Cross range comparisons really bring out the true nature of the different "platforms" that form the basis of Harley-Davidson's output. It never ceases to amaze me that two Softails can be so different to each other, based around so many common components, but when you try to compare the likes of these two, it couldn't be easier to drive a coach and horses through the gap that separates them.

Just as the commonality of components are at odds with the differences within any single range, the sheer lack of anything other than the power-train between the Touring models and those from the Dyna range creates the kind of differences that you'd expect to have to switch manufacturers for. On the one hand you have the long, low, traditional style of Harley that takes its styling cues from their first swing-arm framed Duo Glide of 1958: heavy forks, massive mudguards, wide wheels and a bucket of a seat. By contrast the Dyna presents you with a shorter, higher, more modern model that owes something to the 4-speed chassis in style, but brings it more up to date with slender, Sportster-derived forks, adjustable front and rear suspension, rev-counter and abbreviated mudguards. They both have "soft" bags, although those on the Road King classic are traditional leather over a pre-shaped shell, while the T-Sport's are nylon on a frame of sorts.

What is odd between these two, is that they could both be described as GTs in the classic sense, despite their obvious differences. To get your head around that, you need to be aware that a current Road King's chassis will hold its line beyond your wildest expectations, and that the Dyna Super Glide T-Sport's seat and riding position enable you to ride for miles without interruption or discomfort - the only thing that counts against the Dyna for the really long haul stuff is a significantly reduced oil capacity compared to its bigger brother.

It was the T-Sport that I first swung a leg across when we picked these two up: 600 miles old and just starting to loosen up. I've had a soft sport for Dynas since my first close association with the reborn Sturgis, and I was looking forward to seeing how different this bike was compared to the straight DX earlier this year. That bike had been a great general cross-country sportster and was short of nothing save a decent pillion seat and a stage one kit. The initial difference was quite marked, with the T-Sport's suspension set at the softest setting and providing a much more leisurely ride than I'd experimented with on the Sport proper, but the big deal was the seat. Well, the seat and the screen that allowed you to sit more comfortably at high speeds with the big fightin' bars splaying your arms out wide, but while the seat met with my approval, the screen just doesn't live up to the aesthetic expectations I have of a Harley-designed hardware.

It wasn't the first T-Sport we'd had chance to test, but it was the first complete one: last year's example came sans panniers due to an earlier misdemeanour - that served to demonstrate that you shouldn't let journalists play with live matches - and the panniers make up the third primary difference over the Sport. Predominently nylon, with leather trims the panniers come complete with waterproof stuffer bags that velcro into the inside to put aside any concerns as to the ability of the bags themselves to hold out water. The bags themselves also expand to twice the width of the slender form that they usually take on, courtesy of a confusing zip that at first sight appears to be the main means of opening the lids: that zip is tucked away beneath a rebated seam that aids weatherproofing - all of which is beneath a thick leather top piece. I suspect that the stuffer bags would only really be required with the panniers expanded, as there is a lot more exposed nylon on display and more seams to worry about.

Each pannier also comes with an outboard pocket for quick and easy access to smaller stuff, and a handle that tucks away neatly beneath the sides of the seat: the handle obviously suggests that they can be removed quickly and easily, and they can. Shame the same can't be said for the screen but I'll save that rant for now.

My first encounter with this year's Road King Classic coincided with my first pillion ride for a long time, and a long haul down to the south side of the M25, where Rich was picking up a bargain-basement Road King. I scored the first section, piloting the bike from the North to the half-distance fuel-stop and services on the M40, keeping a good average speed and astonished how well the bike dealt with two six-foot blokes, both in terms of the available space, and the power delivery. And then Rich took the bars for the second half. I don't recall every being so uncomfortable in my life. My legs don't appear to want to bend the way that was required, and I seem to have a rubber lower back. It took all of ten motorway miles to discover that the most comfortable way to work it was to have my legs dangling straight down and paying attention to the fast sweeping bends so I could lift my feet higher: a luxury not afforded me when we left the motorway and I really had to use the floorboards again.

Leaving the motorway introduced me to an amazing realisation, which you just don't appreciate on the front. Yes, I've always known that the bottom end power of a Harley is wonderful … or at least it is when you're on the front and you've got a pair of handlebars to grab hold of, and you know precisely when the stump-pulling torque is going to be brought to bear, but on the back!?! I held my arm rearwards and braced myself against the US number plate bracket at the rear of the seat, and held on with a grim determination that told me I'd be crap as a polar explorer. If I'd known where we were going, I would've volunteered to walk the last mile or so, but we did eventually make our destination without the need for hospital treatment. I now know why Marie doesn't like travelling on the back of the Turbo Glide without the tourpac providing a backrest.

My shortcoming, not the bike's, I know, as there are thousands of people who spend their life on the back of Road Kings without a problem. Rich and I might consider each other a friend, but it is an unwelcome leap from there to a full-on embrace; and I know very well how I react to a pair of firm young female thighs clamped round my waist - involuntarily, of course - so that was out too. That said, riding pillion is something I'd recommend all riders should do - ideally round the block from their house, though, and not something to discover a hundred miles from home and a hundred miles from your destination. I'd like to believe that I ride very differently now when I've got a pillion aboard.

The run back wasinfinitely more pleasant, not least because a major detour to bring us up the A5 rather than the M40 brought better roads. Two heavyweights in synchronised bend-swinging mode, in late evening summer sunshine. It also gave us the chance to switch between the two bikes and try to weigh up the differences between a stage one Evo and a stock Twin Cam, which will form the basis of another test later.

A couple of days later, I needed to get Rich back on the new 'King, which meant a run back to my place two-up on the FXDXT. With the Road King experience so fresh in my memory I was less happy to ride pillion as on the front - probably no less happy than Rich but I was more adamant, so I took the controls.

The first impression was one of size. It's one thing riding solo, or even with a modestly proportioned member of the fairer sex behind, but stick a couple of big blokes on a bike and you'll soon know how big it is. The shocks were still running soft, and the bike just about sank to the floor with the combined weight - must be more than 30-stone with the two of us - but the biggest surprise was the seat. Big and comfy it may be with my wife on the back, but it was a good 25% smaller in real terms than the Road King's and possibly more, and it certainly felt crowded.

We finally resolved the T-Sport's suspension set-up a few days before returning it. By increasing the preload to the second highest setting, putting the rear damping on full, and setting both compression and rebound to the maximum at the front end - having eventually realised that the dial on the fork top provides adjustment for rebound and is complemented by a similar device at the rear of the fork leg further down - and things were back to as I'd have mine set by preference.

Disappointingly, in the suspension department, the FXDXT now out-specs the Road King Classic - and indeed all the touring models - which lost their air forks for 2002 and no longer have adjustment at the front end.

That three day adventure really separated the two models for me, and in no uncertain terms, Up to that point, I'd considered the Road King to be a straight-line, long-haul tourer, while the T-Sport would be the livelier cross-country model: the former the all-American journey-shrinker, and the latter the European interpretion. And to an extent that is the case, but it doesn't account for one thing: the Road King's cross-country abilities.

I hadn't long since had the chance to swing a leg across Centurion Harley-Davidson's "Chariot of Fire": a Road King Stroker, and I'd asked service manager and all-round good guy, Kirk Herbert, why he'd chosen the Road King as a platform. I'd asked the question anticipating the answer to be a recognition of the effortless power delivery being ideal for a touring model, but he explained it was more to do with the fact that he could keep pace with any other Harley in the range on a Road King, in any circumstances. Having ridden the bike, and noting a set-up significantly firmer than my Electra, I was fully prepared to believe what he told me, and on the Classic determined to put it to the test. And he's right. It'll hustle down any road with the benefit of tarmac at a pace you'd be hard pressed to believe unless you were there. And corners? It's round them and out the other side without dragging the undercarriage, and all without a suggestion of the frame getting out of shape. The more you ride it, the more rewarding it becomes, and the harder you ride it, the greater respect you have for whoever set up the steering geometry.

For those who recently read a road-test on an Electra Glide in a well-respected journal in the UK recently, I would point out that references to the leisurely 26-degree rake were no more accurate than those made to the inadequate single-pot callipers, but then the unaccredited writer (but we know who you are, y'muppet) isn't renowned for his powers of observation. The rake is indeed 26-degrees on the Road King, but it is a long way from being leisurely: the tube-frame Buell's is only a couple of degrees tighter, and it's a full two-degrees tighter than the tightest Dyna chassis - as used by the T-Sport. The forks appear to be slightly less steep courtesy of raked yokes, and the entire headstock has been subject to some serious tinkering by someone bright at Milwaukee with the result that the steering head is actually in front of the forks.

The visual effect is not especially pretty, as the frame needs a long gooseneck to give the forks enough space to turn the required amount, and it means you need a huge gap at the back of the headlamp nacelle which disappears to nothing when the forks are on full lock. It is a trick to reduce the effort of low speed manoeuvring without compromising stability at speed, and it works incredibly well - which is probably why they've continued to do it for more than twenty years since the first FLT chassis. The Road King carries it off better than anything else in the range, because your eye is drawn by the headlamp nacelle - and I've yet to meet anyone who hasn't been mesmerised by that colossal chunk of chrome.

I'm in two minds about the touring chassis, because on the one hand it looks ungainly, but on the other, on the road it is anything but. I'd love to weld a conventional headstock onto it to satisfy my sense of the aesthetic, but I'd be loathe to lose the functionality and I have no doubt that a more conventional set-up would compromise the stock configuration at one end of the spectrum or the other.

By comparison, the simplicity of the Dyna's headstock forging is understated, and in terms of overall dimensions, the Dyna is positively anorexic, and it is here that the Road King is either right or wrong for your type of riding. Four inches longer than the Dyna on a very similar wheelbase, and with only half an inch less ground clearance, the Road King weighs in at a portly 30Kg more - or more than 60lbs in old money … or thirty bags of sugar in layman's terms. I like the bag of sugar analogy a lot because everyone know what a full bag of sugar feels like, and the idea of strapping thirty of them to the T-Sport to achieve parity is a sobering one. It is easy to dismiss the effect of additional weight, because as soon as you're rolling, it disappears, but it will have its effect on braking and low speed mauling. It was the former that was the only unsettling feeling I had while hurtling down known roads in an attempt to find the limits of the ground clearance … unsuccessfully, I might add.

And while we're in specification mode, it's worth pointing out that the Dyna will touch down without too much effort while the Road Kings prefer to keep the rubber on the tarmac, and the chrome plate in the air. What's that got to do with specifications? Everything, because the lean angles on the Road King are 31 and 33 degrees - and a couple of degrees up on last year's model - compared to the Dyna's 34.4 and 32.4-degrees. Different steering geometries need more or less lean to achieve the same result in terms of how fast you can get round that corner you're approaching, and the Road King will give a T-Sport a run for its money in a way you wouldn't expect … or maybe you would? I know I didn't.

Of all of the head-to-heads, this was one of the most entertaining if only because they are so different in style and character, but are tantalisingly close in terms of their roles. There is also the small matter of my long held desire to build a Dyna Road King, returning to the proportions of the 4-speed that heralded my introduction to Harley ownership … but my resolve is weakening. I've long disliked the touring frame for the appearance of its headstock, but with every model that uses it - including my own Electra Glide Standard - I weaken: it's just so bloody stable. But then it's so bloody big too.

And then there's the T-Sport. Unloved for its screen, but highly regarded for everything else. A thousand quid less than the cheapest Road King - and that would be a single colour Standard not the Classic shown here which brings EFI and leather bags for its additional thousand on top of that. That first thousand would sort out raked wide glide yokes, big front wheel and fork shrouds beneath a second-hand Shovelhead nacelle, and the second would sort the trimmings, such as big mudguards, Wide Glide tank and speedo, wheelbarrow handlebars and a pair of old-style Electra bags butchered to fit the quick-release system of the T-Sport's brackets. Judicious use of second-hand parts might just about allow me to sneak a more appropriate exhaust system onto it, too.

But does it need the mods? What's wrong with the base bike?

Actually, personal taste regarding the screen aside, nothing. I'm just exploring options - and expensive ones - so perhaps I'd just be satisfied with losing the screen and fitting a set of semi wide glide yokes to lose the screen's cast-in brackets and add a bit more bulk to the front end.

It's a tough one to call, being wholly objective about it. It depends very much on what your motives for buying a chunk of Milwaukee-built Americana are. If you want the power delivery of a Harley-Davidson Big Twin, but are otherwise unaffected by the tradition and heritage of the bikes of old, the Dyna T-Sport would be an ideal candidate. But if, on the other hand, you want to live the Motor Company's version of the American dream, you won't be disappointed by the Road King.

And that would be that, except that the Road King is the bike to demonstrate the versatility and strength of the traditional American motorcycle in all its glory, and by riding one you could move from the first group into the second. And if that wasn't enough, committed traditionalists could be wooed by the repackaged bike that has become the T-Sport, if they'd only take one out. In the case of the FXDX-T in those circumstances, however, there is a waiver, because it would be dependent on the physical size of both rider and passenger, and the suspension being set up correctly for that requirement.

I could see either of these two bikes in my garage, but for different reasons, and depending on what I wanted of it. If it were to be an only bike, the Road King would take the honours, for its flexibility and impressive road manners. If I had a tourer already and needed something lighter - or if I were more a city dweller than a town and country boy, and needed something that would cut through congestion easier - the T-Sport would just pip it at the post, but it would be the start of a couple of days of spannering to become the bike I wanted.

Gosh this is a toughie, how do you go about separating two ideal soft baggage tourers?

Easy: The Road King Classic has only got pretend soft luggage. The leather / naugahyde / leather-look or whatever kind of fabric it is actually covers a hard inner plastic shell and while coming off fairly easily, the panniers are definitely not carry-into-the-motel-lobby portable. The Dyna T-Sport on the other hand has real, actual, proper soft luggage which you can easily carry into the Motel.. There, job done.

Next?

Okay, okay, you want more. Fair do's, it's a fair cop.

Harley had been after making a true sports tourer well, since the concept became really fashionable at the very start of the eighties. At that time, that particular arena was ruled, not by the Japanese funnily enough, but by the mighty BMW tourers: the ever bigger horizontally-opposed, twin-cylinder, air-cooled Rs. It must have irked the Americans that the Germans were able to produce an air-cooled big twin with an unrivalled reputation for excellence, power, comfort and reliability with a certain amount of wonderful feedback, that kept the rider enthralled mile after mile after mile. At the turn of the Eighties Harley had, um, one or two of those notched up. The BMW boxer Rs became an icon, the motorcycle that the time served, serious, older biker went for. The BMW was also very expensive, Harley was able to offer that particular exclusivity too, but 'those-in-the-know' reckoned the BMW was worth the asking price … Harley? Ahem, young man!

But times change. BMW began to slowly phase out the 2-valve boxer R in favour of the 'flying brick' K-series, but not many people spotted the vacuum its demise left. Meanwhile Harley introduced the Evolution Big Twin in 1984:a reliable power plant - 'at last' some shouted - but Harley knew they had a long, long hill to climb before the marque could be taken seriously by everyone - and particularly the European touring school of thought.

However along with the new motor came a new chassis, the FXR, or a proto-Dyna if you like … and just saying that will raise a few hackles. I was lucky enough to ride the FXRS back thereabouts, a really nimble Big Twin whose closest successor has to be the Super Glide Sport. More relevant though, another of the FXR chassis models the Company introduced in 1984 was the FXRT Sport Glide, boasting air shocks all round and a set of solid panniers. It even saw a twin disk set up in front in '85. So a pretty fair go at offering a true Sports Tourer, but hearts failed to race. 1989 saw the odd looking FXRS-CONV Low Rider Convertible, if ever there was a T-Sport in the making, here was it. Bonkers screen and soft bagged, it also boasted a set or air adjustable front forks … didn't sell though. I'd personally put it down to the weird screen because I'm shallow like that.

The Company tried 'sporty' tourers too, the FLHS Electra Glide Sport was another brave attempt. The engine was great, and the twin brakes up front worked just fine, it offered fully adjustable air shocks front and rear, but it looked too much like an Electra Glide (funnily enough) and again didn't really fire many people up. In unfamiliar hands, the machine seemed much too massive and ridden like a Japanese bike, in the wrong rev range, stupidly ponderous. The Electra Glide Road King (the 'Electra Glide' part of the name would be lost a year later) that followed in 1994 was better looks wise, it seemed to hang right … but only if you were already well into your Harleys. Everyone else just saw another overweight dinosaur. Then mid-nineties saw the Road Glide, again a fine bike but, well - nobody was fooled for one minute.

1994 though also saw a replacement on the showroom floor for the FXRS-CONV Low Rider Convertible: the FXDS-CONV Dyna Low Rider Convertible, which lost its air forks in favour of dual-rate springs and a brought with it the new 28-degree Dyna frame. The 'CONV' was offered for four years, finally bowing out in 1998 in its final incarnation, looking more like a custom styled machine, with a clear screen up front, bunny-ear 'bars and large leather panniers: it could 'do Sport', but it just didn't look like it.

Quietly though, Harley were continuing to develop the Dynas into a powerful model range and introduce distinctly different variations on a theme. Even before the introduction of the Twin Cam 88, the Dyna Super Glide Sport was beginning to win some very influential converts at the end of the Nineties. The British weekly paper Motorcycle News (MCN) read by hundreds of thousands awarded the machine the coveted 'Best Cruiser' accolade at least two years on the trot.

Take a close look at the T-Sport, it is basically a Super Glide Sport with a quirky nose fairing and semi-permanent soft luggage. Oh, and a bigger seat.

So that's a bad thing then yeah? Oh no, not a bit of it. Oh I admit readily that my eyes crossed slightly and my top lip curled up on the right when I first set eyes on a T-Sport, it did seem a bit, you know, strange. Inheriting the sombre, utilitarian black 'Sport' engine and selected running gear, the machine didn't seem much to look at really, the luggage did look okay, but the nose fairing at first sight looked all wrong and the colour choices were uninspiring, light grey or dark greens seemed favourite. Great, now show me something shiny!

Ah, but Boz changed all that. Boz, the magician behind Boz Engineering in Kent chose a T-Sport to breath on. He was one of the first people to redesign the 88 internals, especially around the heads, gas flowed, breathing right, turning an albeit already excellent motor into a ridable but raging animal. He let me have a go. I came back ten minutes later totally breathless. Wow. Yeah I was unbelievably impressed with the bottomless torque and awesome power Boz coaxed from the Twin Cam but I was also impressed by the T-Sport wrapped around the motor. Would I then be disappointed if I rode a standard T-Sport?

I thought I would be.

However I was immediately impressed with the standard T-Sport, it loses nothing from the donor Super Glide Sport and gains even more practicality. The well run-in motor propelled the bike forward in surges of power not immediately obvious with say a balanced 88B, it accelerated very rapidly indeed, the gearbox sweet, the delivery impressive.

I was immediately aware of the nose fairing, it works extremely well - so well in fact it's a really good idea to keep an eye on the speedo. Out of town the T-Sport ate the trunk road miles easily to the motorway, where its acceleration up the slip road to speed took my breath away. Ninety-mile-an-hour cruising is perfectly possible with the machine: if anything it just gets smoother and smoother - great, if you can afford it, nice to know it has that ability to sweep past the ton effortlessly if necessary. Unlike many Harleys, the T-Sport is very much at home on the motorway, cruising is easy behind that screen, which by winding the easily found knob between the clocks, could be adjusted to more acute angles to suit the rider. Near to fully extended, I could deflect virtually all the wind-blast over my head, leaving me cocooned and comfortable.

And the T-Sport really does excel at comfort. The seat is one of Harley's best ever, I sat there, bolt upright for hundreds of miles, stopping only to fill up. Petrol stops that could grow more frequent if the speedo wasn't watched like a hawk mind. The conventionally set riders' pegs allow plenty of movement aboard and also didn't require me to rest my legs too often either. The bars are easily as wide as the Super Glide Sport, yet even at high speed I was comfortable behind the fairing. The wide bars also leant the big machine - and it is a lot bigger than it first appears - an effortless usability around town; sat upright with the big bars, stompy engine, great brakes and feet secure underneath, all those big trailie tourer types had extremely little to feel smug about.

The T-Sport inherits the Super Glide Sport's ability to be thrown around for fun. Winding country roads are a sheer delight and the machine's natural stability is matched only by its willingness to be leant right over. It eats miles for breakfast and nobody said those miles have to be boring … starting to sound like a proper sports tourer to me.

The fairly flimsy looking semi-permanent panniers are nothing of the sort. Robustly made, the narrow width you see here can easily be unzipped wider to double the capacity. While the fabric or fastening zip never once allowed any water to creep inside, Harley also include a fully waterproof removable inner bag just to be on the safe side. Those panniers can hold a lot of things, and with a very comfortable pillion perch, a long romantic riding weekend over the Scottish Highlands or a quick blast to Paris are definitely not out of the question. If the pillion doesn't mind a backpack, or you could live with a rack or top box, two weeks away and Espana pour favor?

So finally, that old acid test: Could the T-Sport do the Autobahn thing, cruising at over the ton with the Merc's and the Porches, destination Berlin and beyond. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt.

So there you have it, I believe what we have here is not a rival, but an extremely worthy successor to BMWs justifiably revered R100. Harley's BM. Every bit as good, every bit as reliable, every bit as fast, every bit as practical. That's why the machine looks so sober, so up together, so efficient, so …. North European. Because Harley know it too and they know who they're aiming at. But then, when, in the last few years, haven't they?

Then we come to the Road King, which to some people looks like some old clapped out piece of chrome junk that should have consigned to the history books forty years ago. A time when the Brits had shown what you could achieve with a lightweight parallel 650 and the Japanese were about to show the Brits what they could do with half that cubic capacity again.

To others it is very big and very shiny and has Harley-Davidson on the tank, end of story.

Yet others, myself included, view the Road King Classic as a very competent touring platform, comfortable, stable and quick enough, yet retaining, with all its twenty-first century refinements, a real presence, a true feeling of unbroken heritage and an indefinable sense of authenticity. Besides, it is very big and very shiny …

… and I like that sort of thing as well.

Oh, shallow me. Well sod you. If I'm going to part with an awful lot of money I want more in a machine than efficiency, however damn efficient the damn thing is. Good grief, for half the price I could buy efficiency 'til it was coming out of my ears. The Road King Classic offers more than mere practicality, in bucket loads.

Personally I love the way the machine looks, both stationary and on the move. I like the Hot Rod-ish swoop from the huge FL Bars atop the worlds most humungous headlight nacelle, down over teardrop tanks and chrome speedo console down again into the riders' seat. The slight kick up for the pillion and the final spectacular plunge over the slanted leather look bags, down along the rear mudguard to its very tip - not all that far off of the ground. I like the machines' front aspect too, that big headlight, flanked by a pair of not that much smaller spots and underslung indicators. The fat full front mudguard and chunky front wheel. Wider still, the 'don't crash on them' crash guards. I like the fact that the Road King really is huge, I'm a big bloke and I need a really big motorcycle, otherwise it all looks very silly.

But the Road King Classic is definitely not all looks. The machine is a supremely competent tourer and if you are willing to push a bit - both it and yourself - then an awful lot of 'sporting' fun can be had.

The twin disks up front are not for show, they really can pull the hefty beast up short. I balance the two up front with quite a lot of rear brake use too. A bit of rear brake sits the back end back down under hard braking - I'm not a great one for having all that weight behind just left to follow the front, never sure if it might feel like jackknifing a bit.

I use the rear a lot more in traffic, with a machine so massive, use of front brake at slow speed causes that irritating front end wobble (irritating in the dry - lethal in the wet it must be said), use of the rear keeps the whole plot steady as anything. And being so well balanced and having such a low centre of gravity means that you'll be surprised what you can get away with. The wide bars give plenty of leverage and you honestly will be amazed how much lock the Road King has, it can turn an unbroken U-turn in almost any two lane road. This means in traffic, that you're able to pull the Road King to virtually an absolute stop, keeping your feet up, re-point the handlebars at that Road King sized gap that's appeared over there and utilising the immediate grunt, squirt it into the hole.

Yes I know, I've just read that last bit too. More tea anyone?

Out on the open road the Road King Classic really earns its name. You will feel king of the road. It's easy to spot for starters and it is great how many car and van drivers will slow down and pull over a bit when they see that huge Harley stomping up behind them. The comfort is legendary, and deservedly so, you do glide along sat supremely comfortably in the oversize riding seat. Pillions not so much so, if you are regularly thinking of taking a pillion I'd suggest the optional backrest is a must. If you're going for that popular aftermarket accessory, then I would also suggest you opt for the backrest with integral rack, the extra storage facility that platform provides is massively useful while not looking out of place. On the other hand, if you don't take regular pillions, just take a look at a Road King with an aftermarket single seat … serious hot rod look or what?

The easy to install and remove screen is very useful to have in place on a long run. It deflects just about all the wind-blast at any speed and is incredibly useful at keeping tons of crap off of you. At anything over about twenty-five miles-an-hour the Road King's big screen even keeps the worst of the rain off. At your destination, a quick (and I do mean quick) pull of the clips either side of the headlight releases the screen, which pulls away to leave your motorcycle with that lean (ish) bad boy gone worse look. If you so inclined, on emptying the leather covered hard plastic panniers, a pair of clips each side easily detach them too, even badder - if you can cope with the naked crash bars - and many can.

If you have to hussle, or you just fancy pushing the machine, it can do that too. Probably not as well as the T-Sport, but a hell of a lot better than most other riders would give it credit for. Witness the incredulity on the face of the Cagiva Raptor pilot who tried but never lost that distinctive cluster of lights filling his rear view mirrors. I won't pretend for one minute that I overtook the guy, passing him in front of his tittering pals and so forcing him to leap shamed and naked off the highest top box whilst lamenting his lot - that bit didn't happen. But he didn't lose the 'King, oh no.

The brakes are good, the bike will go over, it will hold a line and - if you're not intimidated by the machine - it will go very fast and on bendy bits yet. The 88 motor in the Classic is no different from the one in the T-Sport, it is pulling more weight, but the revs are still there to use. The Road King is not so quick that is for sure, but it does benefit from the fuel injection which will see you happily up the Alps, or even the Welsh Mountains for that matter, while the conventionally aspirated carbs are coughing their guts up.

The huge panniers do lend an element of practicality that is hard to beat. Whether you are going to Italy or Asda, the amount of gubbins you can cram in is extremely impressive. Never be without your waterproofs, your tool kit, your Kama Sutra (hard back edition), spare cables, sausages and train set. Silly not to. And so too, the big petrol tank means at least one hundred and fifty miles, at any speed, can be seen off each time you slide back into the saddle.

Finally, whether you pretend it's shallow or not, the Road King is a crowd puller. Everyone and their dog knows they are looking at a Harley, they gaze in awe at the acres of shiny paint and shinier chrome. It makes their day just seeing one - you can own one.

So after going into raptures telling the world just how competent the T-Sport is, why should I even contemplate the Road King Classic as a viable alternative?

Mmm, tough question, but an easy answer, at least for me.

If I wanted a BMW, I'd buy one. Harleys, most of them at least, have an aura about them, a presence, something special - the clinical T-Sport didn't move me, didn't stir my soul. The Road King Classic does. With a bloody great big spoon.

Specifications        

Make & Model	Harley-Davidson FXDXT Dyna Super Glide T-Sport	Harley-Davidson FLHRCI Road King Classic
Engine:	Rubber-Mounted Twin Cam 88 Air-cooled 45° V-twin.	Rubber-mounted Twin Cam 88 Air-cooled 45° V-twin.
Displacement:	1449cc (88 ci)	1449cc (88 ci)
Compression Ratio:	8.81	8.81
Bore & Stroke:	95.3 x 101.6	95.3 x 101.6
Torque:	106Nm @ 2900rpm	109.5Nm @ 3100rpm
Fuel System:	Carburettor	Sequential Port Electronic Fuel Injected (SPEFI) model
Exhaust System:	Staggered Shorty Duals	Crossover Duals
Oil Capacity:	2.8 litres	3.3 litres
Fuel Capacity:	18.5 litres	18.9 litres
Primary Drive:	Double-row (duplex) chain	Double-row (duplex) chain
Final Drive:	Kevlar belt	Kevlar belt
Overall Length:	2310mm	2440mm
Seat Height:	708mm	693mm
Ground clearance:	149.2mm	130mm
Rake/Trail:	28 degrees / 104.1mm	26 degrees / 156.3mm
Wheelbase:	1580mm	1592mm
Dry Weight:	315kg	345kg
Lean Angles:	34.4° left / 32.4° right	31° left / 33° right
Instruments:	Electronic speedo with odometer and resettable trip meter. Fuel gauge, oil pressure light, engine diagnostic light, security system light.	Electronic speedo with odometer and resettable trip meter. Fuel gauge, low fuel light, oil pressure light, engine diagnostic light, security system light.
Colour Options:	Vivid black, luxury blue pearl, diamound ice pearl, jade sunglo pearl, luxury rich red pearl, suede green pearl.	Vivid black, luxury rich red pearl. Two Tone schemes: Luxury blue and diamond ice, real teal and birch white, luxury rich red and black, suede green and black, concord purple and diamond ice
Price:	£11,195 Prices include usual otr inc. PDI, full tank of fuel, 12-months tax, first service, 12 months membership of Harley Owners Group (HOG) including their European roadside recovery	£13,495 single colour £13,795 two-tone Prices include usual otr inc. PDI, full tank of fuel, 12-months tax, first service, 12 months membership of Harley Owners Group (HOG) including their European roadside recovery
Test bike kindly supplied by:	Harley-Davidson UK. Oxford Business Park, 6000 Garsington Road, Oxford, England OX4 2DQ Tel: 0870 850 1903 (UK)