The USA is such a big country that you could drive for days and still be in the same state in some cases. So if you’re thinking of purchasing a tourer to ride from one coast to another, or ride the length of the longest highways, you’re going to have to get something capable of the trip. Highways like Route 20 or I-90 will not suffer from busy engines, bad wind protection, and small fuel tanks. You need something worthy of spending all day on the road, and having you get off and say, “Let’s do it again tomorrow!” Lucky for us, motorcycle manufacturers understand this and have made the right tools for the job.
Why Not Go American For American Roads?
There are some incredibly good tourers available from other countries – the BMW K 1600 GTL and Honda Gold Wing Tour come to mind – but if you’re going to ride across America, you have to have something American. The V-twin soundtrack is what you need in the background, and the kind of torque on-demand it provides is unmatched. So an American full-dress tourer it is. The choice then comes down between Indian and Harley-Davidson. The latter edges the former, though.
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The Harley-Davidson CVO Street Glide Limited Can Dominate America’s Longest Highways
With all due respect to Indian Motorcycle, Harley-Davidson dominates this segment. The proof is in the variety of tourers that are available, and the prices they are available at. Milwaukee shuffled up its touring range this year, deleting some old favorites and adding new blood to the range. One of the new ones is this, the CVO Street Glide Limited. It has everything you will need – and want – for riding along the US’s longest highways and ending up as fresh as a daisy when you’re done.
Good Things Don’t Come Cheap
This is a Harley-Davidson full-dress tourer, and it has a CVO and a Limited badge. That means a triple whammy of premiums, plus it has all the bells and whistles by default. The asking price? One that will make you do a double-take: $51,999. You can drive it up a little more with a couple of additions, but this is one Harley that doesn’t really need anything from the options list; it is a complete machine at the price.
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121 Reasons For Its Performance
With the CVO Road Glide RR sold out, the Milwaukee Eight 121 has reverted to being The Motor Company’s largest displacement engine. This 1,977cc engine has some very interesting tech added to it. There is variable valve timing despite the pushrods, and the cylinder heads are liquid-cooled for better, more consistent performance. The compression ratio is quite high, 11.4:1, but the results are worth it: 115 horsepower at 4,500 RPM and 139 pound-feet at 3,000 RPM. Somehow, Harley-Davidson still claims 45 MPG for this engine, which is right up there with the smaller 117 engine.
Since this engine has been on sale for three years now, any gremlins it might have had have long since been sorted out, and it is a reliable unit. A six-speed ‘Cruise Drive’ gearbox with a slipper clutch transmits power via a drive belt. Harley claims a top speed of 110 MPH for the CVO Street Glide Limited, but its real talent lies in cruising at 80 MPH, with the engine’s torque wafting you along at low revs.
Traditional Chassis, But Quality Components
A steel double downtube cradle frame holds everything together. However, everything else is an upgrade from the regular Harley tourers, and this makes it stand out as a CVO product. It starts with the big 48 mm inverted front forks and the twin rear shocks with adjustable emulsion technology. Suspension adjustment consists of preload adjustment at the rear, but nothing at the front. The brakes are also worthy of the CVO moniker, with twin 320 mm discs at the front with Brembo radial four-piston fixed calipers, while the 300 mm rear disc has an axial caliper. A 19/18-inch alloy wheel combination has tubeless tires.
This Is Not A Small Bike
As a full-dress tourer, you know what you’re in for with the CVO Street Glide Limited. It is nearly 104 inches long and 41 inches wide, on top of a 64-inch wheelbase. You’re not going to be filtering through traffic in one of these, that’s for sure. Unladen ground clearance is 5.5 inches, while the laden seat height is a very low 26.4 inches. It has a six-gallon fuel tank, 4.8 cubic feet of luggage space distributed among the three luggage items, and weighs 919 pounds in running order.
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Great Features List, But No Reverse Assist
We understand that one needs to keep moving ahead in life, but a 919-pound motorcycle really does need a reverse assist, especially at the CVO Street Glide Limited’s price. Other than this fly in the ointment, it has a great feature set. There is a 12.3 TFT touchscreen with the Skyline OS and Apple CarPlay, a taller windshield, highway ‘pegs’, a heel shifter, a removable rider backrest, and heated seats. The saddlebags have electronic locks, and the trunk has speaker pods in it. You can upgrade the speakers in the audio system, have either a blue colorway or an orange one, passenger armrests, a performance air filter, a titanium exhaust muffler, and saddlebag guardrails.
There is a by-wire throttle and a six-axis IMU, so you get ride modes, cornering-enabled traction control, drag torque slip control, and ABS. The brakes are electronically linked as well, meaning if you pull on the front brake lever, the computer will also apply the rear brake if required. Of course, cruise control is a standard feature.
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Not Too Much Competition, Even With Its Price
There are a few full-dress tourers available that could give the CVO Street Glide Limited a run for its money, but none of them would be able to mount a serious challenge. The BMW K 1600 GTL ($29,995) will most likely not be considered by the target audience because it leans too much into its sportiness, but that inline six is a unique experience; there is no question about that.
The R 18 Transcontinental ($24,395) is a class below despite offering similar numbers to the Harley on the spec sheet. Its Bavarian quirkiness is a very different experience as well. However, if you’re looking at a non-American full-dress tourer, there’s only one real competitor to a Harley CVO, and that is the Honda Gold Wing Tour DCT Airbag. At $33,800, it is quite a good value, and offers a lot of features that aren’t available in any other motorcycle.
From the Americans, Indian has two contenders. The Pursuit Elite is the more performance-oriented one with its PowerPlus 112 engine. But it does have a vast array of features comparable to a Harley CVO. However, a better direct competitor to the CVO Street Glide Limited is the Roadmaster Elite with the Thunderstroke 116 engine. This is an old-school long stroke, air-cooled, two-valve unit with monstrous torque. It has some great modern features as well, like ride modes from a by-wire throttle, rear cylinder deactivation, a TFT display with connected features, and both these Elite models exclusive paint jobs. They are going to be made in severely limited runs, though, unlike the CVO Street Glide Limited.
Source: Harley-Davidson USA