Starting to consider trading my heritage for a touring model. I love the look of the road glide but I've never ridden one. How do they ride and is the fixed faring hard to get used to?
DONT DO IT!! Follow the rest of the crowd and get a street glide!!! The Road Glide sucks, worst damn bike I have ever known!! Hopefully this scares you away from the coolest bike ever? I'm joking. I love it. I came over from a GSX-R 1000 crotch rocket and was always used to having handlebars that dont have any added weight to them so for me it was a no brainer. Handles? I scraped pegs on mines when I rode it out the H-D parking lot. Seriously! And felt like I could lean it even more. This thing is smooth like butter and its sweet spot is about 75-80 mph. Like mentioned before though and new screen is a MUST. I rode a street glide before i bought mine and for me the Roadie "just fit", kinda like a well worn leather motorcycle glove. Plus, it stands out in a crowd, and in that crowd of 100+ Harleys you gonna see about 70 Batwings all with agitator wheels (the new craze right now) and about 20 road kings and about 10 Sharks. Get one...you will love it. Oh yeah, check out www.roadglide.org. Yep...our own site.
Last fall I got a 12 RGC in black denim that I have 3,400 miles on so far. I have 21K on my 10 Ultra so I have a good comparison. The RG has better stability in heavy winds and a marginally better ride and handling.
But I liked it so much that I bought a second one. This one has even better ride and handling a 12 GG CVO.
Make sure you test ride one & not around the block. Take it out on the road."You mean the fairing doesn't turn" ?????? Hell, I never noticed. Good luck.
I just traded my '10 Heritage for a '12 Road Glide Ultra. I love it!!! Test rode one at Americade this year and the wife and I couldn't believe how smooth it was. We rode the Heritage to Laconia, spent a few days riding in the White Mountains and wifey was not that happy with seat. Ended up trading the Heritage on the spot for the FLTRU and haven't looked back (other than to see the happy face on the seat behind me.)
Now to be fair, that Heritage was nice, gorgeous and a great ride and I really enjoyed it. For two up riding, we feel the Road Glide U wins hands down. Just our experience...