A Harley on the Highway to Hell

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Harley+Highway+Hell/5191440/story.html
A Harley on the Highway to Hell
No other bike is as powerful as the Street Glide
By David Booth, National Post; Postmedia News I have ridden the impossible, or, at least, the improbable: a Harley-Davidson that is the most powerful production motorcycle on the planet.
Yes, you read that right. Recalibrate your motorcycle mojo because there is one Harley more powerful than anything the Japanese or Germans have to offer.
No rocket can compete, BMW is strangely silent in comparison and Ducati isn't even in the game. This is a motorcycle so powerful that is has no less than 400 . watts of Harman/Kardon ear-splitting, basspumping tuneage.
What? You really thought Harley had suddenly snuck back into the horsepower war? Well, since the motorcycle in question is a CVO - as in Custom Vehicle Operation - model, it does boast more horses than common from a Harley, probably in the order of 100 horsepower from its enlarged and freer-breathing 110-cubic-inch V-twin. But that's hardly new as the 1,802-cubic-centimetre version of the Big Twin was introduced to the CVO model line back in 2007.
But the Street Glide (otherwise known as FLHXSE) boasts a quadraphonic sound system with no less than 100 watts per channel. Eight speakers, too, including two special 5x7-inch jobbies with bridged tweeters moulded into the lids of the rear saddlebags.
The Street Glide's Harman/Kardon system is to motorcycles what Bang & Olufsen is to car audio systems. The sound is crystal clear, the decibels prodigious and the bass pounding.
The Street Glide gives much more to be content about. One can grouse that Harley had to bore its aging V-twin engine all the way to 110 cubes - a whopping 1,802 c.c. - to get performance any four-cylinder touring bike would take for granted, but it has more than enough power to haul two past long semis, and it does so with an exhaust rumble that's the envy of other bikes.
Harley has also revised its chassis. Yes, the Street Glide still has that monster of a billboard-like fairing mounted to the front fork, which messes with steering, but thanks to a stiffer frame, firmer suspension (with hydraulically adjustable rear spring load) and some low-profile radial tires, the Street Glide wanders through twisty roads better than any 372-kilogram cruiser has a right to.
Harleys may be all about bad-ass image, but the company has one of the most well-sorted electronic fuel injection systems in the business, and all CVO models feature anti-lock brakes. Of course, this last has Harley's own special touch. Most motorcycle ABS systems have a largish ring gear built into each wheel that's used by the ABS computer to detect wheel speed. It stands out and, according to Harley, wouldn't look good on its CVOs. So the company engineered a wheel speed sensor so small it fits inside the hub along with the bearings, giving the impression that the Harley has good, old-fashioned human-manipulated brakes when in fact they are computer-controlled.
The calipers, meanwhile, are equally fashionable and work very powerful Brembos.
The rest is typical CVO fare, that is to say tons of chrome and paint deep enough it looks as if you could swim in it.
The detail touches are exquisite and seemingly without end. Of course, the one complaint one could wage against anything CVO is price. At $32,699, it is expensive.
And though Paul James, HarleyDavidson's PR boss, notes that accessorized individually, any CVO would cost far more than what Harley charges for its finished products, the upgraded Street Glide is still very pricey.
On the other hand, Harley sells every one of the 10,000 or so CVOs it produces each year. Indeed, CVO ownership may require rejigging your perceptions.
Think not of the Street Glide as just another overpriced custom motorcycle.
Think of it instead as a 110-cu.-in. boom box, able to carry you to epic adventure while cocooning you in the sweet embrace of AC/DC's Highway To Hell.