I had a Deluxe. Great canvas bike. Increase in traveling and aging body convinced me to go Touring. Deluxe was nice for scooting about town but not comfortable for road trips.

Wish I could hve had both.

 

Buy the bike that works for your riding style. I had a 98 Fat Boy that I loved and when I bought it I thought I would be doing a lot of short trips. As the trips got longer and longer I needed to move up to a touring bike. I wouldn’t trade it for any thing but I wouldn’t mind the Fat Boy to still be in the garage.

 

Do what's best for YOU! If you can afford a softtail and a touring bike, that's a good thing. But if you can't, do what you're comfortable with and go back to the softtail! Don't let folks confuse you into being indecisive. You already know what you want to do! SOFTTAIL.

 

Rent/borrow another Deluxe for a weekend, and ride the crap out of it. Now that you've moved to the bigger King, you might feel the Deluxe is too small. Doesn't sound like you had that same perspective with your first go-around on your Deluxe.
Could possibly be an easy decision one way or another, after renting.
Good luck!

 

Update:

Well, we went and rode both the Heritage and Deluxe. The result was as I expected. Wife says "it's not as roomy as our bike". I figured as much. Before we even left the parking lot, she complained about the sitting position on the Heritage, saying it was too high. The Deluxe was a better sitting position, but she could tell it wasn't going to work............

The problem I have with the Deluxe, is they come way to stripped and are only a few hundred less than a Heritage. That always bothered me that they can charge that much for a bike with no bags, or windshield. Oh well, I still love that bike, and the way I had mine set up it was a great bike.

The good news is, she said I can get a detach fairing for our trips Anyone have a detachable fairing they want to sell me? I have all winter to make up my mind which one is best for me and won't cost me an arm and a leg.

I guess I'll just have to wait until my last kid is out of the house and get me a bar hopper. I've always wanted a bike and tinker with.

I appreciate all the response and kind words. None of your responses went un-noticed. It was a decision "WE" had to make and not an easy one. But, I'm glad we did what we did, and it's nice to have a ton of people to refer to in times like these. Thanks fellas. I'm still the proud owner of a geezer bike.......

 

I think you both made the right decision JD. And good thing you did it now before trading. Nothing like riding with regret.

 

A lot of people say pick the bike that fits your riding style but I have alway thought for me and most owning a bike is more emotional. Buy the one that makes you smile when you see it and you will ride it more.
You said yourself you don't do short rides as much now. You can tour on any bike if you really like the bike. Life is too short the smart decision has to made to often in life make buying your bike different.