Harley-Davidson is changing the standard on touring design and performance with the all new 2023 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide and CVO Street Glide. We had the opportunity to be the first to test out the new CVO's and really see if they delivered the pinnacle Grand American Touring experience.
Read the full review here: https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/harley-davidson-cvo-street-glide-and-road-glide-121-review/
Read the full review here: https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/harley-davidson-cvo-street-glide-and-road-glide-121-review/
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00:00 I'm standing with two Harley-Davidson CVO Touring models, a street glide and a road glide.
00:07 What's new? Everything is new except the frame.
00:11 [Music]
00:30 The jewel of any Harley-Davidson is its engine, and the center of these bikes, as ever, is a 45-degree V-twin.
00:37 What's new here is a ton of stuff to increase performance and tractability and smoothness.
00:42 It starts with an airbox that's way, way bigger, feeding a 121-cubic-inch V-twin.
00:48 It has VVT, variable valve timing. It's moving the camshaft 40 degrees when you're running it,
00:54 so you can make it run super smooth and tractable at the very bottom end, 1,000 RPM, 1,500 RPM.
01:01 It just pulls cleanly away, cleaner than the other bikes with the old motor.
01:05 It revs through the mid-range like you would not believe.
01:07 It is peppy and free and strong through the mid-range,
01:11 and it pulls longer than other bikes in the Harley lineup without VVT.
01:16 That airbox feeds a 58-millimeter throttle body. That's new, and it's bigger than before.
01:21 It goes into optimized intake tracks that are straighter, smoother, more efficient.
01:26 It goes into combustion chambers that are reshaped.
01:29 With reshaped valve seats going into a combustion chamber with more squish and a repositioned spark plug,
01:34 they jack the compression way up. It's 11.4 to 1, significantly higher than on the other models.
01:39 All of that leads to better efficiency, more torque, more power,
01:44 and a bigger smile on your face when you roll the throttle on.
01:47 So the reshaped fuel tanks on these bikes are six gallons,
01:50 which combined with the claimed 3 to 5 percent increase in fuel economy,
01:54 thanks to all those engine changes, should give you ample range.
01:57 Yesterday we rode pretty hard, and we got more than 40 miles per gallon.
02:01 Not a cycle world test number, but an indication that you might get 240 miles out of a tank,
02:06 which is very nice on a touring bike.
02:09 One of the other unseen technical changes in the redesigned cylinder heads
02:13 is different cooling passages to really concentrate the cooling around the hottest areas.
02:18 And yes, it's to cool the motor, but really what it's for is like in parade mode,
02:22 especially when you're just like chugging along at low speed,
02:24 it's to control engine heat and take it away from the rider.
02:27 You would hardly know that there's liquid cooling going through these cylinder heads.
02:31 The radiator is really well integrated into the lower fairing, the lower front fairing of the bike.
02:36 The reservoir, particularly on the road glide, you don't see because it's behind some fairing panels.
02:41 You do see the reservoir on the street glide.
02:43 So Harley touring bikes have always been kind of the secret hot rods of the lineup.
02:47 Maybe the Fat Bob is equal or a little bit more now in the Softail line.
02:51 These have taken it up a notch.
02:52 The main frame is the same as it's been since 2009,
02:55 but everything else has evolved over the years and we've taken another big step forward for these CBOs.
03:00 The fork is an inverted Showa fork now.
03:03 It's 47 millimeter diameter.
03:05 It has 4.6 inches of travel.
03:07 It's much stiffer than the conventional fork on the previous models.
03:10 The stiffness makes the steering response that much quicker, more precise feeling.
03:15 It's really just a huge improvement, ride quality, heavy braking.
03:19 The fork squats down, travel remains.
03:22 It's just more controlled, more precise.
03:24 You can go a little faster.
03:26 At the rear, it's complemented by 50% more travel.
03:29 Now, three inches of travel is not a ton of rear travel,
03:32 but when you want this long and low look, you're making compromises.
03:35 It's a three inch travel that is exceptionally well utilized.
03:39 It also has spring preload adjustment.
03:41 There's a mechanical adjustment that you get in, you turn the spring collar.
03:45 That's kind of your broad adjustment.
03:47 And then on the outside, there's this really convenient handle that allows you within the range to continue to adjust the preload.
03:53 But what you get with these changes with that fork and that shock and the ride height is a more comfortable, more precise handling bike.
03:59 The Road Glide rides bigger because the fairing is this big cockpit in front of you.
04:04 It's just bulkier and bigger.
04:06 But the advantage, in my opinion, is that the fairing is not mounted to the fork.
04:11 So what you get is you're only steering the fork on the bike.
04:14 You're not steering the fairing.
04:16 The Street Glide, you get wind working on the surfaces here,
04:19 and it just makes the bike feel a little bit less planted.
04:22 When you're riding at high speed around town, 60 miles an hour, very much not an issue.
04:27 It's just a difference in feeling and it's a difference in stance.
04:30 For years, I wondered why the weight conversation never appeared to be in the room during Harley-Davidson development.
04:36 Finally, it seems to be.
04:39 The Street Glide has been reduced in weight by 31 pounds, and the Road Glide has been reduced in weight by 35 pounds.
04:46 That's a really significant reduction, and it's a piece from here, a piece from there.
04:50 The gauge steel on the tank, a bunch of details that add up.
04:53 The front trim of the Climbs is reduced in weight by 7 pounds.
04:56 That's massive, and it's also on something that you're moving to steer,
04:59 and it adds up to that increased precision and lighter steering.
05:03 Dynamically, you feel it on the road in every aspect.
05:07 Acceleration, braking, ease of pushing it around the parking lot.
05:10 30 pounds is a huge reduction.
05:12 Harley's legacy of styling is culturally profound, let's say.
05:16 You instantly recognize these bikes. You instantly recognize the Batwing, introduced in 1969 and evolved ever since.
05:23 You look at the Road Glide, refreshed in 2015, with all that attitude and angle and forward stance.
05:29 The main goal was to improve aerodynamics for rider comfort.
05:32 Everything is reshaped. Computational fluid dynamics, airflow, bent, shape of the fairing,
05:39 closeness to the rider on the Road Glide.
05:41 That distance from the fairing to the rider's head is really important for turbulence.
05:45 I've spent thousands of miles riding Road Glides and Street Glides, and both of these are very much improved.
05:52 Buffeting has been dramatically reduced. We rode in crosswinds, high winds, high speed.
05:57 It's a much more comfortable place to sit from an aerodynamic perspective.
06:01 One nice touch to the fully redesigned fairings on these bikes is down here we have the skirt deflectors.
06:07 They're adjustable. You can zip these things open, and you get more air in the rider cockpit.
06:12 These are called Willy Wings on the Road Glide. They were fixed on previous models.
06:16 These are adjustable, and it's a very cool deal. You just hand rotate them, sitting right here,
06:21 and you can divert air into the rider cockpit. Hot day, you get more airflow in the rider cockpit, cool you off.
06:27 Want more protection? You just push them forward. Diverts the air around your legs.
06:31 Harley-Davidson has traditionally done a really good job with its touring seats.
06:35 These are new seats, reshaped, designed to put your back in a neutral position.
06:39 As I say when I like a seat, I didn't think about it all day. We spent a full day riding up and down Coast Highway.
06:46 Didn't think about the seat once, and in that sense, it's a big victory.
06:49 So we have increased engine performance. We have acclaimed 115 horsepower and 139 pound-feet of torque at 3,000 RPM.
06:58 That is phenomenally good performance from a big V-Twin.
07:01 What you need for that, especially on bikes that are as big as these, is really excellent brakes.
07:06 These get 320-millimeter Brembo discs that's 20 millimeters larger in diameter and radial-mounted calipers.
07:13 And it's a big, big difference. Braking control was better, feel was better.
07:18 That precision when you're in the friction zone and you're trail braking into a corner, combined with the stiffer fork,
07:23 it was just a really, really nice feeling. Trailing in, you could just carry this very high pace, a lot of flow.
07:30 You could even rush the bike. In the old days, you couldn't really rush a Harley.
07:34 Big, big improvement in braking and handling across the board.
07:37 These CBO Touring models feature the Skyline OS infotainment system.
07:42 Infotainment is indispensable on a bike like this. The screen is massive and wide.
07:48 There are three different layouts for the gauges.
07:51 All kinds of information, light mode, dark mode, high contrast, all these things going on.
07:57 You have ride modes. You have customizable ride modes.
07:59 You have an A and a B where you can pick crazy, crazy hardcore throttle response,
08:04 very hard engine braking or very light engine braking.
08:06 All kinds of things to program and play with to tailor the power delivery to what you want.
08:11 Apple CarPlay is integrated now, so you can plug your phone in and have your screen dominated by your information
08:17 and your device and your navigation. You have to have a headset.
08:21 You have to pair a headset for CarPlay to work. They want you to use voice activation for safety.
08:27 Android Auto is not supporting motorcycles anymore, so you can take calls and you can play your music,
08:33 but you don't get the full integration like you would with an Apple product.
08:36 One of the very slick styling integrations is no separate turn signals, no little bullets sticking out.
08:42 At the back, it's dual tail lights with turn signals integrated inside.
08:46 LED lighting all around, super bright, super crisp.
08:50 The reshape bags are slightly bigger in capacity than the previous more flat-sided bags on the other models.
08:56 The switch gear is all new on these bikes because there's so much going on with infotainment and music and navigation.
09:02 It's a little bit inspired by the Revolution Max bikes.
09:06 Everybody's smartphone device is getting bigger and bigger, cases, all that stuff.
09:10 The Road Glide has two massive cubby holes. It's got a USB-C connector, so we're kind of up to date on the USB connection.
09:17 And the cubbies are massive. There's a slot you can get your phone in where the USB is and plug in and get all that integration.
09:23 While I like the big cubbies on the Road Glide, the Street Glide storage is the bomb.
09:27 There's a drawer in the middle of the dash, and you just push a button, and this huge drawer slides open with damping.
09:33 It's got your cable connection. It's got room for all kinds of stuff.
09:36 It looks like you could fit an iPad in there. You stick your phone in there, you plug in whatever else you want to stick,
09:41 you slide her in, and it clicks shut. It's very slick.
09:44 Let's say the unsung hero of any touring bike is the charging system.
09:48 And in recent years, we've seen everybody kicking up the output of the alternator.
09:53 That's what's happened here as well. It's up to 58 amps now. That's a 20%, a little bit more than a 20% increase.
09:59 Because you want to run your heated grips, you can get a heated seat, you're charging your phone, you're running a 500-watt stereo.
10:07 Maybe you want a heated vest. This has the electrical power to charge almost anything you need and outlets to take care of it.
10:13 So the 2023 Street Glide and the 2023 Road Glide CVO models are $42,999.
10:21 This has whiskey-neat paint on it that costs $6,000.
10:26 And by the way, it's almost sold out. They're hitting their target market. This is hand-painted.
10:31 Harleys have never been technically-oriented bikes, at least on the outside.
10:35 They've always had technology inside making them run exactly in the way that the rider wants them to.
10:41 But for big, expensive motorcycles like these, base price $42,999, as good as the fork is, as much of an improvement as it is,
10:51 we wouldn't mind seeing some mechanical adjustments or even electronic suspension adjustment.
10:55 What if the rear spring preload just took care of itself as it does on the Panamerica?
11:00 When you went out touring, you could hit comfort and it just would add another half inch or three-quarters of an inch of travel.
11:05 These are things we'd love to see on a super-expensive, high-end touring motorcycle.
11:10 But the Harley customer has always proven to be different. They're in it for looks, sound, and feel.
11:14 They love the performance, and they've never necessarily embraced the future of technology.
11:20 It's really as much an emotional experience as it is a transportational one.
11:24 That being said, the bikes are a huge leap forward. The handling is very much improved.
11:29 The new Showa fork offers a steering precision, ride quality that's a big step up from previously.
11:35 The three inches of suspension travel in the back is well-managed. It's very comfortable to ride.
11:40 The 121 cubic inch VVT engine makes spectacular power across the rev range. It's smoother on the bottom.
11:47 Exceptional in the mid-range feels really good and pulls very strongly until the rev limiter cuts in a little over 6,000 RPM.
11:54 Just absolutely fantastic.
11:56 Now the question is, will these changes go to the other bikes in the model line?
12:02 These are 2023 CVOs. These are the only bikes in Harley's lineup that get all of these changes.
12:08 They're on nothing else. And so the question is, will they go on to 2024 touring models?
12:14 As ever, Harley does not discuss future products.
12:17 But if you don't think that some or even all of these features are going to end up on the touring bikes that fill out the rest of the line,
12:23 I will eat my hat, and that's a big deal because my hat's usually fiberglass. It's not right now, but it usually is.
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12:36 [Closing Music]
12:49 [Closing Music]