Harley Highway King - New bike
Harley Highway King - New bike
Author
Discussion

MKM87

Original Poster:

106 posts

105 months

Well if I thought no one waved to me for riding a Harley, riding a Pink one has made absolutely sure I have no pals!!! :P

After 20k miles in a couple of years on my Electra Glide it was time for a wee upgrade. The thinking on the Highway King is that it may not depreciate like an Electra Glide.... It also has so many subtle styling influences from my 1974 FLH Shovelhead.. I think that is really cool.

Purchased from Wolverhampton HD with 800 miles on it from new. I have a huge Euro trip coming up in October so I have been giving it a hard time to flush out any issues due to being used so sparingly in its first 3 years. And also Harley!

I have managed 2k miles in the short time I have owned it. Not bad going flushing out any issues.

First off was a weak battery.
Then a dodgy key fob.
Then the awful tyres!

It has had a big service, full check over, new tyres and the addition of a Quad Lock mount for my phone for maps. My days of staying in hostels and using a map to navigate are gone so it is Air B'n'Bs and Google Maps from now on.

I had been going for the Orange Highway King but the dealer (Not Wolvo) put me off and being from West of Scotland, Orange is a very divisive colour.

Pink, as it turns out, is not any better... But I am happy and ultimately that is one thing we can all agree on being important.

Put your sunglasses on for this...






Ghs

791 posts

6 months

My eyes arnt the best but that looks more deep red to me than pink .

Bodo

12,594 posts

295 months

See it this way: pink will still be a ray of sunshine on a grey day.
That's a sensible decision you've made there and I'll bet you'll enjoy that long tour, even if the weather is nice. Tell us more about your Euro destinations!

Krikkit

27,938 posts

210 months

Not my taste of bike at all, but it looks incredible in that colour! Nothing wrong with that.

BMbler

282 posts

164 months

Don't beat yourself up, bikes are very individual ways of expressing yourself, be it mid-life rebellious- so be it!

Wacky Racer

41,273 posts

276 months

Very smart ,the colour suits it. I like it.

My old Road King I had twenty five years ago.


tvrolet

4,747 posts

311 months

I was expecting tarts nail polish pink, but that’s not bad at all. And I really like the cream bags and seat. It’s a model I hadn’t actually heard of (but I came close to buying a road king maybe 20 years ago). HD seem to have done a decent job making it retro style.

hiccy18

4,130 posts

96 months

I think if it was mine it'd remind me of a Victoria sponge cake, not a used tampon nono

James_0541

109 posts

11 months

Not my kind of bike, but it does look fabulous. What does it weigh in at?

BuyaDuster

1,078 posts

210 months

Now that is what I call a bike.
Looks fantastic to me, your are a lucky man indeed.
Superb.

stevethegreek

580 posts

222 months

That looks good. I'd be interested to hear how it handles, with new tyres (what did you go for?). Ive had a couple of RK's and more recently a Dyna Low Rider, which was surprisingly good on a 3k Euro trip.

Most new HD's do nothing for me. I'm still riding my '98 Fatboy, bought from new, albeit with an S&S 96" upgrade.

thumbup

MKM87

Original Poster:

106 posts

105 months

Cool replies. Yeah it is a total out there bike but it works great.

It is a 1868cc, weighs just less than 390kg (wet). It handles really well at road speeds and I love doing slow speed handling courses on it which are really easy as you have a very modular rear brake and the low centre of gravity.

After years on sports bikes with choppers as my toys it is really nice to find such a usable classic looking bike.

Garage atm has a few Harleys / Enfields / BSA / trials bikes / and the most reliable bike of all, Daughters CRF 50 (Honda), with my Twin Cam Chop just passing 265 thousand miles, this one will see some use at the chop is sort of retiring.

Please don't think I was bashing my own bike... I am more than used to very out there bikes!

Cruise control is a pleasure and makes long days on the road a breeze.

In a few weeks I set off to North Shields - Germany - Italy (all over and as far as Roma) - Switzerland - France - Germany.

I am really looking forward to the comfort of this bike and getting some good pics of it abroad! If I can figure out a way or recording the slow speed stuff I will, it's really satisfying being able to properly manoeuvre a big bike as you all know.




MKM87

Original Poster:

106 posts

105 months

stevethegreek said:
That looks good. I'd be interested to hear how it handles, with new tyres (what did you go for?). Ive had a couple of RK's and more recently a Dyna Low Rider, which was surprisingly good on a 3k Euro trip.

Most new HD's do nothing for me. I'm still riding my '98 Fatboy, bought from new, albeit with an S&S 96" upgrade.

thumbup
So tyres were not exactly full of choice! I wanted to stick with whitewalls so Harley branded Dunlops it is! A complete transformation in the wet over the 2022 dated tyres it was wearing from new.

I love all bike, especially Harleys. Loads of new ones are awesome bikes but not exactly to my taste. Honestly as soon as I laid eyes on this I knew!

My wife actually talked me in to the HIFI Magenta colour. Knowing me so well she asked how many months after buying an orange one would I start on about not having the 'pink' one beer

I love the Fatboy you have. Some would say the ONLY Harley model! Brilliant.

MKM87

Original Poster:

106 posts

105 months

Krikkit said:
Not my taste of bike at all, but it looks incredible in that colour! Nothing wrong with that.
Awesome thank you.

MKM87

Original Poster:

106 posts

105 months

BuyaDuster said:
Now that is what I call a bike.
Looks fantastic to me, your are a lucky man indeed.
Superb.
I really appreciate this. As a guy approaching (or in) middle age, I am really seeing now how lucky we are. (And not overlooking our hard work). But this bike is just awesome.

Not to be too sentimental however, passed a young ish lad at the bus stop the other day. He was smiling at the bike so I gave it a rip for him. My bike life started in a similar fashion (albeit I was much younger and seeing lads on chops from the back of my Dads Citroen XM estate). Perspective is a good thing to have.


Ambleton

7,256 posts

221 months

Love it.

390kgs is a bit of a lard arse though. That's a fair bit heavier than my three wheeler car hehe

I was sort if hoping for a real girly barbie pink with cream trim.

I hope you have pink tassled leathers and a rainbow helmet. Really ham it up just to annoy 99.9% of HD owners.


Legacywr

15,611 posts

217 months

It looks like Molten Magenta, a colour currently available on Mustangs.

I’d like to see the fleet smile

tight fart

3,575 posts

302 months

I don’t normally like Harley’s but that looks lovely cool


Edited by tight fart on Tuesday 15th September 09:29

Courser

125 posts

2 months

Had about 5 Harley’s. The 114 is the cream of the crop engine wise ( even though I’ve had a year of grief with the drive on mine )

I liked that when it came out, and you can’t go wrong with a glide chassis.

TechnoKnows

52 posts

19 months

Shame the Wolvo HD is due to shut at the end of September.