I bought a 2023 Nightster, and I love it.
I traded an old amd cantankerous DR650 and a nice 750 Street Rod in on this. The SR was starting to need some parts, and it was going to be a long time before I was able to get them. So I had two bikes, one which needed a belt and fork seals (which I couldn’t get unless I waited) and another that I could get parts for, but I was constantly having to fix.
Now I have one nice bike I can actually ride. It’s smooth, quiet, fast, and reasonably comfortable. I’ve never had traction control or ABS brakes before, that may take some getting used to. The bike is so effortless to ride. It’s nimble, its fairly light for a cruiser. (and it’s feather-weight compared to any other harley) The suspension soaks up the bumps, and I’ve never ridden anything that felt so firmly planted on the road. It has a 975cc engine that sounds nothing like a “typical harley”, but it still sounds good. Here’s hoping I don’t have the only one left four years from now, like what happened to my Street Rod.
That’s the genius of good ABS and traction control — on the road, riding normally, you won’t ever know they exist!
But when you whack open the throttle on some wet leaves or cross a patch of oil while braking hard, that’s when you might notice something. But even then, with good ABS you’ll might feel a little pulsing in the lever/pedal and with good TC all you’ll notice is a light flashing in the cluster.
I rode it yesterday and got caught in the rain… and it was a non-event. The bike handled the reduced traction with no issue. It was uncanny.