2011 CVO Street Glide ride review

Throw a leg over the low-slung saddle of the CVO Street Glide and settle yourself down and you find yourself suddenly facing down a sonic firing squad. The sensation’s unavoidable. A pair of tweeters and a pair of 5.25-inch two-way midrange blasters stare at you from the fairing dash, and a pair of 6.5-inch boomers glare up at you from the fairing lowers. Gulp. And they’re heavily armed, too, packing the firepower of 100 watts per channel from the bike’s high-efficiency Harman/Kardon amplifier.

This daunting array is the most extreme example of the Custom Vehicle Operations’ stated “big audio” campaign for 2011, a campaign that brought tunes to all four CVO models this year, even the demi-faired Softail Convertible. It’s also the most successful, and not just because this is bar-none the most audacious and bodacious sound system ever loaded onto a production motorcycle of any make, but also because in morphing the CVO Street Glide into a rolling concert hall, the fevered CVO designers simultaneously created, from a strictly functional standpoint, the best Street Glide ever, and one of the finest baggers of any breed.

This model is the CVO’s second crack at customizing the über-popular Street Glide model, and the handful of dramatic alterations and upgrades they’ve applied to the foundation of the 2010 iteration sets this 2011 version off as very different from, and superior to, its precursor—so much so, in fact, that in hindsight the 2010 CVO Street Glide now appears a work-in-progress, with the new model the fully-fledged finale of the project.

In adding fairing lowers to house the woofers and enhance the listening experience by providing both a wicked bottom note and additional wind protection to the cockpit, they also enhanced the touring experience. And they also replaced the 5-inch eyebrow of a windscreen on last year’s model with a 7-inch shield, further improving the cockpit acoustics while also significantly reducing the head-buffeting wind blast allowed by the lower screen.

Those major additions are joined on this year’s model by a roster of cosmetic upgrades that are themselves pretty breathtaking, starting with a palette of four paint schemes to choose from. The selections include the Black Diamond/Inferno Orange shown here, as well as Autumn Haze/Antique Gunstock, Black Diamond with Crimson Tag graphics and the extreme Kryptonite/Black Diamond. But what’s more, each of them brings to the table their own unique complement of colors and finishes on the machine’s wheels, tank console, inner fairing and muffler end caps—and in the case of the Kryptonite bike, a totally blacked-out engine instead of the chrome and granite-hue finishes traditional to the TC 110. The new paint motif on the Street Glide spreads the colors in a long elegant sweep from the headlamp to the tips of the street-hugging extended bags, and is highlighted by a pair of new tank escutcheons in place of last year’s tank decals. The new badges are described as “liquid metal” and that’s an apt description—they look like splashes of silver solder.

Also new for 2011 is a 19” version of the Agitator wheel on the front of the bike replacing last year’s 18-incher. That sounds like a subtle change, but in practice it’s anything but, since the new wheel (on three of the four CVO color options) is totally chromed, dispensing with the black contrasts of last year, and the brake rotor carrier is now chrome-plated as well to better blend with the wheel. The new wheel is shod with a low-profile 130/60-19 tire which actually has about the same diameter as last year’s 130/70-18, but exposes a good deal less sidewall. That has the effect of giving the chrome Agitator serious visual prominence and making it appear even taller—which is in keeping with current custom bagger fashion.

Taken together, these flourishes result in a show-quality custom machine that’s damn near too pretty to ride; it’s a real struggle to peel your eyeballs off that front wheel and to cease your slack-jawed circumambulation of the beauty that presents fresh delights from every angle, and especially from the rear where the low-down saddlebag tips wrap around the billet end caps, and where the fascia panels twixt the fender and bags combine turn signal, brake light and taillight functions into super-sanitary frenched-in LED fixtures.

It’s when you finally do climb aboard the bike that you can fully appreciate what’s happened to the Street Glide’s fuel tank and dash for 2011. Gone is the familiar flip-door center-fill console tank, and in its place is a reworked side-fill unit sourced from the Road King. It features flush-mount caps and a low, smooth console strip adorned with a backlit CVO emblem. The right cap pops up with a slight twist, and unscrews to allow fueling. The left dummy cap has been repurposed to a sequential LED fuel gauge that’s surprisingly accurate, and also necessary since the dash on the inner fairing has been remodeled to accommodate the pair of tweeters. The gas gauge had to go, and so did the air temp gauge—which was only marginally useful anyway. Remaining in place are the speedo, tach, voltmeter and oil pressure gauge.

Like all CVO models since 2007, the Street Glide is powered by the fearsome Screamin’ Eagle Twin Cam 110 engine with its seemingly bottomless well of torque on tap. Claimed output is 115 ft/lbs at 4000 rpm but that actual number’s pretty much academic. What’s not is the way the machine pours on a veritable tidal wave of torque with a twist of the throttle at virtually any engine speed, making it a dream to ride for the lazy who can’t be bothered with actually shifting gears much. The bike launches with neck-snapping abandon, and even when motoring at 75 mph in 6th gear at a leisurely 2700 rpm or so it responds to a quick roll-on smartly. That kind of performance makes it all the more surprising that the big mill also delivers truly admirable fuel economy. Over the course of 1,300 mostly highway miles, I averaged 43 mpg. Combine that figure with the fuel tank’s 6-gallon capacity and 200-mile hops between fuel stops are not only feasible, they’re habit-forming.

The Street Glide’s seat is up to the long-haul challenge as well, providing gratifying comfort despite its svelte profile. The bike pampers the passenger with a detachable backrest, and all seating elements are decorated with handsome snakeskin-patterned leather inserts.

The only limitation the Street Glide exhibits in serious road use is one you would reasonably expect, i.e., its rear suspension performance. The model gets its low 26.5-inch seat height as well as its signature lowdown looks from a slammed suspension that affords little in the way of rear suspension travel, and that makes achieving an optimal balance between cushioning over the rough patches and rigidity through the corners a dicey proposition. The way that state of affairs is addressed on this machine is through the use of hydraulic shock absorbers equipped with hand-operated preload adjustment knobs. After toying with the adjusters repeatedly, I finally decided that they were best turned down all the way to their lowest setting. That worked satisfactorily for my purposes, giving me adequate isolation from road irregularities without showing any signs of bottoming out, even on some pretty abrupt jolts. Most of my time on the bike was spent out on roads that didn’t demand any fancy footwork, and in those instances when I did find myself in a quick set of twisties, there was sufficient cornering clearance and tractability to pull it off at reasonably sane speeds.

The list of top-drawer touring amenities on the CVO Street Glide is long, and includes ABS, cruise control, carry-out saddlebag liners and, of course, that incredible sound system. In addition to the usual functions of AM/FM/WB/XM radio and CD player, this model gives you a tidy MP3/iPod pocket and interface in the lid of the right saddlebag, and just for good measure, they throw in an 8GB iPod Nano with the Bar & Shield etched on the case. The standard handgrip control switches operate the iPod, so you can scroll through your party mixes and pick your tunes with your hands on the grips. On a personal note, I’ve rarely made use of sound systems on test bikes so-equipped in the past, finding them to be more of a distracting racket than a listening pleasure. On this bike, however, it proved downright irresistible.

Any way you look at, whether functionally, aesthetically or aurally, the new CVO Street Glide is a mightily impressive and desirable package. There will be approximately 3,700 total units produced for 2011, and the list price is $32,499. That’s $1,500 more than last year’s model, but considering all of the significant upgrades, additions and style points it buys, that’s easy to swallow.