from the standpoint of ride and performance, what is the differnce between the two, or is there any difference?
Is the street glide better for both in town and on the road riding?

 

For what its worth all I ever hear is that the RoadGlide is the best riding Harley. If I were interested in them I would test drive both and then I would decide and not go by opinions.



Randy

 

You will read a ton about the benefits of each bike, opinions ranging from looks to handling to uniqueness. I own a Street Glide (about 13 months now), and just had the chance to rent a Road Glide last week. Of course, a 170 mile rental vs. about 6,000 miles on my own bike will not be a completely fair comparison, but here goes.

Keep this in perspective. I tried to overlooks these differences in bikes:

a) The Road Glide rental had a stage 1 air kit and HD slip ons, and stage 1 ECM upgrade. It was not even close in performance to my Street Glide with V&H true duals, V&H slash slip ons, stage 1 air kit, and PowerCommander. There was a noticable difference in accelleration capability (with my SG being much better).

b) The Road Glide stock windshield was way too high for my liking. I had to look through it. Further, the helmet I was provided was a 3/4 with face shield. Between looking through the face shield and looking through the windshield, I was uncomfortable with my visibility.

So, my review of the bikes, disregarding the above:

1) The Road Glide is more comfortable on the butt in its stock form. The seat was great, and the shocks provided a noticeably smoother ride.

2) The Road Glide fixed fairing does take some getting used to, but is excellent for slow turns and in parking lots. I don't find the Street Glide batwing fairing bad in slow speeds, but the Road Glide was a slight bit easier to handle.

3) I prefer the layout of the Street Glide dash. In particular, the radio on the Road Glide seems like it is a mile away and pretty uncomfortable to change.

4) The Road Glide had cruise (not sure if that is standard on that bike). Never throught I'd care for cruise...I was wrong! It is VERY nice and has made my mod list for my Street Glide.

5) HERE'S THE BIGGIE - At highway speeds the Road Glide was HORRENDOUS. At 75 MPH, getting close to trucks was downright frightening. I would say that once I was withing about 100 yards of a truck the wind blast made the Road Glide feel incredibly unstable. I've ridden for about 6 years now and have never felt that before on any bike. This really surprised me as most of what I've read about the Road Glide points to it being more stable on the highway than the bikes with the batwing fairing. My experience was 100% the opposite.

For reason #5, I would never consider a Road Glide. I was anticipating a lower amount of wind and a more stable highway ride. What I found was that the wind protection is aboue the same as on my Street Glide with 6" windshield, but the highway ride was much worse.

I am sure that this will rankle some Road Glide supporters. But this comes from recent and 1st hand experience.

Thanks, John

 

No one can make up your mind for you, you will hear many opinions for each, the road glide does have better rear shocks for touring and standard cruise controll, power will be the same as they both have the same motor/trans setup and are 90% the same bike, less weight on the front forks gives better handling im told but ive ridden bat wings many years with no problem. As to the above written things about hiway instability, he's the only person out of hundreds I have heard say that. It basicly boils down to looks, which one you like best.

 

Actually, that's why I was so surprised by the handling. Clearly, this could have been this particular bike itself.

 

I had the chance to rent a road glide and street glide on the same day. I did a 4-hour rental from a local HD dealer. I currently own a 2003 Deuce.

To me, I like the looks of the street glide better even though the fairing of the road glide is growing on me.

The stock seat on the street glide is not comfortable to me. The stock seat on the road glide is nice.

Since the street glide is lowered it has a bit stiffer suspension. The road glide suspension was nice.

Riding on the highway (SR78 and Interstate I-5) the road glide was rock solid at highway speeds. I did not experience any of the issues that JDAG did when he rode the road glide on the highway. The road glide flowed smoothly through the turns and twisty roads. I felt comfortable on the road glide within five minutes of starting out on the rental. I have been riding for the past 24 years. At 5’10” tall, my field of view was at the top of the windscreen. It was like the top of the windscreen was splitting the top of my eyeball from the bottom of the eyeball. That was a little bit of an annoyance. I found myself crouching down to look through the windscreen. The street glide with the little stock windscreen, forced the air up and over the batwing fairing and it hit me in the chest and face. At highway speeds it was almost unbearable. The wind would cause my head to move in various directions. After a 30-minute drive on the freeway with the street glide my neck was sore. I do wear a full-face helmet. I did not experience any issues with the street glide while driving it off the highway. The ride on the street glide was noticeably stiffer than that of the road glide.

The road glide has cruise control and the street glide does not. At first I did not think much of the cruise control but after using it, I like it.

At the beginning of the rental, I was hoping the street glide would be the bike for me. However the road glide is going to be my next bike.

My advise to you, is rent both and make a decision.

 

I've been riding RG's for over 5 years and I can honestly say I've never experienced what jdag did on that rental bike. I would assume that it had to be that bike and not RG's in general. Who knows what that rental bike has been through? I hope jdag gets another chance at highway riding on a Road Glide .. then others reading the forum could probably discount the above statement. Overall, I did agree with most of jdag's review and do respect his and everyone's comments. Keep the comments coming guys/gals .. great job.

 

To all...yes, I do hope to rent a Road Glide in the future. I really think that my poor handling experience may have been because of that particular bike. I was giving a review, and tried to stress that there were some issues that were overlooked (such as helmet type and windshield height). In my review, the handling could not be overlooks as it was significant. Albeit, possibly an issue with the specific bike and not the Road Glide model in general.

 

I rented a Street Glide in Florida and road it about 1000 mi, came back home ready to buy one! Went to dealer and he asked if I had tried a Road Glide? I repied I tried to but the one in Florida was wrecked that is why the Street Glide was rented (liked the looks also) Ended up test riding a Road Glde and glad I did. It was a windy day and was impressed with the handling on the highway with wind and trucks Ended up ordering the Road Glide-get it in a couple of weeks and will let you know more. But my advice is to get the Street Glide as I like the fact that so few RGs are on the streets in my area.

 

From a "performance perspective", there is absolutely NO DIFFERNECE on comparably configured/tuned bikes. They are the SAME, except for the fairing(s), rear shocks, and gereral trim.

I've had an EG and two RG's..... "For ME", there is no comparison when it comes to ride quality or stability at any speed. The RG handles and rides better in any/all situations. Again ~ "for me".