THE FIRST 'KING BROKE COVER IN THE 1994 CATALOGUE as the FLHR Electra Glide Road King, as a replacement for the popular, but by-then unlovely Electra Glide Sport - unless you have a thing for fork-top dashboards that look like they were ripped out of a 1970s Datsun. It displaced the fuller instrumentation, replacing it with the tank-top speedometer that has been used on the vast majority of big twins since the 1936 Knucklehead and its accompanying fatbob fuel tank. It's worth knowing that all Road Kings benefited from the frame changes of 1993 that moved the battery into the middle of the frame, rather than buried half-way into the timing-side pannier, into the space freed up by wrapping the oil tank behind and beneath the five-speed gearbox. To fill the space on top of the forks, a redesigned nacelle bearing a striking resemblance to that fitted to the Duo Glide's from 1960, took up residence, rejoicing in the name of Hiawatha. In doing so it looked like nothing more than a late 4-speed Electra Glide Sport II - which itself was little more than a lightened FLH - but a little pumped up in size as demanded by the increased dimensions of the so-called Rubber Glide's frame. Final touches were a removable police-style screen - remember this was the era of the "Convertibles" - and a two-piece seat with a removable pillion for committed solo riders. You could also remove the panniers, but when you did you found that the air shocks behind them were so ugly that you put them straight back on again.Was the market stirred into action by the need for pretty Road King aftermarket shocks? No, because there was a matter of a section of the frame which kicked the back end out appreciably further than had been the case on the 4-speed FLs, increasing the amount of space available to rider and pillion but at the expense of looking awkward without the panniers The Road King was primarily a cosmetic improvement over the Sport, it wouldn't have been a massive expense in development terms because only the nacelle and seat were unique to it, and it was welcomed with open arms. Fuel injection was added as an option to create the FLHRI in 1996, but when it was followed in the 1998 catalogue by an older-styled "Classic", the stock model returned to carburetted-only form in the UK, and the new model was only available with injection. Classic meant whitewalls, and leather bags - leather bags that alluded to those fitted to the new-for- 1956 "Road Cruiser" options group, and generically referred to as "King Saddle Bags", but which is more successfully alluded to by the Heritage Softail Classic. The seat was new, too - a single-piece affair with tooled leather to complement the bags - and a 3D metal tank badge, seat motif and saddlebag adornment marked it out as being a little bit special
It enjoys far greater flexibility than the flagship dressers with that detachable screen, which allows you to take off the windshield and get your face in the breeze when the sun comes out - and it is only when you are cocooned behind a full dresser's batwing fairing that you realise just how hot an English summer can get I'm on record as wanting a FLDR Dyna Road King, which would be more like the scale of the aforementioned 4-speed Electra Glide Sport, and would potentially be even more streetable but at the expense of intercontinental travel, which is where the FLHR shines through: it meets a different requirement. Taking the hypothetical former as a reference point there are a number of factors that demonstrate why the existing Road King is so damn good Firstly size is important: sorry guys, but the girls were right all along. I didn't realise how important until last year when Rich and I, as a couple of six-foot plus, hormonal males had to buddy-up to get the right bikes back to the right places.We had a T-Sport and a Road King to play with, and the Road King had no problem accommodating the pair of us, even if it was damnably uncomfortable without a backrest, while the T-Sport - the Dyna range's existing touring offering - was significantly more crowded. If you're going to travel across continents two-up, you want to do it without being in each other's space too much. Even travelling with your partner, you want the freedom to shuffle about a bit without annoying your pillion too much - especially if you're expecting to enjoy conjugal rights at the other end.With the right seat and mudguard combination, you could make more space available on a Dyna - which is, after all, loosely based on the dimensions of the early Glides - but they're something else Oil. The Dyna wasn't designed with the longest of long hauls in mind, and so when they wrapped the oil tank round the gearbox they made do with 25% less capacity than they afforded the dressers: 2.8 litres compared to the 3.8 of the touring series. It is significant, and is a potential weak point on a Dyna - though within its context it is not going to bother anyone: not even the most demanding. This is an assumption based on the experience of a Softail on the rig that tests a selection of Harleys to destruction, and which I first learned about when they launched the V-Rod. In case you were away that day, the " numbers that were reported were interesting: an unnamed Softail, which have a capacity of 3.3 litres of oil, made 150 hours continual running before letting go, while a Road King managed 200 hours - all of which means nothing without knowing the conditions: try high speed in top with a steady flow of fuel to keep them running. That's not long, you think, because 200 isn't a very big number, until you ascribe it to hours, and then you convert it into days in which case it is more than eight! So, even if you run at a modest 80mph, which any Harley motor is easily capable of without much stress, 200 hours equates to 16,000 miles, and significantly more than a lot of riders manage in a year, and which sails through more service intervals than would be good for it. I hasten to add that the Dyna was not mentioned in those tests and I am making an educated guess, based on common sense, and if anyone has specific information pertaining to a Dyna's stats on that instrument of mechanical torture I'll be happy to set the record straight. Come to that, if anyone has the specific details of the tests and how all of the bikes subjected to it fared, it would make a fascinating feature in itself Why did
they wait until the V-Rod to go public about the rig? Because they were
so pleased that the new motor passed that test with flying colours: they
switched the machine off at 500 hours because the engine wouldn't break.
Do the maths on that yourself. The V-Rod has a 4.3 litre oil capacity.
Coincidence? Aside from the differences, there is a lot of commonality,
as there is with all big twins, and the Dyna is a closer relative than
the Softail 88Bs, if only because its engine bounces along separately
from the frame.While the Dyna has a couple of simple steel and rubber
sandwiches as engine mounts, and a turnbuckle to keep it upright, the
Road King has more in common with the old FXR, which was derived from
the original rubber glide itself. Indeed, you will occasionally see what
looks like a 5-speed FXR streetbike but with thicker tubes than you'd
expect and a slightly longer wheelbase, and there's a good chance it will
be an undressed 'King with some serious steering head surgery. Before
dispensing with the Dyna alternatives, We'll leave the streetbikes now with a final acknowledgement of one thing that Dynas don't get: Harley's EPSFI fuel injection yet. It will come, providing the Dynas are destined to continue production, because while carburettors are beloved of tuners, injection is seen as the only way that a factory-built internal combustion engine will be able to meet all of its long-term regulatory requirements. Injection was pioneered on the tourers, because it makes a lot more sense to soequip a bike that is destined to cover the miles, and which will inevitably take in a wide range of operating environments: in its simplest form, the atmospheric changes experienced climbing mountains or running through sub-sea level passes greatly affects the air density, which affects the fuel mix. A carburettor can only accommodate that with a screwdriver and a handful of jets - and the knowledge and experience to know what to do with them - but an injected bike will adjust its delivery according to the requirements umpteen times a second, and will just about keep pace with the change in atmospheric pressure if dropped out of an aeroplane, for what that's worth. The downside for us, the upside for the authorities, is that injection remapping is a complex task and not undertaken lightly, and that also scares people off from messing with the back pressure of their silencers and the mapping of the ignition: both places where playing is known to deliver more horsepower and aural feedback: noise to you and me. The thing that is reassuring for the future is that carburettors used to be a black art until people took the time to understand what they were and how they worked, and I have no doubt that the same attention will be lavished on fuel injection systems before long On a streetbike you'll be running in your own neighbourhood, and unless that is set on the face of a significant escarpment, you'll be fine with your "compromised" carb. And let's be realistic about this: we've been running carburettors for generations on bikes that have travelled round the world, up the Alps and Rockies, and down to the Sead Sea or Death Valley: injection isn't going to make it do something it didn't do before, it will just make it more efficient and cleaner So for all
its apparent classic styling and imagery, the Injected Classic is the
more sophisticated of the two 'Kings, and potentially the better tourer.
It only falls down, for me, on the less secure saddle bags which have
no provision for locking as standard, and whose quickrelease clips prevent
the use of Harley's own strap locks. An oversight, perhaps, but the primary
reason why I'm not tempted to add the cosmetically more attractive saddle
bags from the Road King Classic to my Electra in place of the lockable
slantbags. We established earlier on that the 2003 FLHRCI is little more than a 2002 model with a paint job and mirrors, and the odd bits of frippery abounding where previously there were none and that, for me, is a measure of a successful bike.Why change a winning formula? And when you consider that the detail changes over its five-year life have revolved around generic model changes like engines and brakes, you get the impression that it is inherently right. More subjectively, I also came clean as actually liking the treatment lavished on this top of the shop scheme and I remain unrepentant The flat silver particularly is of another age: Harley call it a liquid metal effect but I remember the first attempts at "chrome in a can", and it was very similar with the exception that the Harley's paint has both dried and not become discoloured by exposure to the elements or clean water or cleaning agents. The overall effect for me is of a scale model painted in silver enamel, but then blown up to full size: it seems to have taken the sharp edges and softened them, taken the rounded contours and smoothed them out even further. It is particularly noticeable in the sheer expanse of "Sterling Silver" that covers the entire front mudguard, but it really works for me. The effect is noticeable on scale models because the paint is probably nearly as thick as the scaled-down mudguard that you've painted it onto, but that won't have been the case on the real thing. Very odd, and explained as being a result of including powdered aluminium in the paint itself. Having ridden in a V-Rod in bright sunshine, I'm prepared to accept that the reflective properties of aluminium are greater than are often realised: the VRSCA positively glows, but the painted Road King isn't far behind it The silver sits alongside vivid black, for contrast - a colour that is always welcome on any motorcycle in my experience - and I can even forgive the massive stripe that could scarcely be described as a pin, on the basis that the only time I've ever paid it attention was as a close up in a catalogue. I don't know why the criss-crossed Harley chequerplate graphic, unless it is a means of preventing forgeries, but once you see it as a band of colour it works better - and that is how you see it in the metal. The little detail touches on the air-filter, points and derby covers could easily have been tacky and brash but instead are almost understated and don't scream out for your attention. The only major in-yer-face element is the anniversary badge that is used on everything bar the 883R in one form or another - either as a transfer on the cheaper schemes, in chrome on the intermediates, and here in chrome and gold-coloured splendour when combined with the sterling silver and vivid black combo. It seems to be a contradiction, I know, but there is an element of subtlety running though the most ostentatious range that Harley have had opportunity to produce in a generation. And what better way to celebrate a 100th Anniversary than with models that hark back to the last fifty or more years, as well as with the emerging range that will take The Motor Company forward into the next hundred years. The lines of the Road King are firmly in the sixties, but it has a bright future as Harley-Davidson crosses into its second century of production, and while it may not be the ascending star of the range any more, it benefits every year from the advances in technology that Harley are not afraid to roll out As
a long-distance touring motorcycle it is only one step behind the Electra
Glide. As a streetbike it is only one step behind a Dyna or Deuce; on
a par with any other Softail. As a retrospective look at Harley's history
it is only one step behind the Heritage Springer or Softail. As a practical
day-to-day, flexible motorcycle it is streets ahead of anything else on
the books except its sibling, the FLHR Road King, with which it shares
the honours. And as a desirable bike - which will inevitably have an effect
on its residual value - it is hard to see a time when it would lose its
appeal. As a specific anniversary model, I wouldn't be surprised if it
were sought after as the classic example of the centenary year If one motorcycle bellows 'I'm a Harley-Davidson y'know!' louder than any other it has to be the Road King. Everyone on the street, from a toddler to a dodderer knows that they are looking a Harley. The 'King's shape, oft aped - but never successfully - by other, oriental manufacturers is unmistakable, its presence overwhelming, the Road King isn't so much a motorcycle as it is a mobile icon. And if that's what you're looking for, get one now, you will not regret it, because there is a lot more to Road Kings than good looks. You just wait and see, while you are poncing off up the pub and posing down the High Street going 'Look at me on me shiny icon!' something extraordinary will happen - and don't worry, just like masturbating, we all do it every now and again, just don't often admit it in polite company. You will realise that you are truly enjoying the ride. And then, one day you'll forget about the gaping on-lookers entirely, ride the motorcycle away from the crowds, right out of town and point it somewhere, anywhere, else The Road King's look is there for a reason, a good reason. It hasn't so much been styled as evolved and if truth be told, is a very much less 'stylised' than many of its stable-mates which try with varying levels of success to evoke the look of this or that type of bike, while the Road King, erm, just is. 'Yeah,' you cry, 'but doesn't it look like one of those old FLs?' Hah har, I was hoping you'd say that. Because deep breath the Road King resembles old FLs because, to be absolutely frank, it is an old FL. Or, okay, what an old FL would be after fifty or sixty years of continuous production if its manufacturer (we'll call them Harley-Davidson) made progressive changes to a successful formula: a tweak here, a new engine there, another tweak here, a new frame there. Which is what it is isn't it. Isn't it? Course it is. But that then begs another fairly obvious question; what is it about the 'formula' that makes it so successful? The answer is actually pretty surprising - especially if you're not yet, or never have been, seriously into Harley-Davidson motorcycles - and that is sheer practicality! Ignore the noises-off, stage left, of barstool bikers choking on their shandies - it's true. Sat bolt upright on a wide, well-designed and supportive seat, the rider is protected by the easy fit, easy remove windshield, which efficiently deflects wind force and elements much more than you would expect. The wide handlebars that appeared to be so over the top when first you sat on the machine, now seem to be in a perfect armchair position and allow you to easily steer the very large machine through town. You are comfortable, relaxed and the miles are being eaten effortlessly - that's what Road Kings are all about, that's why they're called Road Kings I'd wager - besides they couldn't fit 'Stupid Big Fat Spangly Iconic Ego Machine' on the front mudguard But that's enough on Road Kings generically, what of this particular Road King, the 2003 Hundred Year Anniversary Special FLHCI Harley- Davidson Road King Classic? My first impression of the bike was that, unlike many other of the models in the 2003 Anniversary range, the Road King Classic carried off its special silver and black two-tone livery rather well. The cloisonné badges here and there didn't look out of place, nor the odd special commemorative plaque a lily had not been gilded because, well let's face it, a bog stock run-of-the-mill Road King is pretty well gilded up anyway. I must admit to rather liking the new - for 2003 - mirrors, if only for the way they look, though I can't help thinking that the old style squarer mirrors, perfectly adequate to look at, were slightly better at showing the rider what was happening behind. The Classic is easily spotted because of the distinctive sympathetically angled leather panniers, the tops of which slope so nicely away from the rear seat and mudguard. These 'soft bags' don't just slope down towards the back of the bike, but also most definitely down towards either side of the machine too, emphasising a low, almost hot-roddish wide rear end much better than the squarer 'hard bags' on the 'standard' Road King. Very few other machines look right with fitted panniers, but the Road Kings carry them off with aplomb. In fact if you take them off - which you can do very easily - I don't reckon the machine looks right at all, much too skinny. What it does mean is that all but the biggest of things can be easily transported without recourse to bungy straps and rack. Fit the aftermarket easy on/easy off, rack and pillion backrest combo and go touring at the drop of a hat While the Classic also sports full-on whitewall tyres, rather than the white pin striped tyres on the Road King 'Ordinary', it is probably more important to most prospective riders that the Classic offers Harley's proven fuel injection system as standard
Whereas many people are aware of the Road King's low centre of gravity, it is another thing to experience it for yourself. The bike is huge and you are made very much aware of that as you stretch to throw a leg over the saddle. Many potential riders are put off by the broad handlebars twisted to full lock and, with their bums perched on the edge of the rider's seat, they convince themselves that they could never handle anything so big. But persevere, balancing more to the higher right hand side of the seat, a simple deliberate push with your left leg is usually enough to bring the massive but wellbalanced, machine upright. As it comes up, you straighten the handlebars - if you've remembered to unlock them from the very easy to use central top yoke mounted steering lock - and settling back into the seat it all suddenly begins to make more sense Squeeze the clutch just a couple of times to free sticky plates and first gear will snick into place slickly: the clutch is surprisingly light and with just a whisker of revs, you're underway. Magically, it's as if the Road King leaves most of its mass behind where you parked it: you know the Road King is large, but it surprisingly easy to weave it through and around traffic. Even at very low speed the machine is manoeuvrable, there is plenty of lock and the wide bars allow plenty of leverage too. Keeping your feet up on the ample foot-boards helps you get into the low-speed swing, confidence increasing, you begin to use the weight to your advantage, nipping the rear brake gently to slow a tad, take a bit of weight off the front wheel for a quick turn or to bring the big beast upright
It is when the throttle is twisted in anger that the Twin Cam 88 beating at the heart of this 2003 Road King shows its mettle. Rolling up through the gears the newer motor, even this stock example, definitely pulled further through the revs than my own staged 1340 Evo-powered Road King, though I am loathe to admit it Beyond the old double-nickel American speed limit, and beyond to the unspoken ten percent leeway of our own current laws, the Road King Classic is really in its element, still totally effortless for both bike and rider. The screen is so capable that only towards eighty and beyond are you aware of wind circulating around. The bike itself is quite able to power you beyond 100mph should you wish, and surprisingly quickly too up to 95mph. It will require no effort from you, no gritting and grimacing needed from the rider, comfortable behind the screen - just a legal place to do it and plenty of petrol money as the electronic petrol gauge's needle will drop alarmingly quickly over eighty. To be honest the fuel gauge isn't all that hot, it shows more or less full for mile upon mile then all of a sudden panics and drops rapidly into the red zone. It is advisable to seek petrol pretty soon then, as the fuel injected models do not have a reserve, just an annoying orange light. Stick below eighty and you won't be looking at garage stops very often, the fuel tank is large and 160 or 170 miles between stops is not just possible but pleasurable. Well it is for the rider at least, and on older Road Kings it was for the pillion too but I've got a problem with what seems to me to be a new style, fast-back, one-piece seat on the 2003 Road King Classic. While looking pretty sexy, it is isn't all good news for your pillion passenger, unless allied to a backrest which kind of ruins the fastback styling, but which made a two-up run to Faak Am See a couple of years ago a lot more comfortable than a recent twenty-five mile round trip. I'll grant you that it does look good and that many existing owners opt for gunfighter type pillions or no pillion at all when choosing after-market seats for their 'Kings, but for me it wrecks the practicality of the machine. I'd far rather see a decent pillion perch on the machine please: Road Kings are about doing serious miles in comfort right out of the box, and that should include the pillion too There are very few motorcycles that I would choose to do serious miles on, I mean country crossing, continent spanning miles. Most motorcycles, while fast and reliable enough, would seriously damage the rider in the process. Of the few that are left, most of those, while they are reliable, fast, competent and comfortable enough would soon induce such fits of excruciating boredom you'd be inclined to fall off just for a bit of excitement The Road
King is one of those very, very few motorcycles that is reliable, fast,
competent and comfortable but thankfully, is also interesting, involving,
damn good fun, damn good company and what's more, looks damn fine doing
it Specifications
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