So, here we are again, up in the air at 35,000 feet, flying across seven seas to the land of opportunity.
Live the american dream.
Okay, that was pretty cheesy.
But come on, think about it.
A chance to ride the 2017 Harley Davidson lineup in the motherland, in the US of A. That sounds pretty friggin awesome to me.
Hello PD Army, welcome to the US of A, welcome to the 2017 lineup of the touring motorcycles from Harley Davidson.
And it's all about the heart isn't it?
It's a brand new engine - Milwaukee-Eight and it's a big deal this, because this is just
Harley's third big twin in almost 80 years.
And the main focus behind the development of this engine was firstly more power,
more refinement and actually better heat dissipation.
And powerful it is.
In fact it's the most powerful engine that Harley has ever built.
It's called the Milwaukee - Eight because this is the first engine to feature eight valves,
four per cylinder.
Which allows 50% better intake and exhaust flow, which allowed Harley to increase the
bore and come up with 2 high compression variants of this engine with increased cubic capacity.
The Milwaukee-Eight 107 and 114.
And they also dish out a lot more torque and the torque comes in a lot earlier.
And more power also means a lot more heat.
And to keep that in check the 107 now gets oil cooled cylinder heads
while those on the 114 are liquid cooled.
Both the engines also come with dual fuel injectors, dual spark plugs for better combustion
and also all new anti-knock sensors on both cylinders to get the precise timing.
And pursuit of refinement, both these variants have engines which are rubber mounted,
which are counter balanced and even the twin cam setup has given way to a single cam with a
much simpler design, in-line with lighter valves, we have slimmer drive covers and drivetrain
components to reduce mechanical noise.
So that's the engine and the Milwaukee-Eight 107 will now be available on the 2017 Street Glide Special,
the Road King and my personal favorite, Road Glide Special which
will finally come to India at the end of this year.
And of course the 114 will endow the big daddy, the CVO Limited.
Beauties which I'll have the privilege to ride across 600 km of breathtaking scenery
as we ride from here, Tacoma all the way to Port Angeles and back.
It's on days like this when you feel that you're really living the life because
the weather today was spectacular.
I know now it's gloomy and rainy but the rain only caught up with us in the end of the ride.
The roads were brilliant, nice and winding, amazing scenery and of course the bikes.
I called dibs on the Road Glide Special, a bike that I've been waiting a long time to hit India.
And it impressed right from the word go, even before I clocked a single mile.
You thump the starter and what catches your ear, is the exhaust note.
It's a lot more refined.
The reduction in the mechanical noise has gone a long way in accentuating the exhaust
note which we love so much.
In fact, they have also reduced the idle speed from 1000 rpm to 850 rpm to highlight just that.
So that you can hear the exhaust note even better.
Now that's the other benefit of reducing the idle speed, it reduces the amount of heat that the engine throws out.
And what they have also done is, they have moved the header on the exhaust
a lot inside and the catalytic converter further away from the leg, so there's a lot less heat coming onto your legs.
But to be honest, this is the US, perfect, near-perfect riding conditions, so we'll have to ride these
bikes in India, with the kind of heat we have back there to really vouch for the improvement.
But the first impressions are really positive.
Also in terms of refinement at idle, you have the quintessential shake from the V-Twin engine
but because of the counter balancer and the rubber mounting, there is no buzz
so that's really nice.
Also what they have done is, they have put a slip and assist clutch on this to reduce
the amount of effort that it takes to press the clutch in.
I still felt that the clutch was on the harder side but then the gear engagement now is definately a lot
more positive, a lot more precise, especially when the bike is moving.
When the bike is in idle, I still had a bit of difficulty finding the neutral gear.
Second thing which impressed me a lot was the suspension.
Now this year, they all get the Showa forks and the shocks and they have made a big difference.
It gives you the road holding and damping performance required for sporty riding.
But I did feel that on the Road Glide the shock was a little on the stiffer side,
which was great in the corners but whenever we hit bumps, it sent quite a few thuds through my back.
But then again the shocks are adjustable.
When I hoped on the CVO, the suspension felt a lot better.
It was really plush when I wanted it to be, when I was going over bumps and bad roads
and also in the corners, it was just as impressive.
Third thing is the refinement.
On they Road Glide Special you notice that the engine feels a lot more refined,
and also the power delivery is a lot more linear, lot more smooth.
But then you ride the 114, and you are really blown away, because this takes the whole refinement
quotient to whole another level.
The liquid cooling means this is a joy to ride.
You can be in the 5th gear doing 35 miles an hour and you'll still have more than enough
torque to pull you through.
There's hardly any juttering, there's hardly any knocking.
So yeah, even the fueling on this is absolutely spot on.
Today was absolutely brilliant.
I had a joy of a time and I'm really really looking forward to tomorrow.
How do you even react to something this pretty, this beautiful.
Absolutely breathtaking scenery.
I think it more than made up for the disappointment which I had.
I couldn't ride the 103 and the 110 engine because there were very limited bikes with
those engines and very limited time.
But I did get to ride the Road King and I know initially, I had my heart set on the
Road Glide and I still love it, I love the way it looks but I think I've grown fonder
of the Road King.
I don't know. Maybe it's the retro styling and the modern engine goes really well together and it
feels somehow more Harley, you know.
The one thing which I noticed though, in terms of braking was, the rear brake on all the bikes
was a lot stronger and had a lot more bite than the front brake but yeah,
they have updated the Bosch ABS system and of course the brakes are linked.
So the system seems to be working much better now, it's not as intrusive.
And if you really want the bike to stop, it's better to use both the brakes simultaneously.
The other thing I noticed was, especially if you're doing about 70-80 mph,
no matter what I tried, no matter how further back I sat, there was wind being directed directly on my helmet,
so if you were to get any of these models, I would strongly recommend getting an
after market accessory so that it's a lot quieter when you're riding on the highway.
But other than that, I'm very impressed with the entire new lineup, the touring lineup.
The refinement is there for all to see, there's more torque and I don't know,
it was always a dream for me to ride a motorcycle here in the US of A.
I've been coming here for the last 4 or 5 years and Harley made that possible.
And a setting like this.
Cannot ask for more.
So yeah, the Road Glide Special, the Steet Glide Special, the Road King and the CVO Limited
will be hitting Indian shores really soon.
We are not so sure about the price yet.
There will be a slight increment because of the new engines, but I think at the end of
the day you're also getting really good bikes, much improved bikes in return.
So again, thank you so much for watching.
I'm going to go back
to staring at that, because I cannot keep my eyes
off it.