so i have had my sporty for a week and i love it. however, i am contemplating trading "up" for a road king. i went to the dealership and test drove one today. i love the cruise factor, but it was not nearly as fun to drive. it was more comfortable. im gonna give it a few weeks before i make a decision, but i was surprised to be looking at a bike that cost $8,000 more and wondering if i liked it as much. in my head im going to be touring the universe and need a big comfortable cruiser. in reality i will probably be zipping around town during the week, and taking longer-ish rides on the weekend. anyone else at this crossroad? wish having both was an option!

 

There is no doubt that the bigger bike is a smoother ride on long trips. However, the Sportie is great around town and can handle long trips. I did one on my 883.My dad who has been riding since dirt was new, swears you need 1200cc's or more to handle the highways decently. Well I proved him wrong.lol.

 

"Sport"ster
"Road"king

Those crazy HD guys and there names.....

 

I have both. I bought the Sporty in 1992 and put 41k miles on it from '92-'99. I bought a Road King in '00. I've put 64k miles on the Road King since then, and maybe 1k on the Sporty.

 

Hey,
I'm the guy that came over and spoke to you at the dealership today. It was good to meet you. You have only had your bike for a week, if you trade it you'll no doubt take a major hit. I think you would probably be better off to ride that Sporty for awhile. It's a nice looking bike and it sounds GREAT. Good luck and hope to see you around soon.

 

hey nice to meet you too man. thanks for introducing yourself. lets get together and ride sometime. believe it or not, the dealership will give me almost exactly what i paid back. they are more than happy to sell me a more expensive bike. also i beat them up pretty good on the original sporty price. they wont have any trouble selling it for more than i paid for it. that being said, i will at least give it a few weeks to decide what kind of ride i really "need". its gonna be hard letting go of this one though. its gonna have to be a sweet road king.

 

If you don't mind me asking what made you buy the sporty in the first place if you had intensions on doing long distance riding because to me they are a big ways apart I could see if you said a street bob or something but a sporty to a roads king I'M confused just curios to no.

 

I rode a 2007 SE Road king with the 110this weekend at the dealers demo day...I hate to say it but I think a 1200 sporty is still a littlefaster. However, that SE RK is one SWEET ride. I was ready to buy and then they showed me the price!!! [:'(]

 

Actually, a good cross between RK or Sportster is either a Dyna or a Softail. Both of those are roomy and smooth enough to handle the highways at lower RPM's thana Sportster doeswhich will help with the quality of the ride. They also both have slightly longer wheelbases, however the Sporty and some Dyna's are close in that respect.Just need to consider how much riding you will be doing at highway speeds vs back road speeds. There are guys on this forumwho love their Sportsters for touring and wouldnt trade them for the world.TheSportster issuch afun bike and totally cool looking whentricked out the right way. Other awesome thing about the Sportster is that they don't break the bank to get one, and their quality is just as good as any other Harley out there. You got a 1200C, one of the best Bang for the Buckbikes Harley offers.

One other thing, regardless of what the dealer is telling you on giving you back what you paid, they are not going to loose money. They are givingyou the perception that they are"helping" you but somewhere hidden, you will be paying. Let's face it, they are their to make money. They are not going to let someone ride a bike for a month and then pay them full price for a return. What they will probably do is build up the price of the RK. You'll never even know. The bottom line is dealers get incentives for sellingacertain amount of product and for the number they purchase, etc.Good luck in your decision.

 

because i didnt have $16,000 to spend on a toy when i first walked into the dealership. i wanted to get a harley. the sportster was all i could justify, and i was hoping that i could do it all with that bike. to a certain extent i can, but now that the hook is in my mouth, im starting to think about spending more to get the bike that fits me best.