While moving at speed that girth seems to disappear. It’s when doing slow maneuvers or backing it out of your garage that all that weight comes back to rear its ugly head. The last thing anyone wants to do is to have a tip-over, especially when this custom costs as much as a small to mid size car.

Alright, no more talk about bad mojo, let’s go to our happy place and clear our heads of such frightful images. Now insert and turn the key, press the starter button and then listen. There’s no mistaking that you’re sitting on top of a 1,731 cc v-twin engine. With 4 valves per cylinder and a compression ratio of 9.4:1, this 4 stroke 50° v-twin engine produces 97 hp @ 5,000 rpm and 113 ft.-lbs. of torque @ 4,300 rpm. With Stage 2 cams the Freedom 106/6 produces 12 hp and 7 ft.-lbs. of torque over the standard Vegas. Can you say torque monster? Oh baby! Twist the throttle hard when leaving from a dead stop and you’ll not only chirp the rear tire but it’ll also feel like you’re being shot out of a cannon. Loads of grunt down low and plenty of power throughout the rev range make you eat up blacktop fast.

The stock exhaust sounded nice but I’d like a little more noise especially when you have such a great engine beneath you. I’m not advocating pipes that sound like an F-14 Tomcat just did a flyby but something with a nice “hum” would really compliment the Freedom quite nicely.

With dual 45 mm throttle bodies feeding air into the engine you might be concerned about dead spots in the EFI (electronic fuel injection) but those concerns would be unfounded as there were none and the fuel injection was flawless. Even with temperatures in the 90’s there was no delay in throttle response although I’m sure there were a few ponies lost due to the hazy, hot and humid weather conditions.

If you do happen to glance down while you’re on the move you’ll notice a speedometer and a small digital trip/odometer starring back at you. Look more closely and you’ll also see warning lights for engine, oil and low fuel along with the standard lights for high beams, neutral indicator and turn signals. What? Can’t find the tachometer? Well that’s good since there isn’t one. Time to hone your hearing skills as when you hear the upper rev range approaching it’s time to shift.

Now no one wants to brag but if your friends don’t already know that this is a limited edition motorcycle one look at the numbered metal plate on the engine or the Cory Ness engraved logo on the air cleaner cover will surely tell them so. If they still don’t notice it you can subtlety point it out; I promise I won’t tell.

The 6 speed transmission with a carbon fiber reinforced belt was one of the best feeling and shifting cruiser transmissions I’ve come across. When you select a gear up or down its precise and with no interruptions. A few times I had an issue of finding neutral when stopped but I’ll attribute that to the gears being tight (the CNJ only had a few hundred miles on the odometer). That said, the clicking action was positive and when shifting you just knew that whichever gear you selected the gearbox was going to make it happen.

The CNJ has a fuel tank size of 4.5 gal. and even with my heavy right hand I was surprised to consistently get 35 mpg. Which if you’re doing the math is ~160 miles to the tank. Baby it and you might break the 175 mile mark but if you’re like me controlling your “go fast” alter ego is sometimes difficult so after 120 miles or so of riding I was looking to re-fuel.