2018 CVO Street Glide (FLHXSE) Harley-Davidson│First Ride and Detailed Review

hey what's up guys Matt Laidlaw here coming to you from Laidlaw harley-davidson LA area's oldest largest and finest Harley Davidson dealership so today I'm going to be doing a test ride and review on the brand new 2018 CVO Street Glide so this is a bike that got a lot of attention initially at the show that has some cool colors this year the bike I'm going to be doing a review on is the gunship gray which is kind of a unique color that's getting a lot of attention this year so I'm also going to be using it 2017 Street Glide as well to kind of compare and contrast the differences between the 2017 and the 2018 model year [Music] alright guys let me jump into this thing here so 2018 CVO Street Glide so this is the gunship gray this color has been getting a lot of attention and this is kind of like the unicorn of the holiday of its own world right now meaning they are very rare and this is a difficult bike to find this and the Road Glide in the same gunship gray so let me kind of go over some of the features on this bike here so comes with the LED day maker in the front blacked out version of course it has the LED turn signals as well this is a 19-inch front wheel it's kind of cool about this color too is you've got a color match front wheel so it's like that same gunship great finish on the wheel as well here you also have the color matched cover for the oil cooler there and you've got lower leg fairings on this bike one of the big changes they did this year is they no longer have this bike a twin cooled bike instead they put speakers in the lower leg fairings the other big thing they did is they also went to 117 cubic inches in the 2018 model year last year the 2017 model year it was 114 cubic inches so they went to a bigger bore it's not in the stroke the stroke was the same they went to a bigger bore so here's a shot of the speakers so the other the third major change or upgrade they did to the street vibe this year is they added an additional 2 speakers so this bike has a total of six speakers with three amps a total of 900 watts and 150 watts per channel per speaker so here's a shot of the center console here so it's really clean center console that hasn't really changed when you turn the bike on it illuminates and it highlights that custom vehicle operation emblem there in the center console you don't have the ignition on the fob or it locks the fork instead it's all keyless you just hit the run switch and it fires up here's a shot of the seat really slick premium harley-davidson CVO emblem there in the back of the passenger excusing the rider seat you got this really cool cross hatch in orange stitching here this bike has a lot of orange highlights on it you got the stretched bags of course on this bike all the components on this color are all blacked out so you know everything from your exhaust your floorboards all your engine covers all blacked out here's a shot of the rear fascia then this style has kind of been uniformed for several years now they went to this in about 2010 and this color is really nice this has been a popular color in the custom car and motorcycle world now for you know several several months now and harley-davidson tried to you know have a swing at it and I thought they did a really good job I've had a lot of people that say that they hate this color they say it looks like primer not sure how they see that but that's fine either love it or you hate it I guess and here's their shot you got the saddlebags speakers of course and you also got two speakers in the fairing as usual so you've got the 117 cubic inch Derby cover there the rocker box covers you can see the orange highlights and the horn cover orange highlights there as well so really slick a color scheme this year and you have those vents on the lower leg frames as well to open up to allow more air to pass over the engine if it's a hot day if it's cold day you shut those and you have less wind on your legs so blacked-out front forks dual disc brakes in the front as always on the touring bikes of course and a little bit different windshield as well this is considered a wind splitter windshield on this bike and you've got as a close-up with the brakes Brembo brakes that's been like that since 2009 of course the bike comes with ABS this is a CBO after all it comes with everything and the collection of controls you have here I believe is called the airstream collection and it's all blacked out of course so your floorboards your a brake pedal your grips all the all uniform I will say another thing that they did this year on the CBO Street Glide is they put heated grips so you did not have heated grips in years past on the street lights evo just on the ultra limited or the shot of the gauges this is another kind of subtle change as well the gauge is kind of have this 3d pop-out of the dash effect with like these hoods on them kind of reminds me of like a high-end or car sunlight Danika like a Corvette or something like that and the infotainment system six and a half inch boom audio that's all kind of in the same since 2014 the speakers they're considered a boom audio stage to set up here's a kind of a side profile shot of the gauges there again they kind of pop out at you and I could cones in shape so I press the I button you have the tire pressure monitoring system here's a shot of that so you can monitor your tire pressure you electronically from the - there's that's kind of slick this bike also comes with Sirius XM satellite radio so you've got that receiver on there already you can see the button there and it comes with its there were one or three months of free service with the bike and then after that I think XM radio is like 10 bucks a month this little trigger switch will tell you to your front and rear wheel the tire pressure you got odometer they're a trip a trip B and then how many miles you have before you run out of gas and when you're rolling down the road that also tells you what gear you're in as well you've got the saddlebag box here as well so you can lock and unlock the saddlebags from the - that's a feature that in years past has only been on the electro glides since 2007 it's been on the CVO electro rides so on this in this small a year you have that option from the - I can't remember if they did that last year or not but I know it's somewhat recent I was just showing you there the USB cable that's nothing unique or special to the CVO models everything in 2014 and later have that that's a ferry model bike the key on these cvos is pretty slick you got a flip-out key there that's your barrel key and you've also got the lock and unlock button for your saddlebags on there as well so the barrel key is going to be used for your fork lock and kind of all see you be used for your saddlebags but more times than not you'll probably use the unlock button on your dash R on your key to unlock your saddlebags you got the slick custom vehicle operation insignia on the key as well I want to say they went to this key two years ago before that it was two separate pieces [Music] [Music] so here's a 2016 CBO Street Glide I'm going to show you some of the differences here so on the 2016 you have pretty much the same lighting just yet a little bit more of the chrome trim like around the headlamp there the lower legs so the lower forks are a chrome as well a little bit different style of wheel they call it the aggressor wheel and so yeah a little bit different and you have a 114 cubic inch engine on here now here's a big difference so these are the radiators here so on the previous model year they had they twin cooled setup you can see the hoses down there as well so this bike had Harley Davidsons twin cooled Milwaukee 8 which is currently on like your Limited's and your CVO ultra limited in the 2018 model year but no longer the the Street Glide so and as you can see here there are no speakers in the lower leg pharynx so you've got speakers in the saddlebag lids and you've got the usual two speakers in the fairing there so only four speakers and there is one amp in the fairing and one amp in the saddlebag whereas in the new 2018 you got one amp in each of the two different saddlebags and then one of the amps is in the fairing as well so the dash you can see is a little bit different it's a little bit more plain you don't have the gauges that kind of protrude from the dash there and the exhaust is chrome for example and on the new 2018 it's all black so more that all blacked out look and I will say there is one color in the 2018 model year the the lava orange that comes with a lot of the chrome everything you see that's black on this gunship gray is chrome on that lava orange one so it just kind of depends on what color you get the seats kind of changes well but the style of paint you know I really like the 2017 s it looked real good but I just feel like this year the 2018 model year the stylists were just a little bit more in tune with what people want to see in the paint and kind of your flames and you're you know striped stuff is in my opinion kind of going out of style a little bit so it doesn't look bad but I don't feel like it's really in tune with what's really in style anymore here's a shot of this seat for example and you know the blacked-out dashes and everything he's like the chrome trimmer on the at the bottom of the windshield they're Chrome for clock they're the grips are chrome with the black rubber inserts on there same stage - boom Audio speakers that kind of fairing it in the saddlebag lids though one more significant upgrade that I almost forgot to mention in the 2017 model year you still had the wire for the headset so there's a port right to the left of the infotainment system you gotta plug in your headset whereas in 2018 they all went Wireless you get the wireless headset and the wireless receiver that piggybacks on the radio on these new 2018 so I get a lot of questions about power so I'm going to show you guys some specifics on what the power differences are between 114 cubic inch and a 117 cubic inch so this is out of the screamin eagle catalog and this is corrected rear wheel so this is actually what you will feel power to the road so the 114 produces a 110 foot pounds of torque at 3000 rpm and then the 117 cubic inch produces about 115 foot-pounds of torque at 3500 rpm so a little bit further up the RPM range to produce the max torque for this 117 and I definitely felt that when I rode the bike as well so let's go to horsepower here so in the 114 cubic inch you've got a little less than 90 horsepower at 5,000 rpm so now let's call it like 88 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and then on the 117 cubic inch the max horsepower actually comes on earlier so we're looking at about 90 to 92 horsepower at 4500 rpm so kind of interesting and and I will say too that the torque curve is a little bit flatter on the 117 as well so you have that torque further along in the rpm range as well so yeah it's it's definitely better power on 1:17 but it's interesting how the because of the cam differences your power your max power and horsepower and torque is produced at different rpms so hopefully that shows you guys it gives you guys a little bit of an insight to how the power matches up so here's some just really clean shots some nice photography found on holiday with some calm of the motorcycle and some highlighted points on the bike so here's your available colors I'm a real big fan of this color - it's called dark alloy and black denim this is a close second favorite of mine what's cool about it is you have both a gloss paint on it and a denim paint it is paint that's a big question I get asked a lot is is there a decal over it and that's what makes that that denim matte finish no it's all paint this is a manufacturing or paint process that no one has attempted to do before and you know Harley did a good job this year on it this is the second color orange lava and black denim that's the color I was telling you about that has a lot of the chrome covers on it and chrome finishes if you don't like the black a lot of people don't necessarily like the blocked out look and here's your third and final the gunship gray which is the color I'm using in this video here and this is my personal favorite the orange lava pie be you know my third preference if I had to put them in order of of how much I liked them so let me jump into some stats here so at the crank it's a hundred and twenty four foot pounds of torque any motorcycle or car manufacturer that quotes power horsepower whatever they always quoted at the crank but as I showed you at the rear wheel it's actually about 115 foot-pounds of torque so the price is thirty nine thousand nine hundred forty nine dollars that's MSRP most dealers in the world right now are actually asking above MSRP on these bikes just because of how rare they are so they're the bore it's four point zero seven five inches the bore on a 114 is four inches even compression ratios down a little bit from the 114 cubic inch so it's ten point two to one compression ratio on the 114 I believe it's a ten and a half to one compression ratio so the MSRP in case I didn't say this already is up I want to say two to three thousand bucks this year front wheel has a 19-inch wheel rear wheel is an 18 inch wheel I will say on the Road Glide this year you have a 21 inch front wheel so that was kind of the big news this year on the the CVO Road Glide weight on this bike is 877 pounds so engine torque once again 124 foot-pounds of torque at 3500 rpm so your shift point to kind of stay in the max power range your shift point on the 117 is later in the rpm spectrum then on the stock 114 build I mean I'm on the 114 you're gonna want to shift to stay like in the max torque area your honor should want to shift around now right after 3000 rpm it's more of a low-end torque low rpm torque peak area so speakers six speakers on 18 model year bike up from four [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] alright let me jump into this thing here so guys as far as custom baggers go really the CBO streaklight is pretty much the pinnacle the best of the best all makes and manufacturers included in the world so as far as this ultra premium finishes stereos wheels and everything lighting bags really this Evo Street Glide is the benchmark in the motorcycle industry for a custom touring bagger really the only thing that you can go to above this is a CVO ultra limited which is geared more towards long distance traveling so you add the tour pack more storage capacity more travel in the suspension bigger more padded seats that are heated as well so this is kind of your sporty styling and like custom big wheels nice finishes on the wheels awesome ultra premium sound system so the stereo on these things is the best in the world as far as OAM motorcycles go you will not find a better stereo system louder crisper stereo in the world on any motorcycle so yeah these six speakers absolutely bump and so yeah but the stereo is awesome now sorry I wasn't able to demo it because of music copyright issues and all that stuff I can't really demo the sound system on these things so just a comment on the 117 this 117 engine does like to be run at a higher rpm so for the guy just like that low rpm low torque this probably won't have any advantage over the 114 but the guy that likes to run it out a little bit higher rpm you will see a power increase in this 117 setup the cams a little bit different and so you you have a flatter longer torque curve so you get that torque longer in the in the rpm range on the 114 it peaks at about 3000 3,200 rpm and then it quickly drops off so you're going to be shifting in a closer or a sooner rpm then on this one 17 so yeah there's that and then the idling I will say the idle on this bike without between cooling you do have more heat on this 117 it's not nearly as much as the old twin cam 110 spur though that before the twin cooling came along in a 2014 model year those bikes all run really hot and like your your s models like the 110 twin cam 110 in the lowrider s the Fat Boy s and the slim s those bikes emit a lot of heat and they don't like to stand still in high temperatures at all this bike still does with the Milwaukee eight does really well in heat and add an idle even without the twin cooling but I will say you know I feel like maybe twenty to thirty percent more heat it comes up on you as the rider then when compared to the 114 the 2017 CVO Street Glide so moving on to a couple other things things like the the clutch you have a hydraulic clutch on this bike that's nothing new that came out and all the baggers in 2014 but I'm a real big fan of the hydraulic clutch on these bikes the the gauges and everything are really easy to read you've got the really nice backing on the gauges that's different than your regular CVO Street Glide so let me jump into who well I'd recommend this bike - this bike is for someone that just wants a fully decked out Street Glide wants a fully decked out bagger but it doesn't want the big tour pack and everything all geared towards the the grandpa Glide I guess you could call it although I don't really feel like the CEO ultra is really Oh glide but you know this is your around town look cool type of bike and usually a lot of times a comment that I get a lot is guys will buy like a Street Glide special and deck it all out and then they look back in the like damn you know I could have just bought the CVO and paid just as much money and really gotten more stuff so but if you add it all up guys you really get a lot of accessories on this bike for your money I think if you we did the math one time and if you try to turn a street bad special into a CVO Street Glide you're gonna spend I want to say like twenty five thousand dollars in just accessories and that doesn't include the engine so yeah you really do get a lot of bang for your buck if you plan on spending 15 20 grand on your your Street Glide well you might want to consider just getting the CBL plus you got the exclusivity on this bike as well and so yeah it's just doing the math it might be better for you to do the CVO a lot of people I just bought my bike recently a lot of people thought I was gonna get this Evo and I actually thought about it but the reason I didn't is because I wanted to make something unique to me and that's kind of one argument that you might find for not buying this evo is you can make something that's unique that no one else in the world has whereas if you buy the CEO well there's several other people in the world that have the bike but if you're not looking to flex your creative muscles then bang for your buck the CVO Street Glide even with the price increase pretty damn good you would be hard-pressed to find a equivalent out there that someone just built on their own kind of piecemeal so well meaningless decent on these bikes for a touring bike the lean angle is pretty dang good I've ridden Street guides now for a long time I've owned my second now I just bought my second Street Glide special the leaning is about the same sure you can scrape but really you know riding it pretty good through the canyons I find myself never scraping accidentally so the leaning looks not bad as far as wind deflection goes the windshield it's more geared towards looks than functionality the blank is extremely comfortable on the freeway as I rode on the freeway this day this thing's the Cadillac the ride comfort is extremely good it is not as good as the CVO ultra limited though due to the shorter suspension these CVO street lights are factory lowered bikes so you don't have as much travel on the suspension and you don't have a splash seat you do have the heated grips on this model year you don't have them on the 17-mile year the heated grips are pretty dang good they worked really well they take about 10 to 15 minutes to heat up but once they get going they definitely keep your hands toasty but a lot of guys that buy these street glides they say well you know I still get a lot of headwind yeah most people are still gonna get some headwind with this chopped smoked windshield I certainly do I'm 6 foot 6 inches tall so I got quite a bit of headwind on this but I'm too prideful and I care about looks too much to put a bigger tall clear windshield on there so I don't mind a little bit of headwind I always ride with a full face helmet now I've been converted as of 3 4 years ago with a hit with a full face helmet on here these bikes you know there's really nothing better you know the comforts really good as far as your wind deflection goes and everything you got the flush mounted gas cap on this bike as well on the right pretty clean setup hydraulic clutch is really good smooth actuation that's really nothing new they came out with a hydraulic clutch on these faring model bikes in the 2014 model year as far as pro or excuse me cons go on this bike this bike will not handle and accelerate as well as the new softails so if you want a bike that really performs to the max if you want a bike that's gonna carve the canyons and you can ride extremely aggressively I would steer you towards a soft tail the soft tails the new softails especially like your Fat Bob your lowriders those things just haul ass and are really good at handling and the power-to-weight ratio I mean I would almost say out of the whole the 107 probably would keep up with this 117 I think when you once you got out on the open highway on a straightaway this 117 would blast by it especially since you have the comforts of the fairing and everything so not quite as agile and quick and as far as acceleration goes as the new soft tails so I don't know if I'd really call that a con but you know for a bagger they accelerate and handle extremely well most people are very surprised at how well these bikes handle for a big heavy bagger anyways guys if I were to have I was able to help you out please like the video and give me a thumbs up and if you haven't already please subscribe I'm trying to hit a hundred thousand subscribers so go ahead and subscribe and help me out and slot guys buh-bye [Music]

Channel: Matt Laidlaw

Views: 364,414

Keywords: Harley-Davidson, Motorcycles, Laidlaw's, CVO, Custom Vehicle Operation, Street Glide, Matt Laidlaw, Laidlaw's Harley-Davidson, Review, Test Ride

Id: xgvu4-ZOpjQ

Length: 27min 53sec (1673 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2017