New for 2008, the Rocker C has a stretch front end that gives it an elongated look and exceptionally clean appearance with nothing appearing tacked on. The handlebars are set atop 5 inch dog bones (risers) and angle back toward the rider so they are short people friendly. Same with the seat height, a mere 25 1/4" - the lowest of the Harley low riding softails. With the forward controls set at only a moderate distance from the seat, women and shorter riders will want to check out the Rocker C before they make a purchase decision, because this just might be it.

Incidentally, the bike also comes in a plain Rocker model with satin finish instead of chrome and with a 3/4" lower seat because it doesn't have the hidden passenger pillion stowed beneath the solo saddle. That neat feature is a first and the Rocker C with its trick seat is bound to spawn many imitators as they see how neat the application is.

The Rocker C is loaded with custom touches, including a finned oil tank that adds eye appeal. The smoothly molded frame is body color instead of black so all the painted parts of the Rocker C are the same color as the tank and fenders, unless of course your bike is Vivid Black Deluxe, which is one of the color choices, the others are crimson red and Pacific blue, all accented in deluxe fashion with very tastefully executed flames.

Nearly every part that isn't painted with that glorious paint job is chromed and that includes the striking five bar mag wheels that are highly polished. The attention to detail is fabulous.

The big news on this iteration of the Softail is the new rear fender that moves with the rear tire and Softail swingarm, allowing and exceptionally low appearance. The fender rocks, and so does the bike!

Bringing all this artwork to life is a 96 cubic inch (1600 cc) Twin Cam B engine with internal balancers to quell low speed vibration. The motor is fed via ESPFI fuel injection and is rated at 54 mpg city and 35 mpg city. Since this is an urban bike at its rawest, I would figure on the lower of the two figures until I learned how much distance I could go between fillups.

The traditional wide Big Twin gas tank has been stretched and narrowed a mite and surmounted by a chrome speedo the sets up out of the custom skinny console. The gas gauge is in the left (fake) tank cap, as usual in a Softail. The usual idiot light display (neutral, oil pressure, turn signals, etc) is in the console below the speedometer.

The bike doesn't have a lot of frills and adheres to the street bike ethos of the outlaw chopper rider.

The engine fires to life at the merest crank from the electric starter and the fuel injection makes life trouble free as the computer decides what mixture to feed the big thumper.

After I suited up with my helmet and gloves I eased the bike out of the driveway and found that the Rocker C was much more refined than its appearance led me to believe. The bike handles like a pussycat, from low speed passes to full throttle blasts it rides like it's on rails. There is no insecurity in the steering or tracking whatsoever. Incidentally, I should have mentioned the fat 240 mm tire it has on the rear and the skinny tire on the front in keeping with its chopper heritage. The shotgun mufflers sound suitably rambunctious to identify the Rocker as a bonafide member of the H-D family.

The 2008 Rocker C has the ponies coupled to the rear wheel via a six-speed transmission and a fiberglas belt that gives it much better performance than the old fashioned chains. I'm sure that extra 6th gear is responsible for the better gas mileage Harley is claiming.

But riding a bike like this is not about the gas mileage, it's about the pure animal magnetism and this Harley has it! Man (or woman) and machine: it's beautiful!

Last edited on May 05, 2008