[K1600FLHX]

Well I have been considering trading UP to the newly designed 15' RG from my 11'SG for the past few months. Finally got all of the finances in order, the GF convinced, and after 4 visits to my local dealership, talking about both the SG and RG, I finally pulled the trigger....and rented a 15'RGS.

All I can say is WOW!!!

After reading about all of the time and money invested in re-designing, and coming up with the Rushmore series, Harley Davidson needs to take a serious look at the competition, and while they say they spent thousand of miles and hundreds of hours i the saddle, they had me excited to make the trade up from my 2011 Street Glide.

A few notes...I currently own a 2012 BMW K1600GTL, and a 2011 Street Glide (with a Klock Werks windscreen, Mustang seat, Vance and Hines Monster Ovals, and a few bits of added KuryCrappin Chrome). I have owned a Sportster, Fatboy, Road King in the past 8 years.

I picked up the rental 15'RG on Saturday afternoon, with the full intentions of jumping onto the bike and making a Sunday early departure from SWFL to Key West, grabbing a burger at Sloppy Joe's, then heading back to the Fort Myers area the same day. I have made this 500+ mile ride several times, on both the BMW and my SG, with total mind clearing relaxation and total enjoyment of the great views from the saddle in years past.

As I got myself setup with all of the adjustments (mirror, stereo pre-sets) and left the dealership for my house in Sanibel, I was truly excited to begin what I thought was going to be a great 24+ hours on the newly designed RGS. I started the RGS special up, and thought once again to myself, the first order roof business when I pick up my new one the following week, must be the new Vance and Hines system....as she was just to silent, sitting in the parking lot and pulling out of the dealership.

Then came the first few turns thru the parking lot, hitting the brakes hard, a few tight turns both with the gas and hard brakes, so I had some idea of how this beast was going to handle, and all seemed great. Even with the size, a very nimble ride with great feel playing around in the 5-20moh range leaving the dealership area.

Then the wait at the LONGGGG traffic light to finally pull out of the dealership complex, excited to finally be on a newly designed piece of Harley engineering, waiting for the green.....wait for it....wait for it.....GREEN light hits and off I go....

Well as I increased in speed, and got to say the 35mph mark (which comes up pretty quickly), I notice the wind in my face....which felt pretty good at this point. Next light comes up, I hit the brakes and wait for the next green, still excited, knowing that first thing in the morning, I am going to be heading to Key West to enjoy a great burger and miles of water views.

Next light goes green, and I am finally off to Sanibel.....with the wind increasing as does my speed....45mph of speed, with 45 mph winds DIRECTLY hitting my upper chest level and above....60MPH winds DIRECTLY chest level and above, making me snug my half shell strap a little tighter, and me thinking WTF.

Is something not set right with the newly designed fairing vents HD has spent millions of dollars and hours developing? Is something as simple as a cheap black push button lever, not in the correct position. I pull into another parking lot mid way home, take a closer look, and they are all three set correctly...top vent is open, bottom two vents are closed. I bitterly stand in this parking lot, thinking this idiot must be missing something so obvious, yet nothing came to me.

So I jump back on this 15' RGS rental bike, and off I go, with the winds hitting my chest, face and head, being so extreme I am rethinking my doing 500+ miles on this bike, leaving early in the morning, before sunrise.

So as I am riding home, I think, lets try changing the seat over to my Mustang (salesman says it will fit), so once I get off of this newly designed wind tunnel in my driveway, I immediately pull her into the garage to commence with the seat swap. I also make a adjustment to the heal toe shifter. I then jump back on the back of this gorgeous looking black beast, fire her up and pull out of my driveway to see if she feels any better. and guess what......the wind on this ride STILL SUCKS!!!

Needless to say, I didn't take the rental RGS to the Keys the following morning. While I was so excited to both spend hours in the saddle of the newly designed RGS AND be able to enjoy another long day trip to Key West for a great burger (and the few stops along the way in the Keys, I thought to myself I'd be so so so sorry if I made this trip, getting blown away in the face the entire ride, that I actually considered leaving the new rental bike in the garage in the morning, and jumping on one of my other bikes, as I really did want that burger.

So I decided to keep things local, as I was spending $195 to ride this new bike for one full day, I should better really ride her and get a true felling of this bike, before I hand over $30k for one.

So to keep it simple, I will just list my few complaints I noticed in my 24+hours on the RGS.

1) Windshield on this newly designed touring bike SUCKS!!! With all of the money and hours invested in the new design of the Rushmore project, how in the F*$& could Harley ignore what I am sure EVERY individual (unless they are shorter than 4') have noticed in riding this newly created bike?

2) Infotainment system....The quick selections of pre-sets on the stereo are a tad unfriendly. Have to use the right hand control, instead of the stereo left hand controls to change from one favorite to the next. (I know this is petty, and I'd probably get familiar with this as time passed and never look back).

3) GPS....who designed this portion of their system? When entering via the keyboard, its in alphabetical order, not the qwerty style that every other gps unit and smart phone keyboard is....really???

4) GPS....the map when in nighttime mode SUCKS!!! Example....my street shows up while sitting on bike out front of house, zoomed in to see about a 1/2 mile radius, and it's name does not appear, yet the street over shows it's name. When driving out of my neighborhood, only about every third or fourth street displays its name (not a problem when I know the neighborhood, but when a GPS unit is really needed, like when your not on your own F... street, street names are kinda important.

5) GPS.... Riding on a local 4 lane major road thru SWFL, and this road has the appearance on the map as does every other street....the are all little thin white lines, no able to differentiate one major road from side streets.....they ALL appear as thin white same sized lines, no matter what the zoom level selected on the map. another WTF moment!!

6) GPS....POI setup. I select for a few POI spots to display on the map (Gas stations and then banks). ALL that shows on the display, no matter how you adjust the screen zoom, is a stupid blue dot. No gas station or bank logos (like my BMW Garmin unit does or my 14' Ford F250 GPS display does if POI's have been turned on. Now this isn't a issue when you know where you are in your local area, but travel to a never been before destination, and finding a gas station or bank, or other POI on this GPS unit would be impossible by only viewing locations on the map display, as all that you can see are BLUE dots!!!

7) HEADLIGHT .....Most of you probably haven't experienced this on a bike, but since I have, I must share. Yes...the technology is currently in use, and it works GREAT too. imagine a adaptive headlight on a motorcycle.....really!!! It's on my BMW and it makes the cornering on this bike while coming home or running out someplace after sunset so much safer and comfortable for a rider. I didn't think about it until I was riding around on the RGS saturday night. Harley could have made this a option on this bike, and others, and I know I would spend the additional thousand or so dollars to have it. As once someone has ridden a bike with the adaptive technology, its amazing!!! (If your not sure what I am referring to, take a look at the BMW motorcycle K1600 site and their adaptive headlight info...it's amazing and has been utilized for years now and with great success.


So my Harley Davidson test ride for 24+ hours has confirmed one thing for me.....and that is I am still searching for a TRUE touring bike, one that has been truly designed with the rider and passenger in mind, and that doesn't jump so quick into the market, that they leave out some of the most basic of things. Touring bike=Bike capable of highway speeds without blowing the helmet off its rider.

Who designs a new touring motorcycle where the wind above 45mph wants to blow your face and head off??? If you re going to respond to this with "buy a new windshield"....for $30K+, couldn't the manufacturer of this newly designed touring / highway cruiser installed a windscreen, that well.....screens the rider from the wind!!! Really, why should anyone expect a newly designed road cruiser motorcycle to be ready for the highway, unless they change the damn windshield before planning on getting on the highway? They might as well make the fuel tank optional, and force the buyer to purchase one of those before they can take the bike for a ride.

Who designs a new bike Infotainment system, which includes GPS, yet can't get even the most basic map features used in the other GPS units on the market (I am not sure if they attempted to write the code and mapping on their own or if they partnered with Garmin), but it looks like they tried this on their own, and it totally SUCKS!!! If your going to do something, do it well, don't try doing everything, as most of what you do will be subpar. Build a damn motorcycle, and leave the GPS system to those who know GPS systems.

So the search continues for a great bagger or touring bike. that can deliver the muscle sounding rumble of a american classic motorcycle, with the quality and engineering of something the europeans understand and do when designing and building a bike.

 

[Big_gary]

Well looks sell, function don't. Just look at all the folks that won't put a Madstad wind shield on their glide because it ain't cool. The Madstad offers the best wind management for a RG. As far as the Harley sound goes the MOCO is tie strapped by the helms of the over controlling US government. If you got a problem with that, think before you vote.
I never played with the GPS but agree , it should be as good as any Garmin on the market. I wonder if there were any down loads missing on that bike.
Bottom line , just , like the older FLTRX'S, put a bigger shield , and a few wind management diverters on and your on the best Harley out there.

 

[skratch]

Bottom line , just , like the older FLTRX'S, put a bigger shield , and a few wind management diverters on and your on the best Harley out there.

after reading the op, i don't think he is willing to do that.

s'okay though. they sell bmws all day long too.

 

[RideFar19]

The MOCO is behind the times as far as tecnology on bike "entertainment". The MOCO also supports thousands of jobs in the aftermarket industries by not using simple things like wind tunnels. No way they came up with the new vents using one.
The MOCO also knows that what most people are buying is more then a motorcycle they are buying themselves a lifestyle. Therefore they know people will drink the cool aid no matter how lacking their product is.
I myself ride a bike and do not live a Harley Lifestyle.
I hope they step it up when I get ready to get a new bike in 2020 while keeping my FTLRX also.

 

[HeatWave]

'Had a chance to ride my Bud's '15 CVORGU and the aero management is close to my '09 SERG (10" Windsplitter, GADS LTTD, Flaps, Vented Lowers)which is great!!! I always felt that the Vented Lowers were the most important piece to the aero management puzzle (on my '09) and "1600" bears that out in his post. I thought that the Rushmore vents were supposed to cure the aero issues on the "non lowers" RGs? I guess not...

As far as the GPS, I didn't play with that at all. The stock stereo did sound pretty good though...

 

[Big_gary]

'Had a chance to ride my Bud's '15 CVORGU and the aero management is close to my '09 SERG (10" Windsplitter, GADS LTTD, Flaps, Vented Lowers)which is great!!! I always felt that the Vented Lowers were the most important piece to the aero management puzzle (on my '09) and "1600" bears that out in his post. I thought that the Rushmore vents were supposed to cure the aero issues on the "non lowers" RGs? I guess not...

As far as the GPS, I didn't play with that at all. The stock stereo did sound pretty good though...

When I rode the 15 RGS with top vent open, bottom vent open, I experienced no wind buffing at all , just a lot of wind in the face. I compared it to riding my Dexlue with a chopped down Memphis Fats shield.

 

[diesel5]

on a fltr,any windshield less than 12-13 in. results in a lot of wind.i use a madstadt,&yes i agree hd doesn't care.all communications could be bluetooth.my fltru that i said was perfect in stock mode now has 37 mods which is low compared to some.i also put a goldwing vent in stock shield,works as well as madstadt,just to tall--diesel5

 

[K1600FLHX]

Thanks for the responses, as I really did (and somewhat still do, want the Road Glide). Ill be checking back with my sales guy on Wednesday, and Ill ask if the Infotainment system may have been in need of a update.

I am not opposed to placing another KlockWerks screen on my next bike, as I have truly loved the benefit from it being on my 11' Street Glide. I may have just been a little ticked in the airflow, after expecting HD would have perfected the air on their top end touring bike, especially after all of the other bragging comments, on how they spent thousands of hours riding this new creation...not only one up, but with their designers and engineers riding passenger as well (perhaps they were all in full face helmets, and were so troubled in riding passenger, they didn't try speaking with the rider or notice their helmets being sucked off their heads).

The GPS thing would be another easy fix, if I could purchase the bike without the infotainment system already installed, and just add whatever Garmin product happened to fit, but thats not a option I'm able to select. So hopefully a upgrade or two and the infotainment system could be corrected.

I did go look at my local Victory dealership today, and while their bikes do have a custom look about them, the switches on the handlebars for both the entertainment and the cruise control, look like very cheap aftermarket parts attached with a couple of screws to the side of the grips. So Victory probably won't be the next bagger/touring bike of choice.

Has anyone ever emailed/contacted HD directly with questions on something like the crappy GPS currently being offered and if upgrades were even something that was possible/planned?

Thanks again for the replies....still undecided.

 

[sblair]

The Touring bikes used to come with a full size windscreen. In 2009 they decided to go for a shorty that looks cool but had no functionality. This has carried over to the SG and RGS/X while on the RG Ultra you get a full size shield. The thought is that you want a really cool town bike as both the SG and RGS do not come with tour packs and such. MY FLTRUSE is awesome on wind management. Just got back from Albuquerque doing 886 miles in one day.
As for the GPS, it works OK but does not stand up to the Garmin. I had 2 Garmin 660's and this GPS is left wanting. Using it on the way to NM and back it worked fine but does not have the refinements of the 660.
As always, the more people complain, the faster HD will act on updating it to our requirements. Initially you could only have 9 waypoints on a map file but enhancements now allow 100. So they are working on it.

 

[Ohiobellboy]

Instead of the 30k , spend the extra 10k for the CVO. It comes with a taller shield, tank baffles AND lowers. It worked for me. Lol

Serious though, I haven't bothered to sit in the garage with that damn 230 page manual on the infotainment system yet. I know there's settings in there for just about everything.

 

[TLKurtz]

Not trying to mount a full defense for HD, although, yes I "drink the kool-aid" and love HD bikes (insert whatever joke you like here), but do you really expect a company to be able to provide 100% windscreen satisfaction for EVERY rider given we are all different shapes and sizes, all with different preferences and views of what is acceptable? Some say wind management could be better, others love the change. Find a bike you like (of whatever brand - hey, riding is riding) and modify it to suit your needs.

As for the GPS, I haven't looked through all of my settings, but on my Garmin in my truck there are detail settings that change viewing options like how many street names show up etc. Did you check the settings.

So far I love my '15 RGS, and just like my '12, I'll modify this one at my own cost to make it my very own and make it function for me. I ride about 10k miles a year (a small amount compared to some of you animals), and also like to take long trips across the country. My '12 RGC worked great for that and I fully expect this one to work just as well.

 

[Wharf Rat]

Gotta ask - what's wrong with the K1600GTL as a touring bike?

If I had that and an '11 Street Glide, I don't think I'd be looking at a Road Glide, unless it was to replace the SG.

As for 'wind management'... everybody's idea of what that is and what is or isn't acceptable is probably different.
Me? I find it funny to hear talk of wind management on a motorcycle.

 

[K1600FLHX]

Thanks again for the replies....kind of strange, but they are keeping my mind in the game with the new RGS.

As to the question of why get a RG, when I already have the K1600. While the touring alone on the K is perfect in my eyes, and the performance is absolutely amazing on every level....the occasional passenger significant other HATES the seat position, and all of the air movement associated with sitting back there.

So to keep her enjoying bike time with me, I have held onto the Street Glide, and the occasional two up rides work just fine. But I'm getting a little board with the Street Glide at this point, and the write ups and advertising on the new Street Glides and Road Glides caught my attention. I started off looking at the 15' Street Glide, but was gently pushed over to the Road Glide by several of the sales and service techs at my local dealership who ride the Road Glides and spoke very highly of them. Guess I over expected on the technological influx into the new design, after reading all of the hype put out by HD.

I will say, after viewing the Victory bikes earlier today, and seeing how they have mounted their audio and cruise control switches, it looks like someone remembered at the last possible moment "hey, nobody designed or installed controls for the stereo or cruise control....quick, grab a screw driver and mount something next to the grips real quick, before anyone notices its missing".

The wind management issue is one of the primary reason I am looking into a touring bike with a fairing. I'd like to be able to deter the main wind forces from blowing me off of the bike, and pounding my face, yet still be able to enjoy the movement of the air as is felt while riding a bike. I don't expect to be able to light a cig while riding, but to be able to keep my lid on my head and glasses from pulling off when I turn my head to the side...well that's what I was hoping to accomplish with the bike having a fairing.

So if installing my own windshield of choice takes care of the air flow, the only concern is (A) the status of the crappy GPS for the times the bike leaves my known parts of town, and (B) are updates and improvements something that can be installed as HD figures out how crapy their GPS really is?

Thanks again to those who have replied, and knowing it or not....are pulling me back a tad closer, comment after comment, to the Road Glide.

 

[Ohiobellboy]

They release updates every so often for the infotainment system. I get them off MoCo website, download it on a flashdrive and then upload them to the bike. Takes about 1 beer to do it.

 

[caberto]

That's interesting... I have the two bottom vents open and the top closed on mine, and the wind I do get is negligible for me. I do get more wind than I do on the Road King, but it certainly doesn't take anything away, and I have zero buffeting. I think the wind I get is just right for me... it's not pushing me back at all, it's mild and clean. It is a little more than the Road King which is nice on hotter days, and not enough to be uncomfortable on colder days. Could I use a taller windshield? On the longer rides, yes I think so, but mostly for the noise factor while wearing a half helmet. If I wore a full face helmet I think that would be a non-issue.

The GPS has worked very well for me with all the routes I've thrown at it and to display the radio info I want while in GPS mode. I don't think I've tried zooming in with the GPS, but I don't think I've ever zoomed in on my truck GPS in all the years I've had one either, so I suppose that's not a concern for me. I do have the latest update on the radio, so that may help with some of the issues you had, I don't know.

Overall, I'm very happy with mine. As I said, I think I may get a Klockwerks windshield to see if that helps with the wind noise a bit, but it's clean mild wind, so the actual wind doesn't bother me.

Good luck on your decision!

 

[finn1969]

I test drove the K1600 GTL and loved so much about the bike. The engine, transmission and controls were amazing. I really wanted to like it more than my RGU. The problem for me was the riding position on the K1600 and my wife actually preferred the Harley ride over the BMW.

So I kept my RGU and have decided to do more things to make it more personal to me. I love the new RGS and was going to get it while purchasing the tour pack and hammock seat for longer rides. Some people just fit Harley's better and I guess I am one of them. If you are still thinking about it and feel it's calling to you then perhaps it answered all the questions you have about your BMW.

Buy it...you will like it!

 

[idahointrudr]

I pulled my madstad off of my 09. put it on my 13.
When I get the new style Road Glide it will have lowers and Madstad.

 

[goose2]

I was also excited to get a RGS and was on the first one my dealer got. I road it 10 miles in town riding and was also not to impressed with the wind in my face.
The low shield that comes on them makes the looks of the bike and does nothing else. To stop the wind in your face you would have to put some god awful ugly thing on there and that would for sure ruin the over all looks of the bike.

I bagged the RGS thing and purchased a brand spanking new ultr limited and very glad I decided on the batwing. Hopefully Harley will wake up and get these little things figured out someday.

 

[TLKurtz]

They release updates every so often for the infotainment system. I get them off MoCo website, download it on a flashdrive and then upload them to the bike. Takes about 1 beer to do it.

I like the way you measure time!

 

[RGS15 Steve]

I like you think HD could be doing a better job. I haven't sold my TomTom yet cause i don't like the way the GPS is working. There are numerous things I've written them about personally. I'm hoping they will someday address them all.
If you purchase a bike of this price and they have optional parts, you should be able to set the bike up to fit you in the dealership for the price they are asking. Windshield, Floorboards moved if needed, seat to fit stuff like that. Because like its already been said none of us are the same size. OK will I buy them anyway yeah.

A good case in point is I didn't know the RGS has lowered rear suspension. Well I've moved my floorboards out 1/2" now I can't lean very much without dragging the floor board support, so I have to spend 500 dollars for new shocks. That really sucks. We should be given the option to set the bike up for our size for 23k dollars.

I built a 2015 RGS Ultra, for about 27k am I happy with it? Love it Came off a 12 Ultra Limited. I'm running a 14" Freedom Shield didn't like the windvest.