Harley Davidson Road King Backrest

It is time for my first Harley-Davidson

Decision time is close, and the test drive of a Road King Classic should bring the final confidence and confirmation.

A recurring feature of these posts will be my upbeat reports on the great UK weather. On the day of my first drive with a Road King Classic, it was a mixed bag, ideal for a in-depth evaluation of what was going to come in the years ahead. ed each other every 10 minutes, and the romantic rainbow could be seen on the horizon. Temperatures were at the usual 8°C, which translates for my US friends to 46°F, a temperature I actually like.

This is it, the Road King Classic 2010:

After the first few miles I felt very comfortable, the Road King was easy to handle, it did what I wanted it to do, the vibrations were good vibrations, the windscreen protected me sufficiently from the wet elements, in a nutshell the Road King did what it was supposed to do, it put a big smile on my face.

I was used to heavy bikes, the Road King is 355 kg dry weight, which is light compared to the 417 kg of my previous Goldwing. The torque is impressive, but I had to get used to the new character of the V2 engine. the progress while I pushed it up, gently reminding me its time to change to a higher gear if I ever planed to go any faster. Mental note: check if a tachometer may be helpful, they have a nice one with shift light and black face.

During this drive, I did not get used to the heel/toe shift lever, at the moment I consider the heel part not only absolutely useless, but also dangerous, as it actually was in the way and blocked my foot movement several times. Mental note: maybe the first thing to remove, or get used to it quickly.

I drove home from the dealership, and first I dressed up. Due to the missing leg protection, my jeans, now wet, fluttered so strongly that my calves nearly hurt, but with my heavy bike trousers on, all was very fine on the way back. And dry.

Clutch and brakes all felt as if I was riding this bike since years, the only thing to get used to were the turn indicator switches positioned on each handlebar side. I honked the horn twice, hitting the wrong switch while planing to turn left.