Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) New flat

Ditto, you forget the bad bits like riding for an hour and then spending 30 mins fixing bits every time!

Have a guess who owned the first Road King released to the dealer network in the UK? It arrived in a crate from the States for HD U.K. and when they unpacked it at their dealer (Windy Corner in Barwell) it was on a carb and they had ordered an EFi one as it had just been launched.

Windy Corner were my dealer and I had bought 3 HD’s from them so the dealer principal (Roger Winterburn) rand me and said ‘you know you wanted a Road King.....) I bought it unseen on the spot. It was ’States Blue’ and a stunner. Panic was 10 days later I was booked to go to the Harley EU Rally in Costelló De La Plana, Spain. We did a deal where the dealer would have the bike ready and I would have 3 days to run it in and get it back for first service. I rode it to Wales and back then the Lakes and back and we just got 1,000 on it and serviced. I also rode it down and across to France then changed the oil again on my way to Spain ( somewhere near Montelimar there is an oil slick near a hedgerow ;-)). When I got to the rally site Harley EU wanted to ‘borrow’ the bike as they didn’t have a Road King for their stand, having seen how many drunken bikers sit on display bikes I wanted a written indemnity they would repair all damage and scratches, when they failed to do this I refused them access to the bike but had plenty of people gathering outside my tent and it wasn’t me they had come to see.

A great bike and many said I was crazy taking a new bike on such a long run so early but it didn’t miss a beat. I had a 2 week holiday booked so on the way back (glorious weather) a couple of the lads from our chapter and I rode across to Monaco then back via Switzerland. Another great holiday.

The Road king had all the comfort of the Electroglide chassis yet the knees in the breeze of a Softail. Best of both worlds. I put 10K miles on that bike in 2 years before selling it.

BR
Colin

That's all part of the fun! I took my Bonnie out for a potter about earlier in the week, came back with a mental list of things that need doing. I'll sort them out, go out on the next sunny afternoon to check they've been fixed, and come home with another list...

Tim, agreed it can be. I once lost an exhaust bracket between work in Vlaardingen & home in Den Haag.
I drove that road for hours looking for it but I did find it.

Colin,

Guess what, I had one of the last of the first year 94 Road Kings in blue, with carb, fish tail dual exhaust and all sorts of added accessories ( they still had a plastic top cover to the seat with leather side trims with the Road King emblem) from BM Manchester. They had a sold one on display, full accessorised, I really wanted it, they rang HD and mine was apparently the last one in stock in the UK, from memory each dealership was only allocated 2 Road Kings in the introduction year. Had to buy it with £2k of BM selected accessories and as soon as I collected it I had the seat covered all over in leather keeping the original side trims which cost £350...I hated plastic seats especially for touring in hot weather as they cause you to sweat big style.

Absolutely lovely handling bike, much better balanced and lighter than the UltraClassic and just as comfortable. Great bike, exchanged it for the first TC Fatboy that was smooth but characterless by comparison. A friend bought it years later, I was tempted to buy it back when he had it for sale but already had 3 HD's and running out of space.......its a small world.

All the best

Trying to get back on thread for the OP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUv2TF86qTE

So many Harley marketing influences..?

I wondered what Kawasaki Z900RS had to do with the R18C, then after 20 seconds realised it was an advertisement!
Interesting vid. Many years ago, when I was still riding my R100RT the R800C came out. I was tempted, as Sue and I no longer used the RT for holiday trips. Remained faithful to the RT in the end though.

When it's about big touring bikes nothing can beat the Honda GoldWing.
Maybe some BMW tourers came close, but the ultimate benchmark was the Honda.
I must confess that HD is a great marketing success but a poor thing when it comes to riding a bike.
Good vibrations? Rather bad technical solutions. A former M3W owner knows enough about V2 vibrations...

But that is my personal view only and it seems I never understood the advantages of a HD

The Wikipedia entry on V twin engines makes interesting reading. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-twin_engine

Being somewhat mechanically inclined I could and did easily tune into the Harley aura I thought the vintage aspects of the Springer Softail were particularly attractive when in my fifties... I really liked the sound of potato-potato that the exhaust played, but ultimately I never much enjoyed cruising on my m/cycles, I was far more into twists and turns on a somewhat more nimble machine of reasonable CC and the R850R seemed to hit the sweet spot for me at that time in life. I was ever a solo performer on the road, as opposed to the large groups culture associated with Harley.

I had the pleasure of riding the first Gold Wing when it arrived in Scotland at my pal`s dealership... Boy was that a very different machine from anything I had ever ridden before, it was a bare bike, no fairings, just as a like my bikes to be... Amazing power at the time, though with Jap tyres it would squirm over every white line. I have seen the fully faired modern versions where the disco sound was way louder than the exhaust...! Definitely not my kind of thing, but each to their own..