Harley-Davidson's Road King FLHRI

Billed as Harley-Davidson’s multipurpose bike, the Road King offers buyers the Motor Company’s touring chassis with its superb rubber mounting system in a stripped down and lightened version. The windshield and bags give the rider long distance touring capability and the relative light weight compared to the full dressers, provides around town utility as well. When customers come into Barnett H-D and aren’t able to settle on what type of bike to buy, we often recommend the Road King, the jack of all trades.

The edition featured here is actually the Firefighters special edition, a bike available only for firemen and women. Only the color is different from the regular versions. Several years back the touring frame had its seat lowered to 27.3” so just about everyone can now fit this bike. The wide handlebars and well positioned footboards make the riding position all day comfortable. Weighing in at 723 pounds, the Road King Standard is only four pounds heavier than the Heritage Softail, Harley’s Softail model with bags and a windshield.

Hitting the start button, the Road King’s fuel injected engine pops to life instantly and settles into an idle. The engine moves around quite a bit at idle so using your mirrors at a stop sign is rather difficult. But the moment you take off, everything smoothens out, the FXR style mounting system with heim joint arms keeping all engine movement in an up and down plane takes over. These bikes remain smooth even when displacement is bumped up to 103” and a host of hop up parts installed. The bike is as smooth as anything on road. This lack of vibration, the large volume weatherproof saddlebags and removable windshield make the Road King an admirable touring bike.

The windshield pops off in about five seconds for city or warm weather riding. The Road King has the unquestionably traditional Harley-Davidson look with its tank mounted speedometer, five gallon tank and dual exhaust exiting on both sides of the bike. The headlamp nacelle is of the old FLH style from the ‘70’s. The air adjustable suspension allows you tune in your degree of comfort and of course there are pages and pages of accessories available for this model if one’s goal is to build a city showbike out of it. Also, for in town riding and slow parking lot situations, the unique, “backward” triple clamp on the front forks and steep head angle, make the Road King a very nimble bike compared to many other companies’ heavyweight twins.

Overall, one of the best votes of confidence customers give the Road King is that it is the model least traded back to dealerships. Riders often have to buy a couple of bikes over the course of the years before they settle on their favorite. I would have to say that those who pick the Road King first are least likely to trade it back. It offers a great balance of features and real world, useful traits. And those who go for a custom built bike or make one in their own garage end up liking Road Kings as well. After usually less than a year of riding their magazine style bike, they often decide to come back to Harley-Davidson and for some reason, the majority of this type of customer chooses a Road King. Also, for those of you in some sort of middle aged crisis who feel that buying a full dresser would signal the end of your youth, you can get just about the same touring prowess with this model. As with all Harleys, fuel mileage is superb, mid-40’s is common with those who drive the speed limit sometimes reporting over 50 mpg.

Finally, one more class of riders who I think will like the Road King best, is former Japanese bike riders. Those who evaluate bikes according to the spec sheets and appreciate technology and up-to-date engineering often try to save some dough and get a Japanese v-twin first. But in any side-by-side comparison of any of the Japanese twins to a Road King, I would bet that over half and maybe close to three quarters of the Japanese bike riders would convert after the first test ride. We have at least a dozen Honda and Yamaha trade-ins at any one time here at the store in Texas and one of the most common stories we hear is, “I tried out my friend’s Road King and decided I had to have one.” In the refinement category, the Road King is King. Most magazines that do comparison tests always pick the Low Rider or Sportster to go up against the Shadows, Vulcans, Intruders and Viragos. I would argue that, when put up against the Road King, it would be no contest.

Mark Barnett

Specifications:

Make/Model: Harley-Davidson Road King 

Engine: 88” Twin Cam, 1450cc 

Torque: 86 ft lbs at 3500 rpm 

Fuel System: carb or fuel injection 

Mileage: 46 highway, 37 city 

Color Options: 6 single color, 4 two-tones          

Options: security system, spoke wheels 

Seat Height: 27.3” 

Wheelbase: 63.5” 

Dry Weight: 723 lbs.