Bagging rights | Harley-Davidson release CVO cruiser trio including racing inspired Road Glide ST

Harley-Davidson have lifted the lid on the 26th instalment of their limited-run Custom Vehicle Operations (CVO) cruisers, which now consists of a three strong lineup including their punchiest model to date.

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Coming in at £41,495 is the most premium of the bunch – the King of the Baggers inspired CVO Road Glide ST, which is built to resemble the brand’s Screamin’ Eagle Factory Road Glide that snatched second place in the 2024 American championship.

Below this and for £1000 less, there’s the standard CVO Road Glide and CVO Street Glide – with these two being almost identical in terms of spec aside from different bodywork and fairing arrangements.

As you’d expect from a trio of grand American tourers, luxury comes first and foremost, with all three CVO flavours packing enough tech and infotainment to rival most cars.

That includes a massive 312mm TFT display equipped with a Wi-Fi enabled Skyline operating system, inbuilt navigation with real-time traffic and weather updates, and a total of four speakers dotted around the bike – two of which are housed in the front fairing and two are positioned near the saddlebags.

There are also four ride modes to play with (eight on the ST), cornering sensitive traction control, ABS and linked brakes, hill hold assist and tyre pressure monitoring.

In terms of motor, the threesome makes use of Harley’s pushrod operated 1977cc Milwaukee-Eight VVT 121 lump, which now enters its second year of production.

In standard trim, the V-twin develops a claimed 115bhp at 4500rpm and 139lb.ft of torque at 3000rpm. That’s 9.5% more peak power than 117 motor found on the brand’s non-CVO version of the Road Glide and Street Glide.

This performance gain is thanks largely to including an increase in compression ratio and more aggressive cam profile, as well as a moderate bump in displacement.

For the Road Glide ST however, Harley have tweaked the motor further, altering the gearbox ratios and installing a high-performance camshaft, revised air intake, and increasing the rev-limit, meaning that while it may not pack any more cubes, the ‘High Output’ 121 motor boasts a 13-horse boost.

The changes bring peak power to a claimed 127bhp at 4900rpm, with torque simultaneously rising to 145lb.ft. The ST also gets a smattering of lightweight parts thrown in, including carbon fibre sections of bodywork, a titanium exhaust system with carbon muffler, and new aluminium wheels.

Despite the exotic materials used, the racy twin still weighs 380kg in running order, although that does represent a 13kg saving over the standard CVO Road Glide.

In terms of suspension, all three bikes use Showa 47mm inverted forks paired with dual outboard Showa emulsion shocks at the rear.

The ST gets a fully adjustable setup, with changeable compression and rebound damping at both ends, plus preload tuneability on the at the back only. Both other machines in the CVO family make do with rear preload adjustability only.

Braking among the trio follows a similar pattern, with Brembo hardware used all-round, but beefed up dual floating wavey discs are given to the ST to help with heat dissipation.