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After 10 great years riding my ultra, I find that age age 68 it is a little harder to get upright with the wifey on board. Also a little harder to unpark. Thinking of going to a trike. Can't really afford a tri-glide and I like the looks of the freewheeler. Question, how is it for touring? Wife and I fill the ultra bags and trunk plus a small suitcase on the luggage rack of the tourpak. Is there any aftermarket items where we could pack for a week long trip?
You might be surprised what you can find on used 2019 models of the TriGlide. Also the 2020 models aren't that far off so there will be some of the '19's left on the floor.
Clint is spot on about the Freewheeler for two and touring. You can almost make a TriGlide out of a Freewheeler, but you will still be short on trunk space.
Another option is to get an inexpensive cargo trailer to pull with the less expensive Freewheeler. You will have plenty of space then, and for a lot less than the price difference between otherwise equal Tri Glide and Freewheeler.
We pulled one for a lot of years on 2 wheels...would be super easy behind the Freewheeler.
One of our Legion Riders has a Free Wheeler. She tours on it and often brings a friend two up. Fills the trunk and has a big duffle bag she straps on top for extra storage.
According to Harley Specs the Ultra has 4.7 cu ft of storage space, the Freewheeler has 2 cu ft of storage space (which seems awfully small to me from actually seeing one). You have lots of real estate to put luggage on the back of the Freewheeler, but the Harley luggage rack is only rated at 10 lbs. The spec sheet for the Tri-Glide says it has 6.8 cu ft of storage space. That's a huge difference.
I don't have a trike of any type, but I think it's a bit like arguments I've had about touring on a Sportster. I can tour just fine on a Sportster, but an Ultra will do it better, smoother, and with less junk bungy corded on. Can you tour on a Freewheeler, of course you can, but, the Triglide is going to be a better choice for touring two up. The Freewheeler is going to have half the storage space of your Ultra, and you already strap a small suitcase on the luggage rack of that bike. You are going to need a big waterproof duffle bag strapped to the Freewheeler to make up for the lost storage space..
Thanks for the quick replies. I was thinking we would need to look for a used Tri. I was hopiing to save a little coin. I'd like to permanently retire this year.
Try both, but if you're really thinking of going with the Freewheeler, you might not want to let your wife sit on a Tri Glide first, there's definitely a difference in the seats!
Having said that, we put a lot of stuff in a fairly large 60Ldry bag on top of our Tri Glide Tour Pack. More than what the rack on top of it is rated for. But I made a carrier to spread the weight out over the width of the lid in a couple of places instead of just on the four points of the rack. It holds quite a bit. Two soft bags inside it, one for dirty clothes, one for clean. As one side fills up the other empties. Most of the time when opening the tour pack a lot we take it off.
Looking at a Freewheeler with the passenger backrest, it sure looks like you could strap a significantly sized dry bag on it over the trunk lid and partly on the fenders. Skip the rack. You would have to put some sort of film on the bodywork to protect the finish. Again, you'd also have to take it off to open the trunk lid.
Here's what the dry bags look like:
Or
or
An 80 liter bag is about 2.5 cubic feet. When added to the Freewheeler you're at least up in the Ultra storage capacity range.
Oh, a second thought. We've got the kind that you can squeeze the air out. A waterproof compression bag. Fill it up, secure the top, open the valve, squeeze, roll the top down more, squeeze, close the valve. You can get it down to about one half of the space with clothes. Still the full weight, though.
Ediit We can go 6-7 days between laundry stops with this setup.
Last edited by Oogie Wa Wa; Jun 5, 2019 at 11:14 PM.
Regardless of luggage capacity, I dont see how a FW is going to be comfortable for the rear seat commander that is over 60...great around town, but not on the long haul.
I will add that there are also good quality trike conversions out there, some with independent suspension. Do some homework, the trike as a touring platform is hard to beat. I had one, turned out to be a lemon, but will definitely go back to one in a few years.
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freewheelers and touring
