Europe has asked for it pretty relentlessly over the last few years, and they’ve finally got it. Harley-Davidson’s customers have got their Road Glide Special, complete with an updated version of its trademark ‘shark nose’ fairing.
The Road Glide Special’s frame-mounted fairing has a dual front headlight embedded right in the centre of it. Although it’s been ‘streamlined’ (by 35mm) for a narrower and more modern design, it still looks wide enough to hide a car steering wheel.
Its low screen is perfect for inducing horrendous headaches and very bruised eyeballs, but Harley has come up with a triple ventilation system to combat unwanted turbulence and head buffeting. The two integral vents on either side of the fairing are large enough to stick your hands right through and you can adjust them on the move via a simple push of a flap. The central scoop’s air flow is best changed at a standstill.
The iconic double headlight has also been improved, with a claimed 67% broader beam illuminating 25% further down the road in comparison to the old model. More revisions spread to the ergonomics; the wrist angle of the handlebars has been improved and they are now 130mm closer to the rider.
The Road Glide Special has been pre-pimped in Milwaukee. The inner fairing is painted in gloss or denim black and hand-applied pin striping traces the bike’s bodywork. Very nice. The rear suspension is adjustable and it has the same linked ABS brakes and Smart Security alarm as the standard bike.
But the icing on the cake is the ‘Boom!’ Box 6.5 GT colour touch screen infotainment and GPS navigation system. It’s all housed in the great wall of fairing, which has been brought forwards by 50mm to make the system more accessible.
A wealth of information is displayed clearly and logically and the set-up is Bluetooth compatible and has a USB connector. All the usual information is now displayed in wider numbers; speedometer, fuel gauge, odometer, two trips. Tapping the screen options guides you through the menu and your tunes blast from two 5.25in speakers.
You can also scroll through the options using the handlebar’s thumb-operated joysticks. It’s so comprehensive, it’d probably make me an all-American pancake for breakfast if I asked it nicely. And then I’d find a little jar of maple syrup in one of the unlockable, rubber lined compartments in the fairing. OK, so maybe that’s going too far. The point is, it’s well thought out.
Even the panniers (each with 9.1kg loading capacity), have a more practical opening mechanism, so you can stay straddling the 695mm seat to open them via the ‘one touch handlebar latch’.
It doesn’t matter how long you plan to keep rolling, the Road Glide Special glides with a regal ease that doesn’t befit a 385kg bike, and yet it U-turns as though you’ve just ridden onto an oversized turn table. It’s so balanced, I wonder if you could rest a spirit level on the ‘bars without the bubble crossing the line as you spin round 180 degrees. And then there is the 86bhp and 101.7lb/ft of torque spewing from the 1,690cc twin cylinders with exactly the kind of conviction and belching grumble that a bike of this stature needs.
A deep ‘whraarp’ belches from the low slung 2-1-2 chrome pipes as the revs slide past 3,000rpm. The bike digs itself into the asphalt and I’m pushed backwards into my seat. I find myself rhythmically snapping the throttle back for pure entertainment as I dawdle patiently behind a religiously law-abiding driver.
With an open road and the opportunity to climb through the six-speed gearbox, the bike devours asphalt and its appetite is insatiable. It dances lightly around in a wide driveway, falls majestically into faster corners and it serves and protects on the longer hauls with its easy-to-operate cruise control and self-cancelling indicators. That smoked screen might look like it is just a token gesture but it’s actually quite effective thanks to that added ventilation, and even filtering is less problematic than you might envisage, although the clutch can start to feel heavy in stop-start traffic.
There is no denying this bike is big and its dimensions won’t suit everyone. But if you’re in any doubt about whether the Road Glide Special is a viable option for you – grab a ride on one… you might be pleasantly surprised.
