If I knew my wife wanted to ride with me, I'd go Ultra.
No question.

 

No experience with a Road King, but we bought an Ultra last August and the wife loves the ride and i can't imagine the King could handle a whole bunch better that the Ultra.

 

Thanks. I do plan on renting each one to get a feel. Since the style of the Road King is more like a large cruiser with hard bags and a windshield, I think I have much more of a handle on how that would ride as opposed to the Ultra Classis Electra Glide. I have never ridden a bike with fairings or hard bags, so I'm assuming the handling and feel will be considerbly different than my Rocket III even though they are about the same size and weight. I just don't want to be stuck with a machine I love on the highway and hate around town.

 

Either way you'll be happy. While respecting those who say "that's why they call it the King", well, why do you think they call the Ultra an ULTRA! LOL
Pretty much the same bike but the Ultra has more key features, such as cruise and stereo. More comfortable two up seating especially for your lady. The extra storage is always great.
I do disagree that the fairing makes the Ultra harder to handle, just not so. I've had both and would not want to ride a King again. The old wive's tale about the batwing causing problems in wind or turbulence is again, just not true. And I have ridden Road Glides too, different feel but not better.
Once you've ridden behind a full fairing, you won't want to go back. Much better in cooler weather and in the wind.
Again, either way good luck.

U

 

Ultra, that's great to hear as I love to ride in the cold weather and the only complaint I had this winter was that my right hand would get exceedly cold. I would love to be able to extend the season or as I rode all last winter in Central Pennsylvania, at least increase the number of days I can comfortably ride. We are renting a Road King this weekend unless I can get it changed to an Ultra before Saturday. Either way, your comments are appreciated and the more I look at the specs of both bikes I realize they are virtually identical except for the seat, fairings and added bags.

 

Personalpreference is a King for me, however I may be a little biased. As far as the windshield goes I personally don't worry about such things becuase I took mine off as soon as I got it home and it has never seen the bike since. Windshields are for cars IMHO. And I do quite a bit of 500-1000 mile trips without the windshield and it doesn't bother me, however it is totally personal preference. I also ride when the temps get into the 20's without it. I feel the King is the most versatile of the tourers being able to strip it completely down or dress it up as much as you want.

 

The wife made the easy decision for me. I'd been ridin' since '64 (with a significant amount of downtime due to the kids and other commitments.) The wife of almost 40 years had never ridden with me (my employer would have frowned on it (PD).) When I went to pick out the bike she sat on a few then made it clear that the only ride for her was the UC. Now that the warm weather is here in NY she's been on it a few times and loves the music (CD/XM) and the intercom. She's a great passenger and we're looking at some nice rides in the tri-state area. The oldest rule in the book is, "If Mama's happy then Daddy will be happy". I'm comfortable, she's comfortable and the bike just eats up the (S)miles.

 

Larry, where are you in NY? By your tri-state area reference, I am thinking downstate. I spent a year working in Manhattan living in Rye, Westchester County. I didn't ride then but took the car up Bear Mountain several times and the place was crawling with motorcycles. Have you even been up there?