Harley?s iconic Road King gets a makeover in the Special version, which is nearly devoid of chrome. Even the new Milwaukee-Eight 107 V-twin is blacked-out. Photos by Brian J. Nelson.
Before the Street Glide took over as Harley?s bestseller about a decade ago, the Road King was its chartbuster for many years. All of the first-year 1994 Road Kings were snatched up immediately, in fact, and some buyers even tried to flip them a few months later for a tidy profit. With its removable windshield and bags the Road King easily converts from a practical traveler into a cool custom profiler, and its classic ?50s styling with acres of chrome, fat Hydra-Glide-like front end and big headlight drew the Harley faithful like bees to honey.
More power, smoothness and cooler running plus better suspension bring serious performance and ride quality to Harley?s Touring family. With the introduction of the new Milwaukee-Eight V-twin for 2017, all of the bikes in Harley?s Touring family, like the Road King, make more power, run cooler, vibrate less at idle and get slightly better fuel economy. And all-new Showa suspension, with dual bending-valve technology up front that emulates a cartridge fork and hand-adjustable emulsion shocks in back with 15-percent more preload adjustability, does a much better job of soaking up bumps and maintaining control. The improvements have brought fresh attention to the H-D Touring family, which presented Harley with an opportunity to reinvigorate the Road King li...