Special King

The Road King Special Is a Brilliantly Thought Out Exercise in Cool Styling and Ride Perfection …

My phone buzzed with an incoming text. I picked it up. It read, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to jump on an early flight to Melbourne tomor-row, pick up a brand new 2017 M8 Road King Special and ride it back to Adelaide”. I pressed the yes button and my phone immediately caught fire and destroyed itself in the usual manner.

Yep, I knew I would have to negotiate past giant cement koalas and possibly hordes of drop bears, come too close for comfort to the dangers of Snake Gully, as well as enduring freezing cold and pea soup fog, but, hey, a chance to ride a new model HarleyDavidson is always worth taking.

So, after stopping at Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village to take some shots, I rolled into my driveway where, as it happened, my mate Bill had just called around to see me.

“Less is supposed to be more? What? Less bits but more dollars?” That’s how Bill reacted to his first look over the 2017 Road King Special sparkling in the sun. He was referring to the fact that the standard FLHR Road King (in Vivid Black) retails for $34,995, whereas the Special – in this stunning Hard Candy Hot Rod Red Flake – adds up to $37,995.

The standard FLHR gives you a windscreen, front and rear crash bars and lashings of shiny chrome, from the headlight nacelle all the way back to the tip of the chromed exhaust, none of which you get on the Special. You also lose the driving lights.