2017 Harley-Davidson Road Glide

Base Price: $19,000

The Harley-Davison Road Glide costs some money—that is without debate. The company's biggest bikes always do. But here's the thing, the new Glide is the least expensive bike Harley-Davidson offers with its massive, all-new 107 cubic-inch (1753cc) Milwaukie Eight V-Twin. It's not often that Harley completely redesigns its engines, and this one is significant because it has to carry the company into the future tackling stricter emissions and noise regulations. Harley says the new motor delivers more torque (10 percent) thanks to the four valve heads and a bump in compression. Harley also worked to reduce vibration and heat while also improving fuel economy.

But the new engine isn't the only news here, Harley has redesigned the suspension of the Glide to ride and handle better while also improving the range and ease of adjustability—we that new fairing ain't bad to look at either.

It’s not really expected that a full-boat tourer like Harley-Davidson’s Road Glide Ultra would have a sporting bone in its voluptuous body. (And, no, we’re not shape shaming here.) Stable, serene, able to bang off mile after mile of secondary road and interstate…yes, that’s the mission.

And yet the venue didn’t diminish the Ultra’s credentials. From the moment you start the Milwaukee-Eight engine, it’s clear there’s something different. It doesn’t do the familiar clank-wheeze-chuff-fire routine. Instead, it comes to life quickly and settles into a short span of high idle before chugging down to 850 rpm. Gone is the shaking at low revs, often referred to as a poodle passing a peach pit. (Oh that poor poodle.) The M8’s counterbalancer keeps the quivers to a minimum but doesn’t eliminate the completely.

The next thing you notice is the new clutch, which feels significantly lighter than even the hydraulic unit on the Twin Cam 103. This slip-and-assist function has been spreading all over motorcycling, with mixed reviews in the early applications. Some of these can have very abrupt engagement points or, worse, change their character depending on how much power you’re trying to get to the back wheel. Harley’s version is very smooth and progressive, and took me no time to get a complete feel for. You can even bang a few downshifts and go all gorilla at the lever without chirping the rear tire. Not that you ever would on a bike like the Road Glide.

Then there’s the excellent ride-by-wire throttle, which has the engine do almost exactly what you want it to. Harleys have an advantage in that the engines have a lot of flywheel and not much happens quickly, but H-D has polished its RBW to a high sheen. There’s no lag when asking for more power, and nothing untoward should you quickly uncrank the throttle grip; in fact, the driveline is commendably tight from stem to stern.

After that? While the Milwaukee-Eight, in 107ci form for the basic Ultra, doesn’t feel crazy torquey just off the bottom, it revs with some vigor and holds onto power right up to the 5,500-rpm redline. The TC103, in contrast, falls off fast beyond 4,500 rpm, making the last grand to the limiter a matter of more noise than useful thrust. I didn’t see any useful dyno graphs for the new engine, but I’d bet it holds the torque curve flatter higher in the rev range than the 103. Plus the added displacement and other updates give it a claimed 10 percent boost in peak torque.

As ever, the Big Twin feels tall geared and very relaxed at the top end of realistic highway speeds. Now, though, it has enough torque that I offered to one of the engineers that six ratios might truly be overkill. He didn’t think a move back to a four-speed box was likely even after I pitched it as cooly retro.

Retro describes the chassis performance from the previous Ultra, but not the new one. Two areas came in for close scrutiny, the suspension and brakes. As before, the Ultra uses a version of Bosch’s ABS with active brake-force distribution. But the previous setup had a few kinks in the application, so that, sometimes, you’d roll to a stop and find yourself needing slightly more braking effort. Add just a touch of pressure to the brake pedal or lever, and the actual brake force would jump up far enough, quickly enough that you’d make your passenger wonder about your skills. Happily, that lack of linearity and predictability is gone daddy gone. A move to the latest generation of Bosch controller and careful recalibration of the system has eliminated that issue.