So, Tell Me About Your Road King...

[rider33]

as I think was said earlier, the Road King is the most elemental of the serious long distance touring bikes, no extraneous bullshit to get in the way, just a rock solid steam ship of a bike that loves nothing more than to sail across the western plains for hours on end at 85 MPH. The nice thing is is that in the states at least you can rent one fairly easily and take it on a little 500 miles spin to see if it's really for you. If it is, you'll find it's perhaps on of the easiest bike there is to dial into your particular needs. Cruise, racks, seats, shields whatever, if you need something a bit different than stock, odds are there will be any number of alternatives available. I use a sport touring bike now for long distance travel but I must admit, even tho I'm more a 'Stich than fringe leather kind of guy, I still miss the King.

[High Side]

This thread couldn't have come along at a better time (thanks RicemaanV). I didn't even think this bike would be represented here on advrider until I checked out the Road Warriors section.

Last week while home battling todays cold version of the plague, I was browsing ebay looking at bikes like I have done thousands of times before. I came across this 2001 Road King that was done up with all kinds of aftermarket ( type 181056878787 in the ebay search bar to see her) stuff. Now I can tell you this version of a Road King is not going to be for everybody , either it was the NyQuil, or the 2lbs of daily pills I was on, but I had to have it. The bidding was cheap at first, and just before close it got away from me. It became personal and I then HAD to have it. The next morning I woke up, gave the head a scratch and thought, did I buy a two wheeled chrome pig mobile last night ? Opened up my laptop and yup, sure enough. That fact that the bike was in NYC and I live in Nova Scotia Canada just raised the stupid bar over my head. I then set forth to look up what exactly a Road King is. Despite owning approx. 20 motorcycles from childhood (1972) to now, I had never owner a Harley nor knew very much of them. So far no buyers remorse but I have yet to see it in real life. It left New York last week and is in transit. The seller couldn't have been a better guy and for that I was lucky.

So you are probably wondering why in the sweet f#@k would someone buy that bike on impulse. Well, it honestly comes down to my house pet Goldie Hawg :



She is my 300lb ++ 10 year long live in house buddy. The orange tribal sneering pig on the gas tank of the Road King and the chrome "launching" pig on the front fender is what kicked me into buy zone. Too funny. Who knows, this may all have taken me to one of the funnest bikes I have ever owned ??? I will keep my Fz1 set up for touring to maintain my speed fix. If this bike fits in to the stable and provides fun than all good.

I will post pics of her once it arrives !

[EricD10563]

Originally Posted by High Side

I will post pics of her once it arrives !

Nice looking scooter.

[Zanotti]

Originally Posted by High Side

She is my 300lb ++ 10 year long live in house buddy. The orange tribal sneering pig on the gas tank of the Road King and the chrome "launching" pig on the front fender is what kicked me into buy zone. Too funny. Who knows, this may all have taken me to one of the funnest bikes I have ever owned ??? I will keep my Fz1 set up for touring to maintain my speed fix. If this bike fits in to the stable and provides fun than all good.

I will post pics of her once it arrives !

Wow! Your own Bacon on the hoof!

[Shov3BR]

Originally Posted by BCC

Shov38R, sounds to me like you are living the life.

Yup, life is good. I worked full time until last summer and still stay busy with 3BR Powersports. Working the extra years past normal retirement age lets me the most of "retirement".

I don't have pics of the KTM & Road King side by side but here's a pic of the Katoom taken in Switzerland. Note the Kuryakyn Switchblade hwy pegs. Some RK influence!

[foxtrapper]

Originally Posted by mtwillyman

Test rode the RK, and my knee was resting on the air cleaner. I'm 5' 7" short with a 29" inseam. I could not get comfy on the RK. The Softail fit me perfectly though. What's a short dude to do to correct the situation. I really like the FLH HD's but I don't fit well on them. Thanks for any advice.

I'm 5'6", 29" inseam. Harley sells the equipment to modify the bike for smurfs like us.

Seats
There are two, the reach and the ultra-reach (various names listed) Both lower you down and bring you forward. The reach by about an inch each way, the ultra-reach scoots you forward about 2".

Bars
Reach bars come back further, as do the heritage bars. There are others as well. Go further and you'll need some cable and wiring extensions.

Suspension
It can be lowered 1" or 2".

With this, you'll be sitting there with your feet flat on the ground, knees bent, comfortably in charge of the bike.

[Mountain Cruiser]

Originally Posted by rider33

....just a rock solid steam ship of a bike that loves nothing more than to sail across the western plains for hours on end at 85 MPH....

That sounds very appealing to me...Although I might go a bit slower.



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[sixspeed]

Originally Posted by Ricemannv

That sounds very appealing to me...Although I might go a bit slower.



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You might want to give a look at the police versions of the Road King. Possibly the best value in Harley touring bikes.

Their strengths are that they're a few grand cheaper, have the best hard bags the MoCo has to offer, they come with Street Glide/Road Glide cast wheels and arguably the best one-up seating on a Harley touring bike. A real mile-eater.

Conversely the weaknesses are... Well, all you get is the basic cop colors! Black, white, green, red and a few two-tones. And due to the police controls on the bars they don't offer factory cruise. And for folks under 6', the police seat is a tad high and rearward. At 5'9" I can still flatfoot it but it makes the bike feel larger than the standard RK or RK classic feels. And some folks don't care for the plain looking SG/RG wheels or the fuddy-duddy fender guards/bumpers.

[zataomm]

Originally Posted by sixspeed

You might want to give a look at the police versions of the Road King. Possibly the best value in Harley touring bikes.

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but can civilians buy a police Road King? I actually like them a lot, a real simple no-frills bike.

[jules083]

Originally Posted by zataomm

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but can civilians buy a police Road King? I actually like them a lot, a real simple no-frills bike.

Yep. Mine is a police bike, the original owner bought it, put 151 miles and a bunch of money in it, then traded it in.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

[scooterintexas]

Any problems with putting a two-up seat on the road king? Anyone done this? What about removing the rack for the rear case?

[Chuck Pryce]

Changing to a two up seat is a 20 min. job, but the mustang passenger seat behind the police seat has been the hot setup for us.

[davevv]

Originally Posted by scooterintexas

Any problems with putting a two-up seat on the road king? Anyone done this? What about removing the rack for the rear case?

No problem at all. This '05 police bike had less than 2k miles when I bought it. It's a very simple job to change those parts.

[dieatomkinder]

I been off board for a week or two and missed this.

I can definitely vouch for the Road King. Myself and EricD (sorry if I get name wrong) had identical Road Kings and from his postings it sounds like we did very similar amounts of riding.

As some people pointed out there are some issues with the RK but I think they are pretty easy to over come.

I'm 5'8 with a 30 inch in seam. I always felt like I was just on the tad short side. I wasn't impressed with the seat on the 09 either. I went with the solo touring seat. This ended up being a fantastic choice. It moved me a tad closer to the bar and was a ton more comfortable. I also took my boots in and had vibram soles and a .5" build up done. After those two things I felt rock solid on the bike and could back it up/maneuver it just fine. Never had to worry about that feeling my boot might slip etc.

For extra storage I went with the quick disconnect mount. I alternate between the tourpack and a flat luggage rack. Works great in my opinion.

Since mine was a 09 I did not have access to the 103 engine. I changed the air cleaner to the heavy breather, upgraded to the screaming eagle engine controller, and used the screaming eagle slip ons. The additional torque and engine responsiveness was nice. Also it wasn't loud, I don't like to worry abut waking the neighbors or being a nuisance and the bike stayed quiet enough. Louder then stock but not enough to worry about, your neighbors won't hate you.

Only other thing I added was a set of adjustable highway pegs. All told I ended up spending an additional 2,500 bucks as I had the dealer do all the work. I had no issues with engine or electrical. Certainly no need to rebuild engine after 21k miles or any such thing. I use the bike as a daily commuter in the Dallas metroplex and do about 80 miles a day on it year round. I also do a lot of Iron Butt rides. I did 4 of the Saddle Sore 1k miles in 24 hours, 1 Bun Burner Gold - 1,500 miles in 24 hours, and one Saddle Sore 2k - 2k miles in 48 hours.

I really don't think you can go too wrong with a RK. With a few different mods and some time you can really tweak it for about anything you might want to do.

[Mountain Cruiser]

I really like the air ride cop seats though. Could I get on of those to put on my civilian RK?



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