Don't get me wrong, a lot of Road King riders have Heritage bars installed on their bikes and they are comfortable on the open road. I never dropped my bike when I had stock bars, but since I put on the Heritage bars on I've dropped it twice; both times it was making slow speed or sharp 90 degree turns. Some may say it's inexperience with a new bar, but I know what feels right to me; that's why I'm going with the Chubbys 518s. Although the stock bars were great for control, they were very uncomfortable after a long run.
The Harley parts catalog recommends other handlebars for the Road King including the Road Glide bar as a comfortable alternative, but I've only seen a few on the dealership parking lots.
Bill

 

6'1" and the stock bars pulled me forward I went with the 518 chubby's. They will work with stock cables but I would change the throttle to +4's as chubby recomends, its a good time to change to steel braid! As for the seat...it sucks, I ended up with the mustang 2-piece touring with the driver backrest. This seat changed my position and offered alot more lower back support. I used to get butt-ache at 80-90 miles on the stock seat, I can kill a tank of fuel with no issues now. I did take awhile to break in the seat though...maybe 300 miles or so.

 

Went to Gettysbug Bike Week yesterday to enjoy sights & sounds; parked my bike & tried tolock my handlebars, but they were hitting the top of speedometer, so I had to lift them up. I don't know if this is a common problemwith handlebarslike the Heritage or Ape Hangers due to the amount ofleverageput on the bar against the weight ofa touring bike. Also went to make that 90 degree turn onto the main highway when leaving and it was more effort than I would've liked. Once I got back out onto the main highway & traveling in a straight line it was smooth sailing all the way back to Frederick, Md.

 

As I have said more times than I can remember, I use WG bars on my RG (and previous RG) and they also work fine with all the stock cables and wiring.

The reason I tried them in the begining was becuse a buddy had just installed them on his RK and it made a HUGE improvment to the comfort of his bike. Additionally, if your buddy's last bike was a WG, they will familiar to him.....

 

Not to keep taking away from the person that started this post with myHeritage Bar problems, here's the website address for Chubbys Wild One Handlebars; it will give you descriptions, pictures & testimonalsof the different types of bars they offer and feel free to call their customer service dept. for advice.

 

Chubbys Wild Ones Handlebar site
http://www.wild1inc.com/handlebars.html

 

What about the RK Fat Bar kit? How does that compare to these others? I ride a RK Custom, I'm only 27, but I'm 6'4", that's why I have the big bike. Let's face it, if the bars don't look good too, it doesn't matter how comfortable they are, I won't use them. If I just wanted to be comfortable, I'd drive my truck.

 

Judging by some of what gets posted here on the forum one would think HD wasn't too responsive to customer complaints. I personally have no bad experience with them.

My first thought on the reason behind the new handlebars for the '08s was to get around the larger gas tanks better at full steering lock.

 

glens,
Good pointabout different handlebars on the Road Kng Standard to accommodate the larger gas tank; as far as customer complaints, Harley will get enough of them when the 08 Rockers & Fat Bobs hit the show room floors.

 

Heritage bars and a Sundowner seat works for me.