[cycleworld.com] - 2024 Harley-Davidson Road Glide and Street Glide First Look

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Adopting many of the updates that debuted on last year’s CVO models, Harley’s Road Glide and Street Glide enter a brave new world of technology and performance.

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The 2024 Harley-Davidson Road Glide and Street Glide. (Harley-Davidson/)Last year, Harley-Davidson introduced the all-new CVO (Custom Vehicle Operations) versions of two of its most iconic touring motorcycles: the Road Glide and Street Glide. With totally revamped styling, a pumped-up 121ci V-twin engine with variable valve timing, a new infotainment system, rider aids, and upgraded suspension, it was to date one of the most thorough redesigns of two of Harley’s Grand American Touring heavy hitters. For 2024, many of those updates are extended to the non-CVO models, ushering in what Harley calls “a new era of motorcycle touring.”


The 2024 Road Glide has a thorough redesign that still manages to look familiar. And formidable. (Harley-Davidson/)The 2024 Road Glide and Street Glide models receive the same styling, suspension, electronic rider aids, and infotainment upgrades that debuted on the CVO models. Instead of using the Milwaukee-Eight 121 VVT engines of the CVO models, however, the standard models use a Milwaukee-Eight 117 engine (previously available only on ST and CVO models) to replace the outgoing models’ Milwaukee-Eight 107 engine. Even though it’s not the supreme leader of Harley’s Big Twins, it’s still a big upgrade. Plus, it’s been refined for better efficiency and performance.

New cylinder heads derived from the Milwaukee-Eight 121 feature a reshaped combustion chamber with oval intake ports to improve performance and fuel economy. New coolant channels around the exhaust valve areas improve thermal comfort. The engine also has a new intake tract with a larger, 58mm throttle body to increase power and lower exhaust emissions. On top of that, it has a larger airbox that’s lighter and made of fewer parts compared to the previous version. Harley-Davidson claims the engine produces 105 hp at 4,600 rpm and 130 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,250 rpm.


Both models use an updated version of the Milwaukee-Eight 117. (Harley-Davidson/)The chassis, heavily redesigned in 2009, is largely unchanged, but new suspension carried over from the CVO models improves handling performance. There’s a new inverted 47mm Showa fork with 4.6 inches of travel, and a Showa shock, adjustable for preload and rebound, that increases rear wheel travel by 50 percent (up to 3.0 inches of travel).

Harley claims the Road Glide weighs 838 pounds ready to ride, and the Street Glide 811 pounds. To slow down all that mass, H-D equipped both bikes with Brembo braking components, including larger 320mm discs (up from 300) and radial-mount calipers in the front, and a 300mm disc in the rear.


Harley’s storied FL line reaches back all the way to 1941. Both bikes use the “FL” designation today. (Harley-Davidson/)While rider aids are a relatively recent development for Harley, it’s gone to great lengths to make up for lost time. The Road Glide and Street Glide adopt a fully modern suite of electronic rider aids with four preset ride modes—Rain, Road, Sport, and Custom. With cornering-sensitive traction control and ABS, vehicle hold control, and adjustable throttle maps, riders have the ability to customize the motorcycle’s feel and performance at the touch of a button or a tap of the 12.3-inch touchscreen. The screen is also useful for controlling the tune blaring out of the two fairing-mounted speakers, which are powered by a new 200-watt amplifier.

That screen of epic proportion dominates the cockpit and eliminates every analog gauge and serves as the command center for the new Skyline OS-powered infotainment system. Infotainment: there’s a hell of a word for you. The ultimate bastardization of “entertainment,” a word so rife with Huxleyan dystopia imagery that 15 years ago—back when the Road Glide’s chassis received a major overhaul—we’d have been hard-pressed to believe it would be something we’d actually want on a motorcycle. But we do want it, as it turns out. In fact, we expect it.

No doubt, the new Glides have a ton of tech, but maybe enough still isn’t quite enough. As EIC Hoyer points out in his review of the 2023 CVO Road Glide and Street Glide, the lack of electronic suspension adjustment and adaptive cruise control feels like an omission on bikes that cost upward of $40,000. Neither of those features make an appearance on the standard, less-expensive Glides of 2024.


The Road Glide’s 12.3-inch touchscreen TFT display. (Harley-Davidson/)In addition to all that tech and performance, Harley signaled the dawn of a new era with all-new looks. The Road Glide, first introduced in 1998, and the Street Glide, introduced in 1985, have gone on to achieve enormous success in the market; Harley has sold literally millions of them (over 2 million touring motorcycles have sold since 2000, more precisely). Getting the right look was critical. After all, the batwing and shark-nose fairings (of the Street Glide and Road Glide, respectively) have become some of the most recognizable visages of any bike to roll out of Milwaukee in the last three decades.

That the bones of the both Glides have persisted with so little change for so long shows the designers’ crystal balls shined with exceptional clarity. At first glance the styling direction looks like a daring step, but there’s no doubt they retain the spirit of the originals. The changes aren’t merely for looks, either, as Harley-Davidson says they offer much improved aerodynamic efficiency.


Daymaker headlight on the Road Glide. (Harley-Davidson/)If all this doesn’t constitute what H-D calls “a new era of motorcycle touring”—a new era of V-twin, American touring, at the very least—then we’re not sure what would. Because it feels an awful lot like a brave new world. And to those, like Huxley’s protagonist who cries: “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin,” we’d respond by saying the used Harley-Davidson market is as strong as ever. Just keep in mind that when new, a 2009 Road Glide’s Twin Cam 96 engine produced only 65 hp on the CW dyno.

Us? We’ll take 105 hp and a comfortable seat. Oh yeah, nearly forgot: The ‘24 Glides have redesigned comfy seats too.

The 2024 Road Glide and Street Glide will be available in dealerships beginning this month.


The Street Glide underway. (Harley Davidson/)
From the side, the new Road Glide could almost be mistaken for the current generation. Without taking the design too far, designers limited the possibility of alienating its customers. (Harley-Davidson/)2024 Harley-Davidson Street Glide / Road Glide Specs

MSRP:TBAEngine:Liquid-cooled, 45-degree V-twin; 4 valves/cyl.Displacement:1,917ccBore x Stroke:103.5 x 114.3mmCompression Ratio:10.3:1Transmission/Final Drive:6-speed/beltClaimed Horsepower:105 hp @ 4,600 rpmClaimed Torque:130 lb.-ft. @ 3,250 rpmFuel System:Electronic Sequential Port Fuel InjectionClutch:Wet, multiplate slipper/assistFrame:Steel tube w/ two-piece backbone and bolt-on rear subframeFront Suspension:47mm inverted Showa fork; 4.6 in. travelRear Suspension:Dual emulsion shocks, spring preload, rebound damping adjustable, 3.0 in. travelFront Brake:4-piston radial-mount calipers, floating 320mm discs w/ ABSRear Brake:2-piston caliper, 300mm disc w/ ABSWheels, Front/Rear:Cast laced; 19 x 3.5 in. / 18 x 5 in.Tires, Front/Rear:Dunlop H-D Series bias blackwall; 130/60B-19 / 180/55B-18Rake/Trail:26.0°/6.7 in. ; 26.0°/6.8 inWheelbase:64.0 in.Ground Clearance:5.5 in. / 5.7 in.Seat Height:28.1 in. / 28.3 in.Fuel Capacity:6.0 gal.Claimed Wet Weight:811 lb. / 838 lbContact:harley-davidson.com