For what it’s worth to anyone I thought I’d write a comparison of my new 2012 Road King and my previous bike a 2009 Kawasaki VN1700 Vulcan Classic.

 

Both bikes have pros and cons.

 

For the Road King the ride is stiffer but the upside is that it handles so much better. It is very noticeable in low speeds and the bike seems to feel lighter even though both bikes are roughly the same weight. Cornering on the Road King seems much easier and it just wants to lean whereas the Kawasaki seemed heavier in corners.

 

Both bikes have adjustable rear shocks but the Kawasaki has twin air-assisted shocks, with 3-way rebound damping so you could literally dial in the adjustment when you went two up.

 

The Kawasaki was known to my biker mates as the “stump pull” because it had so much torque whereas the Road King has stacks of horsepower and jumps when your twist the throttle. Which is pretty cool.

 

The Kawasaki floorboards were lower so it was a bit more comfortable but I soon got use to the Road King’s floorboard position.  The Kawasaki instrumentation is better laid out, you can see the trip meter, clock and gear indicator, whereas the Road King is limited to one. Which is fine as it adds to the old school look of the Road King. And lets face it the looks of a bike are just as important as the handling.

 

So in a nutshell the Road King handles better, looks way cooler, and I can detach the windscreen in the hot weather. Plus it’s a Harley J

 

Gday Bill , Gotta agree with ya there mate . Congrats on the new ride , a real work of art , the Roadking is deffinately "a bit more bike for your bucks" compared to my old heritage for instance !
Great allround bikes , mines a 96ci `09 Classic and has been awesome so far , love the new touring frame !
Rode a 103ci streetglide and ultra so i can only imagin how the Roadking run with the 103ci donk !
The 103ci does feel like it gets a bit warmer than the 96ci though seemingly a nicer motor for sure , made for cruisin ?

Thanks Scotti, you're right you definitely get more bang for your buck. The 103 has plenty of power and pushes the bike along nicely. I'm loving it  Can't keep the smile off my face

to the forums Bill, make sure you keep your stock pipes, just incase.
Ride Safe.

Funny you mentioned the stock pipes, I'm running them at the moment after transfering the rego from NSW to ACT. The ACT wouldn't register the bike with the Vance & Hines pipes, so swapped back to the stock pipes and the rego inspection place said to keep them on for a little while incase of a rego recall. Apparently Harley's get recalled for rego inspection because of after market pipes!! Anyway as luck had it the following day I got pulled over. I'd ridden through a radar trap and next thing a cop bike came up behind me and pulled me over, when I asked why he said their radar gun had detected a "Code 7 Radar Blocking Device"!! So he checked over the bike looking for it. Lucky for me I had the stock pipes back on.