Road King to Heritage Classic ?
#11
07-19-2018, 10:58 PM
Between a 17 and an 18, 18 no questions asked.
As the prior owner of a 17 Heritage and now an 18 Slim(I know the slim is not an 18 Heritage), the difference is night and day. Beyond the motor, which I feel is leaps and bounds over the twin-cam, the suspension is crazy good now. My buddy likened my 18 slim to riding a sport bike in how it handles. He also has time on a prior generation softail(I believe a heritage).
The only thing I dont like about the new heritage is all the black on it. The Deluxe, to me, is a much better looking bike, but to add the windshield and bags is somewhere around another 1000 bucks.
As the prior owner of a 17 Heritage and now an 18 Slim(I know the slim is not an 18 Heritage), the difference is night and day. Beyond the motor, which I feel is leaps and bounds over the twin-cam, the suspension is crazy good now. My buddy likened my 18 slim to riding a sport bike in how it handles. He also has time on a prior generation softail(I believe a heritage).
The only thing I dont like about the new heritage is all the black on it. The Deluxe, to me, is a much better looking bike, but to add the windshield and bags is somewhere around another 1000 bucks.
#13
07-20-2018, 06:09 AM
Road Captain
#14
07-20-2018, 06:57 AM
Grand HDF Member
Why not wait till the 19's come out. HD may offer the Heritage in chrome. The 18 Heritage is a good riding bike. I like it better than the older models. I hate the bags and all the blacked out parts. I Still like the Road King better than the new Heritage. Go test ride one or try and rent 1 for a day. See if it floats your boat. Change is good every now and then.
#15
07-20-2018, 09:36 PM
#17
07-21-2018, 09:35 AM
Grand HDF Member
The Heritage is lighter and nimbler than the RK, although it does have slightly less lean angle, although with a passenger I never got close to scraping as I don’t push as aggressively two up. Solo riding I’ve scraped mildly a few times, but I ride some crazy technical mountain and canyon roads keeping up with friends (and my wife) on Ducati’s and such bikes. For my taste there is plenty of lean angle for the Heritage.
The only trade off, aside from smaller bags with a few design quirks, is the lighter Heritage is less inertia going down the road which means it reacts a bit more to road irregularities than the 100lbs heavier RK. The Heritage is still plenty heavy and refined / stabile going down the road, but the king is slightly more sedate as i’s weight just seems to steamroll over things a bit more. It’s just physics. That said I VASTLY prefer the lightness of the Heritage and 2-up it’s much less of an issue as the passenger adds enough extra weight. It also usually helps to switch to MCII tires from stockers which always seem to follow road lines too easily. Still got a few thousand miles on my tires so I’ll have to wait to test that out.
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desertwolf (07-21-2018)
#19
07-22-2018, 07:00 AM
#20
07-22-2018, 09:15 AM
a stock Heritage.
Last edited by FLSL; 07-22-2018 at 09:16 AM.
The following users liked this post:
desertwolf (07-23-2018)