So with winter on its way out - just kicking around an idea and looking for your opinion.


Love my 2016 Heritage but there are some upgrades I am considering as I am looking at some longer rides (would like to take a trip from Madison to Austin to see some family) to include - hard bags, suspension, exhaust, seat.


With that - is it worth the cash to upgrade or does a Road King make more sense?


Just kicking the idea around.

 

I would say Road King simply because you said hard bags. And before I get dog piled on, I know people have hard bags on softails, and I know people tour on softails. The cost to do it properly may not justify the means is all I am saying...

 

If you aren't set on hard bags I would just stay with the Heritage, buy a better seat with a drivers back rest, luggage rack, highway pegs, and the fang wind deflectors and you'd be set. Maybe add a set of those soft lowers as well to keep some of the wind off. I believe the 2016 softail has Cruise Control, but if it didn't I would say go to the Road King. Cruise is the number one thing I miss most about my street glide.

 

What do you owe on the softail. How much are you going to lose if you trade in? To make your bike truly tour worthy. Shotgun 1500+ or-, Fangs 80, upgrade seat or install gel 200-500. So all in maybe 2k? What will you lose on trading? Do you really want a road king?

 

If you love your Heritage then I'd upgrade.
However just remember you'll never get your money back on the upgrades.

For me I've put about $10K into my Heritage with about $4K of that in upgrades for longer rides.
If I had a Road King about half of the upgrades I would not have needed.

However I'd be stuck with the Road King for my local riding (Less than 4 hours) which is about 70% of the riding I do.
For me, the Heritage is just my type of bike vs. the Road King, but that's a personal choice.

I think if you plan on doing more than 50% of your riding touring then you should have a bike who's primary design is for touring.

BTW- I may someday buy a touring bike, but I'll never get rid of my Heritage.

 

Actually you can't get as much stuff in the hard bags as you can in the leather. I'd say, invest in a tour pack (trunk), get you an Air hawk seat pad if your butt is skinney and invest in some wind deflectors. With that you should be able to ride the entire lower 48. I've on the Heritage I have and it isn't uncomfortable at all..

You'll also have a lot more money left for extra goodies for the Heritage. That might not be the case with a bigger more expensive bike..

 

**** I ride across country on my breakout and that was before I added the bags/tour pak. Touring on a heritage would be a breeze!

 

I asked myself a similar question a few months ago, and ended up keeping my slim!
I was considering a Heritage or Deluxe,
Had mean city cycles do there memory foam mod to my factory seat, just awesome now!
Installed klockwerks rear fender and relocated tag and directionals. Bike painted! Now researching for bags.
I will have less then 2 grand invested when all said and done.


The one big plus with the RK is the M8? But how big a beating would you take on trading your heritage?
Then the dollars you may spend to make the RK just right.

Myself being vertically challenged makes the touring line impractical for me.

 

Honestly you have the most touring model of a softail. I'm assuming you're going to lose a good amount of money trading in for a new bike. It's really up to you, but you can make that heritage a very comfortable touring bike for a lot less than what you would lose on your trade in. Also like others have said you can have a nice stripped down around town and dressed up touring bike with the heritage. It's a very versatile and good looking bike imo.

Once you go to the road king, your kind of stuck with that touring bike. It's a hard decision and really comes down to exactly how much do you see yourself doing long highway touring rides compared to your shorter day or scenic weekend trips.

 

Keep the Heritage.

Next year M8 will likely be only big twin.

An M8 powered Heritage is probably going to be pretty damn sweet.