I was recently on a 3000 mile trip with my brother and friend. On the trip we stopped at several HD Dealers. While in Dothan AL I had the chance to ride a Road Glide, while my bike was being serviced. I had always heard that the fugly was the best riding bike but I could never get past the dual headlights and frame mounted fairing (dual headlights is my biggest issue). I have to say, as all Rode Glide owners know, the ride is incredible, almost weird. Anyhow. The bike I rode was a 11 CVO and I want it, and hope to make it happen.

I guess my question is this. Why doesn't Harley redefine the fugly with a single headlight? It seems to me that it would make at least feel better about buying it. My next question is, why hasn't an after market company made a new fairing for the fugly to overcome this mental issue.

Understand, I'm just spit balling here. Was riding my SG today and had time to think and this is what I thought about. What say you

 

With a single headlight......it would be a Fugly Clyclops........

 

You mean like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harley-HD-FL...-/160847265849

Horribly ugly to me.

 

Wonder if it has anything to do with beamwidth of the light ? On a fork-mounted fairing, the headlight is pointed generally in the direction the bike is heading. On a frame-mounted fairing, the center of the beam might be pointed at trees, ditch, guardrail, and thin air at any given time as the bike bends around a curve but the headlight beam is one step behind, not tracking with the direction of the bike.

Twin lights side-by-side would light up a wider,more off-center area than a single light would..

That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it..

 

personally i think the one in the link does look better, the 2 lights have always looked weird to me, but im still not sold on the whole shark nose altogetherm, I'll keep my SG

 

They need to make the beam turn in the direction the bike is going.

 

2 lights ?

well it gives a "signature look" that the market associates with H-D, same as the market associates a big headlight and 2 spots with an FLH series bike.

Brand identification has a lot to do with how styling decisions are made.

here's a link to pic of an '84 FXRT

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1984-h...idson-fxrt.htm

similar fairing was used on FXRPolice ( I have 2)

and came from the Nova project which was a motor design which could be 2, 4 or 6 cylinder

frame mounted, single headlight fairing.

for my riding comfort, I prefer the batwing, even with it's trade off's I prefer it over the tour glide/road glide style --- which dates back to 1979

Mike

 

I wouldn't want a single light on a Road Glide, the twin lights define the bike. It would be like taking one breast of a woman and moving the other to the sternum, just not right.

That's a sound theory, with two you can aim them like Marty Feldman's eyes for better visibility.

 

I didn't like the way they looked for a long time either, until my friend got one. Now, after seeing his all the time the look has grown on me and when I decided to upgrade to a fairing the RG will probably be the direction that I go.

 

I would have to agree...The two headlights even though they serve a brighter/wider light for the road just looks a little off to me. The fairing IMO does cut the wind a lot better (rode one when I bought my Ultra Classic) but overall I have seen some really good looking/modified RG's both on this forum and on the road that have caught my eye. For me, I will stick with the Ultra and the batwing