Comments on: Why does Harley call it the “Road King”, when its soooo underpowered?

By: Cornporto

Cornporto — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:58:29 +0000

I’d say spend the dough and upgrade the bike… its an “investment”. Besides, I’m sure you’ll be able to find somebody else that wants to spend $30k on a bike thats 60% American and has lightning fast moped like speeds.

By: jack f

jack f — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:36:16 +0000

Horse power is not what harleys are all about. You jap scrap riders think high end HP is the only thing a bike is good for. Most crotch rocket riders will never use all that power anyways, so its really a waste.

Harley concentrate on the power band where riders ride most of the time, that is normal highway speeds. The road king does what its designed to do, and that is go down the road, not race. What is the speed limit in your state? Are you suggesting that we all exceed our speed limits and break laws? Gasp. How dare you.

By: rockin6d

rockin6d — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:09:14 +0000

currently Harley does put out the fastest production bike around (8 sec quarters) at about 40,000$ people buy HD’s for the image, the country of mfg. and the availability of after market parts to customize them to personal taste. they’re not meant to be your average run of the mill just like everyone Else’s cookie cutter bike. HD’s do run more on torque than HP and will have to be ridden differently because of that. if you want fast though check out the v-rod you’ll have to ask about ordering the fast one, like the ford gt40 they’re not stocked they got to be ordered.

By: preacher55

preacher55 — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:35:32 +0000

How freakin’ fast do you need to go? If you wanted a go fast/break fast piece of—– , there are all kinds of Jap crap junk out there for you to buy. Hell, why not support a country that has a habit of invading ,raping & killing it’s neighbors, not to mention trying to cripple the U.S. economically? Germany has one hell of a track record too.

By: CRocket

CRocket — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:23:56 +0000

You paid for the name. Next time buy a crotch rocket.

By: Professor Blues

Professor Blues — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:30:40 +0000

And you just found out about the “harley tax”.

Namely, the extra $$ you get to spend to improve the bike from ‘stock’.

As for the name “Road King”, it’s a cruiser. It’s designed to be ridden for long periods of time (it ain’t a ride unless it’s at least 600 miles a day, man!) and wasn’t engineered for power. That said, you could easily get it to turn more HP at the back by swapping out the pipes, opening up the airflow at the filter, and redoing the fuel mix (stage 1 conversion).

If you want performance, I’d take it back and exchange it for a VSRC Street Rod or one of the Buells. The XB12[nn] series kick serious booty, and their Ulysses verson is a good fire trail bike as well as a sport bike.

Or switch brands. Victory puts out some nice cruisers, as do the Big Four imports. If you want something more sporty or powerful, try a sport tourer model. They too are designed for long rides, but with a little more attitude in the twisty bits.

Oh yes. For $25K, you could probably buy a bike plus a lot of gear from Victory or BMW, or two bikes from just about anybody else.

By: Robert R

Robert R — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:36:52 +0000

Harley has never advertised their bike’s horsepower, but they have shown how much torque they put out, which is substantial for moving a 900 ppound bike around. A stage 1 kit and remapping in addition to those aftermarket pipes, and a Race Commander if your bike is injected, and a Dyna-tune, should bring your horsepower to about 73, which is a 10% improvement.
If you want to go with the “hop-up” kit and raise your cubic inches to 95, that’s about how much horsepower you’ll be getting, but it won’t cost you more than another $1500, not $5k.
If you’re so dissatisfied with it, I guess the question shoud be, “Before spending $25k on ANYTHING, why didn’t you try it out, and see if you liked it? I’m sure the dealer had a rental you could have ridden for a day!”

By: txhypnotist

txhypnotist — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:29:04 +0000

Many people who buy a Harley and think they are getting a hole lot of HP, change and go the the BOSS HOSS, which has a car engine in it, 502 CU. with over 500 HP. No question they will get up and go. A friend of mine has one and love it. You might consider it if all you want is power.

If you want speed and everything else, I say the BMW is an impressive bike, the break in period alone is 25k miles.

Most of the european Police use them because they are fast and shaft driven.

By: JetDoc

JetDoc — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:22:05 +0000

Hmmmmm….. A fool and his money are soon parted! Just another victim of Harley Hype!

My 2004 BMW K1200LT, brand new sitting on the showroom floor, cost me $15,995. (US) it has a 1200cc 4-cylinder, fuel-injected engine, putting out 98 horsepower, and standard equipment on my bike included: AM/FM/WB/CD 4-speaker stereo; 6-disc CD changer; heated grips and seats; electronic cruise control, and much more! It gets near 50 miles per gallon of mid-grade gasoline, riding two-up all day long at Interstate speeds… and will run circles around any stock H-D… especially in the twisties!

Don’t walk… RUN to your nearest BMW motorcycle dealer and dump that nasty, noisy modern day antique before it hurts you.

Check out the new K1200GT!!! That one may be the only reason I’d consider giving up my LT!

By: Bear

Bear — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:27:56 +0000

Maybe you should of got a Buel,Harley.Maybe a rice burner,crotch rocket.Its low compression you could add nitrous.You have the heads shaved to bring up the compression ratio.New Carbs.My brother had a low rider,it was a pig too,he tried everything.Un-like the 1949 Pan Head he had,a lot of balls,but geared low.would top at at 95mph,but you got there quick.