I have an 05 Fat Boy and have test ridden a 2018 Heritage 114 a couple of weeks ago and here is my take...The 2018 Heritage is far Superior to my bike in every way except 1..that is sound..and my fat boy isn't stock.

The power of the stock 114 is amazing....the bike is lighter to move around.....It had the best feeling stock seat I have ever felt. The bike rode like a dream.It handled every bump and turn like it was riding on air....and yes if I could afford it right now there would be one in my garage

 

Harley ALWAYS waits for some after market company to develop it, then incorporate it into the product line. cheap bums wait for someone else to come up with good ideas.

having owned both softail and touring bikes at same time, i have always felt the softail frame was far better for handling and ride.

would love to see a softail frame model with hard bags and a fairing. would buy it immediately ! the new 2018 softail frame especially .

would hate to have to change the battery on the 18 softail frame though.

 

I have a 15 Ultra. Its getting too heavy for me and my wife doesn't ride with me much anymore. Soon I will demo a FatBoy and Heritage. That will tell me how good the suspension is and the 114 is. @ 340lbs I will be giving the mono shock a workout. The 2 dealerships I frequent can't keep any softails in stock that came with the 114. The highly pooped on Fat Bobs are flying from dealer floors.

 

Totally agree; the touring frame is going to change, if for no other reason than the upcoming semi automatic transmission. Similar to the transmission available on the 2018 K1600B. You can shift without using a clutch. Big market for this upgrade.

 

My Goldwing has a monoshock and single sided swingarm and handles just fine.
I like my softail too.
My streetglide??? Bagger wobble.... But I still love riding it.

Harley is upping their game and thats a good thing!

 

the hand adjustable shocks are not 'one shock does the work, the other is for looks'. one handles damping, while the other does the rebound. while there are certainly better options out there, these shocks are far better than the old air shocks. if you are getting a poor ride, try adjusting them. the chart in the owner's manual is merely a suggestion. try more turns than suggested and see if you don't like that better

 

As soon as I saw the new frame, and read several people comment how great the ride is, I started wondering if there will be a monoshock touring frame on the horizon....

Certainly makes sense if the MoCo is really trying to cut production costs......

Hmmmmm....

 

One shock isn't necessarily cheaper than two! The frame and swingarm have to be made strong enough to deal with the loads involved. One reason IMHO the MoCo went to one shock on the softails and relocated it could well be cost, but also has a technical element. Shocks conventionally compress when under load, but on the original softails the shocks are under tension when loaded. That is a dead-end in development terms, as hardly any vehicles or shock makers design and build shocks for that type of application. As TXNT points out even a Gold Wing can use a single shock, so the softail redesign makes sense and is overdue. I'm not sure the layout of our touring bikes lends itself to using a monoshock, but it will be interesting to see if that happens.

 

Great points...... and I certainly don't have the engineering knowledge to know if a version of the new softail frame is even feasible for a touring bike...

But I was thinking "cheaper" along the lines of only producing one frame (engine cradle)/one engine across all lines, and just changing the neck and/or aft section... for the various models...

But it matters not to me, if they can't get a handle on the oil transfer and sumping...!

 

As an engineer (nothing to do with H-D!) I can hazard the odd guess. We heard on the grapevine a while ago that the softails were going to be given the same basic frame loop as the touring bikes. Here in the UK the official launch of the new models is later this week, so I haven't had an opportunity to study them yet in the metal.

We can study diagrams of the two frames on line now, thanks to Outpost Alaska and others, but I struggle to see how the two frames are actually based on the same design. Unfortunately the MoCo don't oblige by publishing detailed stuff like technical drawings, so we can take a really close look!