Answers to Common Questions: 2010 FLHRC

What’s special about a Harley?

This can, and has, been addressed countless times in the last 80 years or so.  In short, it’s a brand that represents the United States of America, folding in all the good (“freedom,” that elusive/illusory/lucid bird) and bad (AMF:motorcycles :: Inflation/War : U.S. lifestyles    … more or less).

 

Doncha have to be over 50 to ride a touring bike?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAH AH HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!

 

What are the differences between a 2009 and 2010 Road King Classic?

There are 3 significant ones.

1.  The 2010 has a catalytic converter.  The cat SUCKS – it makes the pipes warmer (it collects the exhaust and “processes” it, but does it slower than the exhaust flows so it builds up and creates excessive heat.  The cat also robs you of that delicious Harley sound you want so badly.

I hear you can drill it out, but that’s a violation of something.  On the practical side of things, it’s unlikely anyone will ever give a damn or notice.  No one expects a Harley to run around neutered.

You can also swap the pipes out – not slip-ons, but a full system.  These are usually six bills to a grand, depending on what you want.  True duals are the real deal, but you can get a 2-into-1 system for better performance and a whole lotta ugly.  IMHO, of course…

Baby loves a pair of fishtail endcaps on them SuperTrapp slip-ons, yeah!

2.  Helical cut 5th gear.  You know how when you downshift to first when coming to a light, or when pulling away you rev 1st too high – and 1st gear whines? That’s a straight-cut gear.  It’s stronger, but it’s noisy.  The rest of the gears were helical cut to ride more smoothly (sound & performance), except for 5th — up until now.  5th gear was the “top” gear for a while, and so it’d have to put up with lugging when people were too lazy to downshift and with revving when people had no where to shift and needed more horsepower.  We’ve sorted that out with a 6th gear now, but the MoCo didn’t switch the construction of the 5th gear when adding the 6th gear because that would have been a much more complicated design issue.  They took their time with it, and now we have it.

I can’t say when touring bikes got a 6th gear tranny.

Image ruthlessly stolen from the internet.

3. Cost – MSRP for a Road King is $17k, and MSRP for a Road King Classic is $18k.  Typically, you should expect to haggle about $1k off.  ABS is $845 for the 2010 models, up from $835 for 2009 models.

OTHER Differences between FLHR and FLHRC (“Classic” vs Standard Road King) – The biggest difference is the saddlebags.  The classic has them as plastic units upholstered in leather, then worked and tooled and badged with leather fasteners over plastic fasteners.  The standard Road King has, I believe, metal saddlebags with nice latches.

Other differences include:

• The wheels – Classic’s front wheel is 16″ instead of 17″, and they’re spoked and whitewalled instead of whatever’s on the standard
• The sexiness
• The Classic has cruise control stock, the standard Road King has it as an option (more $)
• The seats are different, but they’re stock seats so it’s up to you which is better

Last up (for now – and hopefully I remember to edit this rather than post a follow-up if I think of more additions…):

The standard is never as classy as the Classic.

 

Is the Stage II 103 ci kit worth it?

WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!  Read the entries herein with “Stage II” tags and you’ll get the picture.

 

 

DOUBLE HOLY SHIT!

I’ll post ride reports during the week.  In the meantime, check my YouTube channel.  Changed the oil, and recorded it in excruciating detail, haha.

My YouTube channel <——-click here to see all the crap, rather than just the choice things i present on this blog ^_^

EFI Management (Part 2) (COUNTDOWN: 2 days!)

Spoke to the dealer this morning to ask about whether the SEST would be covered under warranty.  They’re checking on it.  I’m concerned that the stock stage II ECM download is inadequate and that I’ll be damaging the bike while I wait on a SEST or PCV or Mastertune or whatever.  It seems, based mostly on ng’s, that the SEST is the way to go.  The PCV might work better for some, but the SEST has no reports of failure or incompatibilities and I can tune the bike myself without the hassle and expense of dealing with another party.

So I might just get the SEST anyway, even if I have to tell the dealer to give me the horrible ecm d/l and pretend I’m not getting a SEST.  $150 down the drain, but a necessary evil since my planning wasn’t perfect (I should have had the SEST in my hand, rode off from the dealer, gone down the street, plugged in the SEST, and started tuning it immediately).

Meanwhile, I’m allowing myself to get excited.  I never, ever thought I would own a brand-new motorcycle.  Used is just so smart, you know? But this is all the bells and whistles – no 2010’s exist on the used market yet and all the 2009’s seem to be lacking ABS.  Those I found on ebay motors with ABS, in black, were all just a touch less than a new 2010.  Perhaps I should have bargained, but I’m also getting away with the purchase on financing.

I was going to put $6,000 down, but I might just put down $4000 if that’s acceptable.  I can suffer higher payments until I get my bonus / house rebate / etc and pay down the principal in a few months – having the extra cash on hand will help.  We’ll see.

Last night I was thinking about how the lack of perfect information, as economists call it, really allows for prices to go all over the place.

According to my internets, $1000 off MSRP is what you should shoot for – that’s average – especially if you’re paying at least that much in extras.  God, I think the last few posts I’ve made ALONE are evidence of that much, let alone the other posts that by now are quadruple that.  Oy.

But what about those really good deals?  Anyone getting more of a discount?  If you spend $5k in extras, do you think you can talk them down $2k off MSRP?  And how much is the service plan? Universal?  Is freight $500 everywhere?

If information becomes perfect, and everyone starts getting their bike for, say, $1k off MSRP, then the dealers will all suffer.  I’m not sure where the line is between going low to please customer_01, and not going low so that you aren’t cutting off your own balls when selling to customer_02.  It would have to be somewhere if we had perfect information.

I’m tempted to not report my deal so that no one goes into the dealership and demands the same deal – but on the other hand, I want to know (even if for no reason beyond my own second-guessing) whether others have done better.

I’ll probably list my out-the-door price somewhere in an entry…

Meanwhile. .. can I get some good weather? It’s supposed to rain this weekend. A-goddam-gain.

In other news, I got a quote from Progressive insurance for the 2010 FLHRC @ 1690cc.  With $500 comp/coll deductibles, it’s $503/yr for my home-owning NJ ass.  Not bad considering my 2001 Volusia (just 805cc) with my Union Square apartment address was the same price for a NY’er.  Plus the garage can’t hurt.

I discovered hand deflectors that look just right – already ordered them.  Will do a full review after I’ve gotten a taste of what improvement they offer.  Hoping they become my perfect cold-riding gear.

Incidentally, I got my brother a present for his Sportster (for his birthday next week).  Won’t say what it is, but I’ll probably play with it a little bit before I give it to him and I’ll post back with my thoughts if I remember. Mike, if you’ve found this blog, all I can say is I hope you liked it (no way you’ll discover this before I give you the gift, but just in case…still not saying what it is).

My 2010 Harley-Davidson Road King Classic

[EDIT – if you arrived here via google, please click the “2010 Harley-Davidson Road King Classic” banner above: it will link you to the most-current page of this blog]

 

I ordered a 2010 Harley-Davidson Road King Classic (FLHRC) with ABS.  The paint options are wonderful, but since I couldn’t get the blue-over-white (as on the Heritage), only the white-over-blue (too similar to my old bike), I had to skip all colors and go with BLACK.  Fact: black is the fastest color.  And it looks great, so there’s that too.

Stock, it comes with a 96ci (1584cc) Big Twin engine.  Harley’s twin cam bikes are called “Big Twins” when the transmission assembly is separate from the motor.  This is distinct from, say, Yamaha engines, where the transmission is built into the engine inseparably.  I don’t have the best technical understanding of this, but the transmission of a Big Twin only makes contact with the engine at a few points.  As a practical matter, you can buy a transmission for a Harley if you blow yours up; with an integrated transmission as on another maker’s bikes, you’d have to buy a whole new engine.

I had heard that the stock 96ci Twin Cam left something to be desired when it came to “highway passing power.” That’s a/k/a/ reckless speeding, rushing to an early grave, or just plain ‘asking for it.’  But let’s get something clear: for a bike with a pricetag like it’s got, it damned well better haul ass.  I’m not looking for racetrack performance, but I want that pep I’d get if I paid the same money for a car.  If I can’t beat a car, I’m not interested.  If it isn’t fun, there’s no point.  So I opted for the Stage II 103ci kit.  The kit includes an improved air intake (Stage I Air), SE255 cams for low-RPM torque (that’s “pep” in lay terms), and of course, larger cylinder heads increasing the displacement of the engine to 103 cubic inches.  103ci is 1690cc.  That’s twice my previous bike, the Suzuki Volusia Intruder (VL800): 805cc’s, 650lbs (wet).

And because, in the immutable words of Cosmo Kramer, “Poise counts!” — I upgraded the exhaust to V&H fishtail slip-ons.  Slip-on pipes are the “bottom half” or “back half” of the exhaust pipes.  The “front” or “top”, the part that connects to the engine directly, is called the header.  That’ll remain.  And fishtails are just simply the sexiest little retro bauble a modern man could want.  The whole rest of the custom work I’m doing is matched to those delicious 1947 endcaps.