For three hours I’d been battling my way through Sydney traffic, the first couple of those heading north in pissing-down rain on a small and light single-cylinder nakedbike on the way to Harley-Davidson’s Sydney HQ, and the third heading back south to the Illawarra under clearing skies on the new Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide… which is anything but small, light or naked. Of course, the lane-splitting antics on the trip north could not be repeated on the ride south, but with damp jacket and jeans, I was thankful for the Road Glide’s generous fairing (and its heated grips) even if it meant that most of the gaps in traffic were too tight to squeeze through.
I was also thankful for the CVO Road Glide’s pleasant low-speed manners and its low seat height. Sure, it weighs in at almost 400kg ready to ride, but most of that weight is down low and as a result it feels surprisingly agile and well balanced at slow speeds, allowing for easy cornering and fuss-free feet-up U-turns. But it’s once you escape the urban jungle and the tin-tops begin to thin out that the CVO Road Glide is truly in its element.
The CVO Road Glide, along with its sibling the CVO Street Glide, is the latest offering from Harley-Davidson’s Custom Vehicle Operations, and it packs the biggest and most torque-laden V-twin in the H-D catalogue. A huge 121 cubic inches in a grand tourer that tips the scales at
