72 - High bars, low seat, metal-flake paint; it couldn't be more Seventies
Harley-Davidson has gone for a 'less is more' approach with two new cruisers, just released under the designation Model Year 2012.5 - one a retro 1970's Sportster, the other a modern, matt-black take on the Bobbers of the 1950s.
SEVENTY-TWO: A ROAD, NOT A TIME
The Seventy-Two recalls an era of disco balls and metal-flake paint, a time when Arlen Ness and Uncle Bunt were showing the world just how minimal a motorcycle can be. The name, however, doesn't signify the year but commemorates Whittier Boulevard, the legendary cruising street in East Los Angeles also known as Route 72.
 SOFTAIL SLIM: BARE ESSENTIALS
A big part of the Harley-Davidson legend is the inability of many GI's returning from the Second World War to settle down; today we'd call in post-traumatic stress syndrome, they just called it 'the itch'.
They took military-surplus WL45's and junked everything that didn't make the bike go faster, to create the first custom bikes, known as bobbers after a cowboy-era fashion for cutting short or 'bobbing' the tails of working horses.
And that big-engined, no-bling look lives on in the Softail Slim. From the trimmed front mudguard to the narrow rear frame there's simply less of the Slim; fewer covers, a solo seat and 16” wheels at both ends.
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