Screamin’ Eagle Wars:
2002 FLHRSEI vs. 2003 FLHRSEI2

When the first factory 95” kitted bike came out in the year 2000 in the Screaming Eagle Road Glide, everyone in our shop went out for a ride and was impressed. As is commonly said, “there’s no replacement for displacement.” Horsepower can be had at any displacement. One of the fastest Harleys in El Paso is an 80 inch Fat Boy that can pretty much run with anything. But it is an extensively modified bike and does not have that stock, smooth, unstrained feel to it. It is working its ass off to produce the power and the rider can feel it. When a larger displacement is chosen for more horsepower, modest cams can be used and the bike does not have to be revved high to produce power. The power has a nice, unstrained feel to it. You can imagine the bike going tens of thousands of trouble free miles.

When the factory 95” engine was fitted to the Road King, the collective eyebrows at our store were raised further. As the bike gets lighter, the extra horsepower is felt more as the power to weight ratio is increased. Everyone loved the Road King. Finally, Harley-Davidson this year put a 103” motor into the Anniversary Screaming Eagle Road King and a comparison test presented itself to us. If you are sitting on an 88 inch twin cam and want more power, what should you do? Go to the 95” kit or spring for the 103” one?

We just installed a dynojet dyno and for the last two weeks have been building up some 103” demonstrators to let our customers compare all the options for themselves so they don’t have to take my word. After testing the following: a stock 95” Road King, a stock 103” Road King, a hopped up 103” Road King and a no holds or dollars barred 103” Hot Rod Wide Glide; here are my conclusions.

The jump to 95 inches from 88 is well worth the money. Especially if you check out www.barnettharley.com/million where we had some big bore kits discounted for inventory clearance. The extra horsepower at the same rpm is fun and isn’t going to hurt your bike. The box stock Screaming Eagle Road King 2 with the 103” motor is even more fun, noticeably more fun in fact. Restricted by the EPA to about 79 horsepower and 83 foot pounds, it still feels like it has a turbo compared to the stock 88 model. In roll ons, the 103” Road King walks away from 88” models with breathing modifications and does so without losing its breath or revving to the moon.

Going a step further and taking a 103” Road King and hopping it up with cams, Screaming Eagle heads, the factory racing programming kit, pipes, and air cleaner brings the big boy up to an honest 100 horsepower and 111 foot pounds. This bike is fast. It isn’t just “faster” than a stocker or able to pass cars a little more quickly, it is fast for anything. Ducati 996s generally have only a little over 100 horsepower at the back wheel in stock form and they are raced at Daytona. Finally, I will do a separate test on our no holds barred Wide Glide in the next issue, but using all Harley parts with the exception of the Hooker Headers, we were able to get 122 horsepower to the rear wheel out of the 103” kitted FXDWG. This bike was very fast and sounded like a funny car at idle. It compared well to a 120 Merch-engined Confederate I had a few years ago.

Our initial experience with various Harley hop up kits have been very positive. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company is now in the performance business and my first impressions are that they are going to be able to provide very spirited engines with a feeling of refinement that the aftermarket is going to have to work very hard to meet. All of the above motors, even the super hopped up one felt more relaxed and smoother than hopped up aftermarket bikes I have ridden. As for a personal favorite, I really don’t like riding that fast on the street and my racing days are behind me. I do like bikes that accelerate hard but don’t like to ride models that feel like they are going to blow a gasket or seal or a motor mount at any moment. To me, the modified 103” (see the sidebar) was the pick of the litter. For those not wanting to spend the money, however, I think 90% of the fun can be had with just letting the standard 103 inch engine breath. A 90 horsepower model between the stocker’s 80 and the hopped up FLHRSEI2’s 100 is going to be the best smile per mile dollar combination.

Over the next few issues, we will chart the exact power curves of the dozens of combinations of Harley hop ups available now. We will also give you the parts and labor bills so you can hone in on your own best combo.

As for the Road Kings themselves, the motor choice having been discussed above, many people find these be Harley-Davidson’s most versatile model. It had the well-designed, turbine smooth FXR style heim joint rubber mount chassis. It is significantly lighter than the dresser models while still being able to take two up touring with tons of luggage. For a person splitting their riding 50/50 in city and on the highway, it is clearly the pick of the litter. Recently I’ve seen a trend to strip Road Kings down a little further to try and make city bikes out of them. The only thing really fat on the Road King is the saddlebags. One friend I know pulled the bags off entirely and then worked hard to clean up everything underneath. He ran without a windshield. Another put smaller leather bags that didn’t stick out so far. This made it easier to jump on and off of which is usually where a city bike is better than a dresser or regular Road King. Many customers have lowered Road Kings but few have gone to stretching tanks and making extensive modifications. All in all, the Road King is one of Harley’s top sellers, its versatility being its best selling point.

- Mark Barnett