LAUNCH TEST - 2024 HARLEY-DAVIDSON STREET GLIDE AND ROAD - JUST BIKES

LAUNCH TEST - 2024 Harley-Davidson Street Glide and Road Glide

Words: Marc Cuming

Photos: Courtesy of Harley-Davidson ANZ

LAUNCH TEST - 2024 Harley-Davidson Street Glide and Road Glide

For the past few years, Harley-Davidson has been referring to the models in their Touring range as the ‘Grand American Touring’ family. These big, torquey and comfortable cruisers, designed to eat up mile after mile of highway, have been the bedrock of Harley’s post-war range and have come to define the brand in many ways. Grand American Touring may sound a bit grandiose, but after spending a day on the 2024 Street Glide and Road Glide, it’s a label that’s entirely appropriate.

https://www.justbikes.com.au/motorcycles-for-sale/search?taxonomy[0][0]=harley-davidson — *Both 2024 models feature the redesigned fairings introduced on last year’s CVO Street Glide and CVO Road Glide.*

For those of you not au fait with the pair, the Street Glide is a member of the Touring family that dates back to the 1980s and follows a long line of similar models. With its fork-mounted ‘Batwing’ fairing that was first seen in 1969, the Street Glide keeps the “traditional” Harley fans happy. The Road Glide is a more recent addition, introduced in 1998 and bringing a modern look to the same platform with its frame-mounted ‘sharknose’ fairing.

The two have shared frames, engines, transmissions and most of the same cycle parts for years now, so it was no surprise that the formula has remained for 2024. What was a surprise was the new look for each model’s fairing and the inclusion of the Milwaukee-Eight 117 v-twin as standard.

Both models now run fairings that debuted on last year’s CVO equivalents. For the Street Glide, that means the addition of LED DRL strips on each side of the main headlight, some lower wind splitters and other changes, but the overall shape remains familiar. The Road Glide fairing has been radically altered and now looks like something out of a science fiction film. Ditching the former dual headlights for a large, multi-segment light design, the Road Glide now looks even more aggressive.

Pretty much every other piece of bodywork on both bikes has been restyled for 2024, too, with notable changes in the panniers (shallower), front mudguards (less valance) and side covers.

I understand that style is very much a subjective thing, but to me, the redesign looks great, particularly those panniers. The previous type were starting to look a bit dated and too “custom bagger” for my liking, but if you prefer that style, they can still be had on the MY24 Road King Special. In terms of capacity, there’s only two litres less than before, now at 69 litres combined,

For the engine, applying what is the biggest non-CVO powerplant in Harley’s range makes sense, as the aforementioned CVOs now run a 121 cubic inch version of the Milwaukee-Eight. It also cleans up the model range a bit.

Last year, you could have the Street Glide and Road Glide in ‘Special’ or ‘ST’ form, with a 114ci v-twin in the former and 117ci in the latter, along with a $3,500 difference in the starting price. For those of a metric mind, that capacity equals 1,868cc and 1,923cc.

For 2024, there’s only one type of Street Glide and Road Glide available. The pair sit above the aforementioned Road King Special bagger and below the Road King Special and Ultra Limited, which are the full dresser units in the Grand American Touring range. The related CVO tourers can be had as a CVO Street Glide, CVO Road Glide and CVO Road Glide ST. All CVOs are defined by the 121 engine and come with more standard features, exclusive paint finishes and special detailing.

Reduced Entry

In terms of pricing, the new Street Glide and Road Glide start at $46,495 each, which actually undercuts last year's ST versions by $1,000, despite running the same engine and much of the same equipment. A minor curiosity in this pricing is that Billiard Grey is now the base colour, while Vivid Black, the no-cost option in Harley’s palette for as long as I can remember, now carries a $750 premium. Beyond these two colours, there are six more options for both the Street Glide and Road Glide, all of which carry $1,465 premiums. Those additional colours are White Onyx pearl, Blue Burst, Alpine Green, Atlas Silver metallic, Sharkskin Blue and the striking Whiskey Fire, most of which were at our disposal for the Australian launch.

I should add that if you choose black instead of chrome for the engine, pipes, fork legs, ‘bars, footboards and other details, that’s an extra $505.

Glides on the Goldie

Being a Senior Financial Advisor for Shaw and Partners in my day job, I consider myself very fortunate to be able to test motorcycles on the side, and this is a test I was particularly looking forward to.

For the Australian launch of the MY24 Street Glide and Road Glide, Harley flew the motorcycling media up to the Gold Coast for a day’s riding. Upon arrival, we were shuttled to the nearby Rydge’s hotel, where a fleet of gleaming Grand American Tourers were waiting for us in the porte cochère.

‘Big,’ ‘shiny’ and ‘beautiful’ were the first words that came to mind when seeing the new Street Glide and Road Glide in the metal for the first time. After looking at the array of buttons on the switchblocks, I added ‘daunting’ to that list, but more on that later.

Of the fleet of ten bikes available to us, I found myself drawn to a Street Glide in Vivid Black with chrome trim - a very good-looking machine.

I’ll admit I’m a KTM man, with a lot of BMW in my background, too, but testing bikes has exposed me to a lot of machines I wouldn’t have looked at when considering a new ride – from retro roadsters and LAMS sportsbikes to full-scale tourers like the array that Harley-Davidson Australia and New Zealand had presented for us.

An early morning briefing took us through all the specs and upgrades, before the ride that would take us down to Murwillumbah and then back north, using backroads around the Numinbah Valley. The H-D ANZ team explained things like the water-cooled heads for the Milwaukee-Eight 117 (previously exclusive to the CVO), where the radiator is cleverly hidden in the forward section of the frame and how it prioritises cooling of the rearmost cylinder head. The new-look fairings were said to be wind tunnel tested to ensure they’re as functional as they are stylish. Harley also made note of the 8.2kg reduction in weight for the 2024 Street Glide and the 7.3kg drop for the Road Glide. While that sounds great, let’s not get carried away. The Road Glide still comes in at a hefty 380kg and the Street Glide’s only slightly slimmer at 368kg. That’s about the same weight as a Polar Bear – the Harley’s a lot easier to manage, though!

Saddle Club

For my first seat time on each bike, the difference in riding position was notable. Both are “feet forward” cruisers, but the Street Glide has flatter handlebars, while the Road Glide has ape hanger-style ‘bars. Along with the ’bars, the Road Glide’s fairing placement makes it feel like a taller bike, even though it’s actually lower than the Street Glide. The placement of the mirrors in the Street Glide’s fairing has the opposite effect; making it seem lower when it isn’t. That being said, there’s not much difference in ergonomics and seat height differs by only 5mm (715mm on the Street Glide, 720mm on the Road Glide), so I’m sure riders familiar with flat ‘bars can adapt easily to higher ‘bars and vice versa. Of course, the Genuine Parts & Accessories catalogue has plenty of options to suit if you're looking to find the ideal ergonomics.

Continuing with the fairings, each houses a 12.3-inch TFT screen (almost double the size of last year) with multiple display options, along with speakers for the 200-watt sound system, a USB-C charging port and storage compartments. The Road Glide has two deep storage areas below the speakers on each side, while the Street Glide has a drawer under the TFT screen that’s large enough to hold your wallet, phone and other goodies, or if you’re in the US, a handgun.

Despite the reshaped fuel tank appearing smaller, capacity is the same 22.7 litres as last year and both models roll on the same 19-inch front and 18-inch rear wheel combination, too. Regardless of paint choice or chrome/black detailing selected, the alloys are a new five-spoke design, finished in black with machined faces. Harley-branded Dunlop tyres are standard.

Tech Set

Settling into the soft, supportive saddle, I acquainted myself with the TFT touchscreen and its layout options. ‘Skyline OS’ (a name I’ve never heard of) underpins the infotainment system that’s Bluetooth compatible and offers Apple Carplay, but no Android Auto connectivity.

In ‘Standard’ mode, you’re presented with twin analogue-look dials - revcounter on the right and speedo on the left. Speed is also displayed via a large number within the speedo. Switch over to Sport mode and you get a central revcounter dial with speed shown in the middle, straddled by trip info, machine status and other data. The third display option retains only essential info and moves it to the left, allowing the majority of the screen to show mapping for the inbuilt sat nav, multimedia settings or phone apps.

You can change and scroll through this system via the touchscreen or the cluster of buttons on the left and right bars that also operate things like cruise control and the four available riding modes. Of those riding modes, ‘Standard,’ ‘Sport’ and ‘Rain’ do the usual adjustments to throttle response, engine braking, traction control and ABS intervention, while ‘Custom’ allows you to mix and match these levels to suit your own preferences.

The array of buttons took time to understand, and frankly, a one-day launch ride wasn’t enough time to do that. However, I feel like I at least mastered the cruise control and riding mode settings. And I must say that I enjoyed the more immediate throttle response in Sport mode – It felt like I had twice the power and made the big Street Glide feel like my KTM 1290!

Some minor gripes included the riding mode button being hard to reach comfortably, none of the switches being backlit (difficult to use at night), no heated grips as standard and the indicators are still push to cancel, but positives included span-adjustable levers and the fact that most of what’s “missing” on these bikes can be found in the P&A catalogue. Another plus is that when you master those buttons, it makes it so much easier to change settings than scrolling through screen menus. I wasn’t alone in this opinion on the launch ride.

Launching on the Launch

Taking off on the Street Glide, I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 - without the massive burnout! Despite its huge size, the bike was so easy to ride, with seemingly endless torque on tap. Things became more exciting when I switched from Standard to Sport mode - very twitchy, but a lot more fun!

The gearbox was super smooth and again reminded me more of my KTM than some Hogs I’ve ridden in the past, which had clunky, tractor-like gearboxes.

Out on the open road, cruising past canefields, I was amazed at the Street Glide’s tall gearing. I never really needed to go above third in the six-speed Cruise Drive, even at highway speeds. I did slip it into sixth at 100km/h and the bike was idling at 1200rpm, so technically, at 4000rpm you should be able to do over 300km/h. I didn’t attempt that, though!

The gearing is a big part of the Street Glide – and Road Glide – experience. Both bikes lope along so smoothly and effortlessly, with more torque than you’ll ever need, but a surprising amount of power, too. With the Milwaukee-Eight 117, outputs are listed at 78kW at 4600rpm and 176Nm at 3250rpm for both models. That compares to 76kW at 4750rpm and 169Nm at 3500rpm from last year’s 114-powered equivalents. It’s not a huge difference, but more cubic inches never hurt anybody, and in this instance, it’s made the Street Glide and Road Glide better motorcycles. Torque curve is flatter, too, thanks to some tweaks to the ECU and intake manifold.

Forks are 49mm right-side up units, not the USD type found on the CVOs, with a twin-shock rear, which is standard Touring family stuff. Suspension travel of 117mm at the front and 76mm at the rear on both models is unchanged from last year’s sportier ST variants, so there’s certainly a lot more ‘give’ at the back end than the 54mm offered by the 2023 Road Glide/Street Glide Specials.

We rode some pretty rough, potholed and winding roads through the Tweed River Valley and the suspension only bottomed out a few times, which wasn't bad, considering our combined weight was half a ton. Two up and with panniers full of gear would be a different story, though. On the launch, I had no issues with the suspension, but got the best feel by winding the adjustable preload out to its maximum.

Like the engine and suspension, brakes are another area where the Street Glide and Road Glide have improved for 2024, now running 320mm front discs instead of 300mm. Calipers are still four-piston, but now axially mounted up front, with a single piston at the rear. Cornering ABS is standard, controlled by a 6-axis IMU. Given this combination, it’s no surprise that braking was excellent throughout the mix of road and riding conditions we covered on the launch.

Compare the Pair

After a day’s saddle time split between the Street Glide and Road Glide, I found the former to be more to my liking. With its lower, wider handlebars, the Street Glide was a lot more comfortable and easier to ride. The Road Glide’s ape hangers didn’t suit me – being taller, I felt cramped and had to lean back to feel comfortable. I’m sure you could adjust the handlebars forward to fix that, though.

A minor negative with the Street Glide is that strong crosswinds can impact steering control due to that fork-mounted fairing. On the Road Glide, it’s not an issue.

In terms of rivals to these two models, Indian’s Chieftain Limited is the obvious one for the Street Glide and the Challenger Limited is a foil for the Road Glide. Looking beyond the USA, you could consider the Honda Goldwing (the standard model, not the Goldwing Tour Premium), BMW’s K1600 B and R18 B, or maybe Triumph’s Rocket 3. That’s about it, though. Moto Guzzi's MGX-21 was discontinued in 2021, while Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki haven’t offered anything in this space for years.

Of course, if you’re already a Harley-Davidson convert, you won’t be looking beyond the bar and shield, which makes the decision easier.

It’s very much a case of ‘horses for courses’ between these two bikes. Some will like the ‘bar position and ergonomics of the Road Glide, others will prefer the Street Glide. Of course, some will choose one over the other based purely on style and aesthetics. I’m often surprised by how much riders are willing to compromise comfort and practicality to look cool, which is the way it’s been with Harleys for decades.

However, in the new 2024 Street Glide and Road Glide, we’re talking about motorcycles that are made to spend many hours and many miles on, so my tip after a day on both is to choose comfort and how the bike feels, rather than how it looks.

Thanks to Nigel Keough, John and the crew from Harley-Davidson ANZ for their assistance and hospitality on the launch.

Thanks also to Thrive PR for their help with this article.