2024 marks a new chapter for Harley's much-loved CVO range. Every year, Harley-Davidson debuts its newest lineup of motorcycles for avid riders to admire and ride to their heart's content. And if you aren't aware, there have been some big changes to the lineup in the recent past. 

BY: ANTHONY CAPOBIANCO  COURTESY: TOPSPEED 

Performance is taking a more prominent position across every Harley class as evident from the lineup. For instance, the revamped Sportsters, cruisers, ADVs, and touring bikes have all shown a collective improvement in horsepower, torque, and handling that new customers will appreciate. For 2024, the company has taken steps in the same direction. The extremely popular touring class is being revamped with the new-and-improved 2024 Road Glide and Street Glide, while cutting the fat from last year's inventory, which consisted of several trims like the Standard, the Special, the ST, and the CVO. Speaking of which, CVOs will have a much greater presence, despite only being finite in availability. But then again, a high-end limited edition model with all the flashiness, performance, comfort, and gadgetry one could ask for would only drive up its desirability. Of course, one of the biggest surprises of the year is the first-ever CVO Pan America, allowing future customers to hit the road and trails in style and luxury.

said Jochen Zeitz, Chairman, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson in a press release.

For years, the Road Glide has been the ultimate touring bike of choice for many dedicated riders. But Harley-Davidson has some big plans for the popular Road Glide, the main one being to completely revamp the model. Closely based on the 2023 CVO Road Glide, the new model has a gigantic LED headlamp housed in the Shark Nose fairing. This is topped by the 12.3-inch TFT touchscreen dash, a lighter overall body weight, and a much bigger engine. A Milwaukee-Eight 117 V-Twin to be exact.

And that's just the new base model. The next model up is the CVO. That means that Harley-Davidson did away with all the alternative models, each varying in special features, and condensed most of them into a single motorcycle. Not to mention that customers have a much wider choice of color options, as well as engines in both chrome and black.

Just like the Road Glide, the 2024 Street Glide also receives similar treatment for the new year. Up until recently, dealership floors featured Street Glide Standards, Specials, STs, and CVOs, as well as a handful of special-edition models. But rather than have a long menu of touring bikes, Harley-Davidson's current Street Glide lineup features one singular, desirable version, and then the CVO.

The 2024 Street Glide also receives a facelift, modeled after the space-age 2023 CVO Street Glide. That means lighter weight, an updated Batwing fairing, new LED headlamps, a Milwaukee-Eight 117 V-Twin engine, a larger touchscreen dash, and a huge color palette. Going forward, Harley fans will be able to easily tell when one generation of the Street Glide ended, and when the newest one began.

Every year one of Harley's classes tends to stand in the limelight a little brighter than the others. One year it's the high-performance cruisers like the Low Rider ST. Other years, it's the new line of Sportsters like the Sportster S and Nightster Special. But for 2024, it is the touring class that will stand out the most. While the touring class is always very popular to a default, the next-gen Road Glides and Street Glides are the big draw for interested riders.

It should also be noted that these new touring bikes are the most technologically advanced standard models in Harley-Davidson's history. That way, the company can cater to the growing demographic of riders purchasing touring bikes, which comprises the younger generation grown up with this same type of technology. The market for tech-heavy touring bikes is growing with the Millennials, and the Harley-Davidson brand is shifting along with it.

In 2023, Harley-Davidson shocked the motorcycling world with a futuristic take on their CVO lines for the Road Glide and Street Glide. They didn't just dress them up with fancy paintwork, upgrade the engine, add some cool gadgets, and enhance their performance. The company completely redid both motorcycles from front to back, setting the new standard for not just the CVO, but the future for both touring models in general.

Picking up where they left off, the 2024 CVO Road Glide and CVO Street Glide maintain their all-new athletic designs. This is topped by updated color schemes, a hefty Milwaukee-Eight VVT 121 V-Twin engine package, an innovative Skyline OS touchscreen dash, and a flurry of other special features. These make the CVOs a must-buy for H-D fans with plenty of cash.

The Road Glide has been the brand's MVP in the King of the Baggers race in recent times. Thanks to its aerodynamic design and penchant for high performance, the Road Glide has been able to smoke the competition (mainly Indian) in nearly every race. So bringing that performance to the streets, Harley has released the Road Glide ST for riders who want to do more than just cruise from Point A to Point B. Inspired by the Road Glides used by the racing team, this athletic version of the touring bike enters the lineup as a high-end CVO. This means not only does it have all the bells and whistles as the regular 2024 CVO Road Glide, but with a lot more focus on its performance factor. The crown jewel is a beefed-up Milwaukee-Eight VVT 121 V-Twin engine that produces 127 horsepower and 145 pound-feet of torque.

As previously mentioned, 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Harley-Davidson's special line of CVO motorcycles. Considering the company isn't the kind of motorcycle manufacturer that plays it safe, it was going to mark this milestone in a big way. Enter the CVO Pan America. Breaking a pattern of reserving CVOs for mainly the Grand American Touring family, Harley has given its CVO treatment to its very popular adventure bike. Normally a CVO is treated like it is a priceless work of art that belongs under museum glass, but with the CVO Pan America, it's born to run on the highway and through the trails. It has adventure etched into its DNA, and it would be a shame for it to sit untouched.

Harley-Davidson took the motorcycling world by surprise when it brought back the Breakout into the fold in 2023. After a three-year hiatus, the factory chopper made a comeback in a bold avatar, powered by a Milwaukee-Eight 117 engine. While some believed the return of Breakout 117 was going to be more of a novelty before being discontinued again, it seems that the opposite has happened. In 2024, the cruiser is back again, offering a second chance to buyers who missed their opportunity in 2023. After all, this motorcycle was so high in demand that an openly available unit was next to impossible to find on dealership floors.

As we've seen so far, Harley-Davidson completely revamped the Road Glide and Street Glide in 2024. However, the other members of the touring family like the Road King, Road Glide Limited, and Ultra Limited remain unchanged from previous years. There is a chance that could change for future versions of these bikes, though, as H-D completely changed its Sportster line from being entry-level lightweight cruisers to high-performance street bikes. So there is a possibility the remaining members of the touring class could see a similar redesign to the 2024 Glides. But we'll have to wait and see if Harley-Davidson follows through with this change.

Keeping up with the new trajectory of its line of Sportsters, Harley-Davidson's new generation of high-performance street bikes remains popular as ever. With a new audience of riders (that favor speed, handling, and technology), the Sportster S, Nightster, and Nightster Special are rolling out with more color options and more attitude that make the rest of the cruiser community blush. After all, a Sportster with a low seat height, forward controls, high-mounted exhaust, beefy tires, fully-digital center console, and a 1250T Revolution Engine is about as non-conforming as a lightweight performance bike can get while remaining authentically Harley-Davidson. Don't you agree?

It is not uncommon for their customers to have engine options with Harley-Davidson. There's the stock engine from the factory, and then there's the Stage I through Stage IV upgrades that can satisfy your need for speed. In 2024, it seems that Harley-Davidson is in the middle of a transformational stage, as evident by certain new motorcycles receiving larger engines than others. It appears as though the Milwaukee-Eight 117 is taking over, with the new Road Glide and Street Glide, the Low Rider ST, Low Rider S, and Breakout all receiving it in 2024.

This leaves the once-popular Milwaukee-Eight 114 as the new "smaller" engine. We can safely assume the Milwaukee-Eight 117 will slowly take over both the Touring and Cruiser families, possibly reserving the Milwaukee-Eight 114 only for select cruisers like the Street Bob and the Heritage. That'd be a much welcome move.

SOURCE: TOPSPEED 

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