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The Naked Touring Bike

The Harley-Davidson Road King This large, unfaired touring bike—featuring a classic design with a removable windshield, headlight housing, and two auxiliary headlights—has been part of the lineup since the 1994 model year and will be available in Germany through the 2025 model year, most recently as the Road King Special. The Road King has not been part of the standard lineup since 2026; a few authorized dealers still have remaining inventory from the 2024 and 2025 model years, but otherwise, the used market is the only option. What the industry buzz says about 2027 can be found in the Outlook.

The Road King at a Glance

The Road King belongs to Harley-Davidson's Touring family, and within it, it is the bike without a fairing. Instead of a Batwing or Sharknose it wears a headlamp nacelle, on the base model and the Classic with two auxiliary lamps and a windshield you can take off in a few moves, plus floorboards, two saddlebags and a handlebar that keeps you sitting upright. Harley-Davidson launched it with the 1994 model year, styled after the 1965 Electra Glide, and the line goes all the way back to the 1949 Hydra Glide.A Road King gives you the touring bike in its original form. Without the windshield you have a cruiser silhouette in front of you, with windshield and saddlebags a bike for two weeks in the Alps. 

Over the years the base model spawned the Classic with whitewall tires, the dark Special, the Custom, the CVO and the Police.

History of the Road King Since 1994

Until 1998, the Road King was powered by the Evolution engine; from 1999 to 2016, it featured the Twin Cam in three displacement variants; and from 2017 to 2025, it was powered by the Milwaukee-Eight in 107- and 114-cubic-inch versions.

With the 2010 model year the plain Road King disappeared from the German lineup, the Classic stayed, and only in 2016 did the base model return with the Project Rushmore features.

The end of the line

Then came the end. The last plain Road King rolled off the line in 2022, only the Special remained until 2025, and it carried on with the older Touring platform while the Street Glide and Road Glide got the new generation in 2024.

You will find more model years and sister models in the archive of all Harley-Davidson model years.

Road King Models: Classic, Special, Custom, CVO, Police

At Harley-Davidson the base model is simply called Road King, model code FLHR. Everything else is a variant on the same platform, and which of them were in the lineup changed over the years.

FLHR1994 to 2022

Road King (FLHR)

The plain Road King is the original, with a removable windshield, headlamp nacelle, floorboards, saddlebags holding 64.7 liters and a 22.7 liter tank. It was missing from the German lineup from 2010 to 2015, came back in 2016 with all Project Rushmore features, and from 2017 with the Milwaukee-Eight 107. It never got a cornering assistance system (RDRS) and no infotainment either, but from 2020 it had 18 inch wheels front and rear. 2022 was its last model year. 

Road King Classic (FLHRC, FLHRCI)

The Classic is the nostalgic Road King with spoke wheels, whitewall tires and leather-look saddlebags. As the fuel-injected FLHRCI it was built from the late 1990s, from 2010 to 2015 it was the only regular production Road King in Germany, alongside it there was only the CVO in 2013 and 2014, and with the 2020 model year Harley-Davidson dropped it from the European lineup.

Technically it matches the base model, in 2019 with the Milwaukee-Eight 107, 376 kg ready to ride and a seat height of 715 mm. Used, it is one of the more affordable Road Kings today.

Road King Special (FLHRXS)

With the Special, Harley-Davidson turned the Road King into a bagger in 2017. Mini ape hanger handlebar, 19 inch front wheel, black parts instead of chrome, stretched saddlebags and no windshield. First with the Milwaukee-Eight 107, from 2019 with the 114, from 2020 with the RDRS rider assistance systems and tire pressure monitoring, from 2021 with the Daymaker LED headlamp, in chrome or black. From 2023 to 2025 it was the only Road King in the lineup. The four launch colors of 2017 are shown in The four Road King Special colors and the last edition on the page about the Road King Special 2025.

Road King Custom (FLHRS, FLHRSI)

The Road King Custom ran under the code FLHRS, as a fuel-injected model FLHRSI, for a few years from the 2004 model year. Used examples are rare, and in the Harleysite Marketplace it is listed under the model key Road King with the addition Custom

Road King Police (FLHP)

The Road King Police (FLHP) is the law enforcement version of the Road King. It still shows up in the German registration figures today, in 2023 at number 29 among the Harley-Davidson models, and it is also on the 2017 and 2018 clutch recall list.

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CVO Road King (FLHRSEI, FLHRSE)

The Custom Vehicle Operations department refined the Road King several times. In 2002 the Screamin' Eagle Road King (FLHRSEI) came to Europe, one of the first two CVO models ever exported. More model years followed in 2003, 2007 and 2008, and finally in 2013 and 2014 the CVO Road King (FLHRSE) with 200 watt audio, vented windshield, saddlebag extensions and leather seats, according to Harley-Davidson only a few hundred units per model for Europe. How it was presented in 2013 is covered in CVO Breakout and CVO Road King 2013.

Road King special editions

For Harley-Davidson's 110th anniversary there was the 2013 Road King in the two-tone anniversary paint, limited to 1,750 units worldwide, and the CVO Road King 110th Anniversary in Diamond Dust and Obsidian, individually numbered. There were also anniversary editions in 1998 for the 95th, in 2003 for the 100th and in 2008 as a CVO Road King for the 105th. In 2018 and 2023 there was no Road King among the anniversary models.

Spec sheet: three model years of the Road King

The 2016 Road King with the last Twin Cam, the 2019 Classic with the Milwaukee-Eight 107 and the 2025 Special as the last edition with the 114 show how the bike has changed.