SAXON Motorcycles
What do you do when you are thinking about buying a new bike and you want something other than a run-of the mill production bike, but you are on a budget and don’t want to spend too much money? You check out Saxon Motorcycle Company. These guys have been rolling out badass customs’ since 2005, but the 2007 model year is the best so far. The improvements this year put Saxon motorcycles at the top of the list of custom motorcycle manufacturers. The company also has 37 dealers nationwide that stock a wide selection of Saxon models, so you won’t have to look far to pick up one of these killer machines, and if you want to add some custom features to your bike, it usually only takes six to eight weeks to get a bike once it has been custom ordered. One of the most reassuring things about this company is that it was founded by a number of guys who finance the company in full, so Saxon owns its facilities and tooling, a fact that means Saxon is debt free and won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Saxon recently held its model launch, an annual media event in which they invite a number of journalists to tour the Saxon manufacturing facility and test ride the latest Saxon creations. The manufacturing facility, a clean and well-organized factory located in Casa Grande, Arizona, is a 40,000 square foot facility on 9 acres of land, designed to build up to 1,100 bikes a year. Saxon’s figures for 2006 indicate the company produced 500 bikes, a substantial number for a third year manufacturer. This year Saxon had planned a really nice ride from the facility in Casa Grande out to Sedona, a picturesque little town up in the mountains, separated from the flatlands by a whole bunch of scenic twisties, perfect for testing Saxon’s newest models. The bikes handled and rode nothing less than superbly.

The trip to Sedona gave the journalists the opportunity to get the bikes up to highway speed and see how they actually performed, and to switch back and forth so everyone could ride every bike. All the bikes were comfortable and rode with little or no vibration due to the fact Saxon now uses improved handlebar dampeners and Progressive Suspension, two of the many improvements Saxon has stepped it up with for 2007. Another improvement is the Thunderheart wiring harness used on each bike, a move that takes the connectors down from fifteen to seven and raises the location from the splashguard to the oil bag to reduce water damage possibilities. The other major improvements are the easier to pull clutch and the Brembo brakes with two-piece rotors to maximize stopping power, both included on all the bikes. All Saxon models come standard with 96” S&S motors, or 111” if you want to upgrade, and all come with 6-speed, right-side drive transmissions, except the Crown, which has a left side a chain drive, 6 speed transmission, and a smaller 240mm tire.

The Griffin 300mm tire chopper handled really well through the section of twisty road up to Jerome, a little town outside of Sedona. The Jerome trip was a detour taken just to get in a wider variety of turns on these new machines. The Griffin took the corners very well and handled better that a typical production chopper. In fact, there wasn’t any noticeable difference in handling between this bike and the 260mm tire bikes.

The most comfortable bike to ride was the Hot Rod Sceptre, a tough, old-school looking chopper with black ape hangers. This bike is comfortable, built to ride, and perfectly balanced, with 36 degrees of rake in the neck, three degrees in the trees, and a 25-inch seat height, it handles both slow and fast speeds with agility and stability.

Saxon provided a Sceptre with the 111” motor option and two-into-one pipes that was a blast to ride. This bike peeled out into traffic, squealing its tire as it quickly got up to speed. What a blast to ride. The Warlord was the epitome of a chopper with its huge, 11 inches over, 41mm Wide Glide front end and 40 degrees of rake coupled to five degrees in the trees, making for an 83-inch wheelbase. This bike rode just like the others, like it was born into it. It handled slow speeds with agility and felt like riding a Cadillac on the freeway.

The 300mm tire Pro-Street Villain, a new addition to the Saxon line, handled well and was really comfortable. The seating position made the bike easy to balance and more comfortable for longer jaunts. The Villain was built as the pro-street answer to the 300 mm tire Griffin, and showed once again that you can make a quality motorcycle and deliver it to the public for reasonable price.

Saxon has stepped up to the plate this year and is now ready to play with the big boys. All the bikes are competitively priced starting at $23,995 for the Sceptre and ranging up to $28,595 for the Crown, giving Saxon motorcycles more value for the dollar than most production motorcycles available. All Saxon’s come standard with a 3-year limited warranty, are fully finaceable in the motorcycle world today there are a lot of choices, but Saxon makes it much easier if you are shopping for a kick ass custom motorcycle or chopper by providing nice bikes at prices that won’t drain your pockets. You can see more of Saxon online at www.saxonmotorcycles.com.