Test of the Harley-Davidson Breakout 2023

It's not the first time I've had the opportunity to test Harley-Davidson's Breakout model. It is now but beaten 8 years ago when I had the pleasure of taming the beautiful beast and publish a report about it. At that time still in bright green and with less cubic capacity and horsepower, but beautiful was the Breakout always. But the current version has gone one better. The combination of the numerous fully chromed parts (exhaust, fender struts, side covers, muffler trim, turn signals, mirrors, Heavy Breather intake) flashing in the sun, with the orange paint and the cast alloy wheels with 26 spokes in Gloss Black finish are an incomparable eye-catcher. The public also sees it that way, which is why it always happens that you get compliments from passers-by or are asked about the machine. The slightly stretched fork, which is visually reminiscent of Easyrider, increases the steering head angle and thus also the wheelbase to almost 170 cm, which is why you have to get used to a not so agile and rather elongated cornering behavior of the bike during the first ride, but it is all the cooler for it once you have it. You feel proud and good when you sit down on the Breakout, start the engine with its powerful sound and ride off.

More look, more power and more sound than ever before

The Harley-Davidson Breakout 117 has not only been visually overhauled, but it has also undergone technical development and is 2023 with a Milwaukee-Eight^™117 engine with 1923 cubic capacity and 105 hp with 168 Nm equipped. That's 233 cubic, 28 hp and 38 Nm more than the Breakout 103 Twin Cam anno 2015. Logically, the power and pull have increased significantly. Not entirely innocent of this is partly the new Heavy Breather high-performance intake with forward-facing air filter, which develops more torque in the mid-touring range thanks to higher air flow. The new air filter also makes quite a visual impact. With increasing displacement, the sound has also become more powerful. It's already quite decent from the ground up. This is partly due to the high-performance 2-in-2 exhaust system in shotgun design, which also underscores the cool look and provides plenty of torque. When you open the throttle (fully), you're glad that your butt is pressed against the pillion seat, which provides support, otherwise you could fly right off the bike. The powerful engine shows an incredible thrust, on the other hand the Breakout is a cool cruiser and not a high-speed train. With the machine, you don't have any desire for top speeds. Since you sit in a jackknife position on the bike, your upper body is involuntarily caught by the airstream like a sail and pressed against the back, and that becomes uncomfortable as the speed increases, especially if you're still wearing a jet helmet (like me), which also receives the airstream openly, causing your head to be pulled back. And I certainly don't wear a full-face helmet on a cruiser! The 2015 model 103 Twin Cam gave a top speed of 180 km/h. You'll have to ask Harley what it's like on the new model, but I don't think anyone cares anyway. No, the cool thing about this bike is casually cruising around with rich steam under your ass and a powerful sound, evoking the thunder of the engine every time you turn on the throttle and feeling the force of being pulled when you shift up another gear, accompanied by a mighty clack. The Breakout is a real thunderbird.

The present is digital

The old Harley-Davidson Breakout was still equipped with an analog round speedometer, but that has now disappeared. In the middle of the powerful chrome handlebar is now a digital display. The handlebar has become stronger, which fits very well and I also find absolutely right, but unfortunately my holder for the cell phone no longer fits on it, which is not made for such a scope. The new display shows the first small shortcoming - the emphasis is on "small". In strong sunlight and if you also wear sunglasses, the digital display and thus the speed is difficult to read and that is unpleasant. In this case, you could try to tilt the display a bit towards the bottom by loosening the four Allen screws of the bracket and turning it downwards. What is displayed a bit smaller on the bottom line below the speed can be adjusted with the dial switch on the left, be it the time, the mileage or the number of revolutions. Personally, I liked having the ever-changing number of revs displayed at the bottom, in addition to the changing speed display, and being able to see what the engine is doing. But, of course, that is a matter of taste and can also be changed at any time.

The perfect package

All in all, the buyer of this machine - the 66.5 cm seat height naturally lends itself to women and the approximately 310 kg weight is not that difficult to handle - gets a perfect package of motorcycle feeling, power, sound and looks for CHF 26,900.00. There are only a few small things that could be improved. E.g. the rear view mirrors are a bit small - this is also the case on other models and could be replaced-, the controls are not illuminated, which at night without street lighting means that you have to know where which switch is located, or maybe the location of the clutch lever, which in my opinion should be a bit higher. All in all, you get one of the nicest cruiser motorcycles on the market for an absolutely reasonable price.