"...the forks are located slightly aft of the steering head"
This is unique to the Road King and Road Glide models. It makes these large, heavy bikes handle much lighter.
I came to the RK by way of Honda's '98 ST1100 as my sport touring ride and the '99 Valkyrie as my highway munching tourer. My wife got her Road Glide after her '98 VFR kitted with bags and extended windscreen as her sport tourer and the Yamaha V-Star 1100 as her "big" touring bike. I mention these only to identify my perspective.
Both of us found the Harley's we have to be great touring bikes. She misses the cruising ability of her vstar at times but for a five or six thousand mile getaway the Glide is the only bike she'd have. I miss certain abilites of all bikes I've owned but specifically to the Valk the power was addictive but the very heavy front end became tiresome. It was a chore to turn the bike. At any speed that huge front end would tend to fall into the turn.
That unique steering head design was the best thing ever engineered into the big bikes. Both bikes are very sensitive to proper suspension adjustment and tire pressure. If the rear airshocks are even a few pounds off the front end losses stability. We carry a little zero-loss hand pump in the saddle bag to adjust for different loads and conditions. I don't know if this is because of the steering head or not but if it is it's a small price to pay for such great handeling bikes.
Derrick
This is unique to the Road King and Road Glide models. It makes these large, heavy bikes handle much lighter.
I came to the RK by way of Honda's '98 ST1100 as my sport touring ride and the '99 Valkyrie as my highway munching tourer. My wife got her Road Glide after her '98 VFR kitted with bags and extended windscreen as her sport tourer and the Yamaha V-Star 1100 as her "big" touring bike. I mention these only to identify my perspective.
Both of us found the Harley's we have to be great touring bikes. She misses the cruising ability of her vstar at times but for a five or six thousand mile getaway the Glide is the only bike she'd have. I miss certain abilites of all bikes I've owned but specifically to the Valk the power was addictive but the very heavy front end became tiresome. It was a chore to turn the bike. At any speed that huge front end would tend to fall into the turn.
That unique steering head design was the best thing ever engineered into the big bikes. Both bikes are very sensitive to proper suspension adjustment and tire pressure. If the rear airshocks are even a few pounds off the front end losses stability. We carry a little zero-loss hand pump in the saddle bag to adjust for different loads and conditions. I don't know if this is because of the steering head or not but if it is it's a small price to pay for such great handeling bikes.
Derrick
