Rented a '14 Harley Road King this week in FL

Maelstrom said:

I have a lot of HD friends, it seems they are loyal to the brand to a fault. A lot of them probably feel patriotic about them as they are made in America...I know I would simply not be satisfied with a Harley. Like you, I have experienced that "aghast" expression when I hit them up to go riding..."You're gonna ride HOW FAR?"..."Sorry, I can't go, I'm helping my mother-in-law move into my house that weekend." Or some other such crappy excuse is the usual fare. I also think perhaps some of them are intimidated by the sheer power and performance of the R3 and although they might not admit it, they suffer from Rocket envy.

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Sensfan said:

The "Made In America" always gets me......how come I have to pull out my metric wrenches to work on my wife's sporty, and not the imperial?

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Sensfan said:

The "Made In America" always gets me......how come I have to pull out my metric wrenches to work on my wife's sporty, and not the imperial?

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alpental said:

Also, isn't it more like "assembled in America"? I thought HD sourced a lot of its parts from overseas...

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TRIIICK said:

I've always enjoyed my 2001 Roadking i'm pushing 80K problem free miles on the ole girl. It's not always about power and speed. It handles a lot different than my Rocket. Sometimes all you want to do is take in the view. Never understood the price thing,i paid $16,500 for it new. I believe they stopped making the Roadking this year. You have to remember Harley's been around a lot longer than most brands even the Rocket, choices were limited back in the day. The Roadking like the Rocket had it's day in the lime light.

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alpental said:

I'm in south Florida this week on business and decided to get a taste of the "Harley experience". Rented a '14 Harley Davidson Road King, complete with all that Project Rushmore treatment they're touting.

First impression was... this is small. And then I stalled it in the parking lot in front of the Harley techs and other customers! Not embarrassed but laughing at how it's so underpowered you actually need significant throttle input to get it moving.

Underpowered, unstable, poor brakes, terrible ergonomics, and around 33% more expensive! To be fair, I do like the seat, cruise control, windscreen (maybe a little big), and the hard bags are convenient. Shakes at idle but without the Harley potato-potato sound. <edit>

I don't want to bash on anyone's choice of bikes, but I can't for the life of me understand why people would shell out close to $20k or more for something like this when there's so much better available!

/ end rant

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ricochet said:

That video is epic, I posted it on my facebook with the title "Spring is coming... watch out for the next litter of bikers!" Although I do think that this video is staged... he's just too corny to be real.

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