new kid on the block...
just picked up my 07 rk black cherry/pewter last sunday of bike week. had 2nd thoughts on the wind once your pushing 70 plus and the stock seat is a bit hard on the tail bone...not enough back support I felt.

long story short -
was a step away from pulling the trigger a week later on a change over to a electra glide classic but then figured why not a ultra electra glide.

on the way to the other shop I kept seeing that darn reflection in the chrome dome head light and had to go back to the dealer I got it at to have the extra parts I already paid for installed instead.

already have an 04 gl1800 plus a bmw r1200clc so no real need for another fairing bike.

guess the rk and I will just have to learn to get along. the wind I can handle plus the tickets cost a lot after awhile if your moving too fast...which I was this past weekend...after all it was a new ride. now if the seat would just start to feel better on my *** I will be a happier person.

any suggestions on the seat issue? will it start to feel better (the seat) over time or did hd just make a pretty seat that is not great to live with?

saw a neighbors older rk with the same studs (silver?) on the back of the seat as my 07 but thinking his is an older model. the electra glide classic seat is very nice though don't know if the rkc seat is better then mine. suggestions? i would like to keep the clean look to a degree but would like more upper back support. open to a good used model and willing to do ebay. plus leesburg rally in florida is coming up next month so if you know what I should be asking for I'm open to input.

like the site, the url name, and glad they fixed the lag time issue of late.
thks for any input,ride safe and often.
will post a pix next week

 

Congrats on the new ride. Sundowner seat is very comfortable, they can be found on Ebay or 20% off thru Chicago HD and Zanotti HD.

 

Welcome to the site, this is an awesome forum and you'll learn ALOT from these folks as well as have fun here.

I'd suggest you not worry too much about the wind effect til you give it a chance. Believe it or not you do get accustomed to it after a few rides. I remember on my metric cruiser (1100 V-Star Classic) I felt overwhelmed at speeds over about 55 mphwhen I first removed the windscreen. I couldn't believe how anyone could take such wind forces and enjoy it! I went ahead and left it off for a few more days and soon enough I realized it didn't bother me anymore at all and I ended up riding all last summer for about 4 months withoutthe windscreeneverywhere I went - most of my riding is on the freeways at 70-80 mph in fact. I was actually disappointed in the Fall when I had to put the windscreen back on - in COLD weather forget it, the wind chill effect is enormous - we're talking warmer weather here.

In fact I just did a 7 hour road tripa few days ago and took the V-Star from San Diego to Kingman, AZ and it was a wonderful ride. I loved the warm desert ride and the wind didn't bother me a bit even though I hadn't ridden the bike that way in quite a few months and am used to riding the Electra Glide 95% of the time anymore.

 

Back when I had my rkc I drove it from DC to St. Louis, MO and back in 5 days.... I did 16 hours straight on that thing in one stint... realized I needed to stop when I tried to pay for gas with a couple cigerettes. Never thought the wind was that big of an issue... the seat on the other hand damn near killed me. Someone mentioned in an earlier thread about this guy that replaces the stock foam with memory foam that is the cats meow. The seats look stock when he's done... but I guess they don't feel that way. He custom builds them to raise or lower the rider according to their height and such... need to do a search and find that guys link again. While I've since traded that bike for an ultra... the seat still seems a little firm... if I could live without my bike for a week or two I'd go have it done... as is I'm just going to suffer.

 

Welcome! The seat will break in a bit, but the HD seats are notoriously crappy. There are a hundred threads here that talk about getting a new seat.

 

Alan at meancitycycles.com can fix that seat, make it better than new and do it very reasonable!

 

Having come from a history of Gold Wings, I also felt "exposed" on my Road King Classic for the first several weeks. But after a while, I came to appreciate the lack of all that fiberglass/ABS in front of me and really got to enjoy the ride. Now that I've had mine for several months, it has become my favorite bike of all time!

The seat - you either love it or you hate it, and most of us hate it! I had the Sundowner two-up touring seat for a while and really liked the comfort. It seemed to move me a little closer to the tank, and I wasn't wild about its appearance, but it was really comfortable for long rides.

I now have the Mustang solo and wide passenger pillon, and I really am pleased with it. It positions me about the same distance from the tank as the stock seat and about the same height. My wife really likes the width of the passenger pillon and is quite comfortable on it. I'm in the process of swapping it out for the Mustang solo with rider backrest, because I want to experiment with a backrest for long rides. I'm not a big fan of the look of a backrest, and I have some concern about its safety, but we'll see... It's a shame that I could not find a backrest that I could use for the standard Mustang solo - that would have saved me some money. I'm hoping the model with the backrest is as comfortable as the standard model.

In the old days, when I was much younger, I didn't know that you could go less than 80mph on an open highway. My RK is showing me the value of slowing down and taking the time to "smell the roses". I have also discovered that the fork mounted windshield really hates the turbulence found at 70mph on our Atlanta expressways. It's interesting that on the open road 70mph isn't as turbulent - I suppose that all the trucks and cars on the expressway really stir things up!

On another note, HD's P&A catalog will become your best friend and worst nightmare! There are all sorts of things to buy to customize the fit of your bike (handlebars, windshield heights, floorboard brackets, etc) as well as its appearance. At one time I thought I would begin to offer counseling for chrome addicts, but then I fell victim to it myself!

Here's the Mustang solo:

 

Pastor John...
thanks for the input. I will check out the Mustang seat/do a search on the web for it. I agree not having a fairing is 'cool' since i can see all of the road in front of me from top of the windshield to the bottom of it. Then again if it was my only ride then a full fairing or electra glide would have to be the way to have gone.

thanks....now the bad part will be seeing just how much that darn seat will cost me :0j

 

Don't get a new seat. Get the back rest and an AirHawk seat. I could sit on the stock seat for 1 hour. The Mustang for an hour and fifteen minutes. The AirHawk, I good for 13 hours (with breaks of course) and you'll save about three hundred dollars ( but you'll just say, wow! I just saved three hundred dollars! Look at all the chrome I can get with the money I just saved!)

 

I've found on my RK it wasn't the seat so much as getting the air presure right in the back shocks. After I got that figured out I found I could ride it longer a lot more comfortably. Just my .02