2020 Harley-Davidson CVO Tri Glide (FLHTCUTGSE) Test Ride and Review

[Music] and what's up guys Matt here from Laidlaw is Harley Davidson so today I'm going to be doing a review and test ride on the new 2020 CVO tri glide so definitely a bike that I don't think anyone was really expecting but it's here and if you're into trikes it's a damn cool bike so we're gonna take it out do a test ride on it and I've also got a 2020 free wheeler which is the stripped-down version of the tri glide note or pack know fairing no radio and I've also got an older model back there the 2014 tri glide so it's the first year of the rushmore project so i'm going to be kind of doing some comparing and contrasting between the three models and kind of telling you guys everything that comes with the CVO package and when you can expect to get for your what is it forty eight thousand dollars definitely the most expensive bike that harley-davidson has ever produced so let's get into it and maybe taking the bikes out with Andrew and talking about what I think all right so let's jump into a walk around on this 2020 CVO tri Glide there are two colors that harley davidson offers this year this first one is the blizzard white pearl with the lightning silver and storm cloud and that refers to the striping on the bike I really like the paint by the way I feel like this paint scheme both of the paint schemes are gonna really appeal to a large audience so let's go to the front of the bike here so they have the reflective LED day makers on here I usually refer to them as the soft tail day makers just cuz it came out with the eighteen model year soft tails when they reintroduce the the new frame in the lineup so the wheels on this are kind of one of those features that are really gonna stand out a lot the wheels on this bike are absolutely beautiful this is a contrast cut tomahawk wheels what they call it which for those of you who know and familiar with the limited those also have tomahawk wheels on there notice like the calipers and the front fork similar nice finishes all chrome and everything so here's a shot of the Milwaukee eight 117 cubic inch engine this is a twin cooled engine by the way which as a side note the freewheel er does not come with a twin cooled engine the twinkle engine for those of you who aren't familiar with it pipe cooled liquid through the hottest part of the engine which is like the heads around the exhaust ports and whatnot there's a shot of the badging really clean nice newly designed CVO badging for this bike this is the first year holiday Woodson ever applied their premium CVO package to a trike and you've got the Kahuna collection on here as well for your foot and hand controls and little highlights throughout the bike the Kahuna collection was brand new last year I believe was there 19 or 18 blue bows last year you can see here the blades in orange lower rocker box cover highlights there as well which is kind of a nice styling characteristic they started doing the 2018 model year there's a shot of the seat here so you got this perforated leather tuck and roll style stitching which again lots of detail and Mees something about the best for the CVO that you've even got kind of a mixture of the different leather surfaces of both plain leather and the perforated leather and it's a heated seat by the way too so you've got controls on the left side and it is independent heating zones both for the rider and passenger it's also dual intensity so you can put it on low mode or high mode I'd like to try that I've never actually been in really cold weather where I had a heated seat and I was able to use it beauty grips however I have in the heated grips and cold weather are an absolute lifesaver they're not it's not a gimmick at all like they really helped out a lot in the cold weather so here's a trunk you have a king tour pack same shape as you're gonna find like on your limited your row glide and your ultra limited so MSRP on this bike forty-eight thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars this is the most expensive bike holiday sort of come out with there's $200 California mission and Freight on this bike is 856 by the way guys shameless plug at late-loss harley-davidson we have absolutely no dealer markup on CBO's any bike we never mark up our bikes this here is a garage door opener this is the 30k headset the boom audio headset you get one headset by the way these here are the highway pegs you do get Highway pegs to chrome Highway pegs with the bike and that's an air cleaner cover and you've got some leather dressing for your seat there as well yeah you've also got the soft inner liner that lines the tour pack as well and you also these bags as well the bag that basically can be pulled out of your tour pack it's also got the 12-volt outlet in here as well which has been pretty standard for a while now you've got these like smokes light bar on the back of the tour pack there as well here's a shot of the rear trunk the spacing and everything is all the same as it's always been plenty of cargo room and there trunk here and you've got you know some bags in here this is a CVO cover for the trike which is kind of a nice item to have so you get the CVO cover with the Tri live and you've also got a liner on the inside as well which is pretty typical for the trike that's not a CBO upgrade however the pouch organizer here on the back of the door that is kind of an extra for the CVO tri glide so I don't even know about this until this day when I was filming so kind of a lot of little things that you don't really notice until you start getting into it and checking it out even for myself I learned a couple things when I was filming this video yet the coolest Evo insignia on the back of the door there on the trunk as well basically displays it this is the real deal this is a CVO here and you've got two antennas on the back of the trunk there or on the back of the tour pack so you do have CB radio on this so it's am/fm for one of the antennas and CB radio for the other antenna here's a nice shot of the rear wheel the tomahawk contrast wheels you've got this kind of correlating hubcap there - I don't know if it's called a hubcap it's like that the hub there that you know kind of has that outline of the barn shield and just a finish is super nice you've got those tiny degree elbows on the air valve so if your tires are gonna like go complaining on the regular touring bikes or trying to fill up their air I'm a tight squeeze on the regular bikes though you've got obviously screamin eagle mufflers on here with all chromed outs with the Kahuna collection style outline of the barn shield and signe on there then of course things like your passenger floor boards or the adjustable ones where you can actually adjust that arm up and down to kind of reposition your riders foot position depending on their height and it's not just kind of nice if you're on a long ride to give them the the option of moving their feet around a little bit proudly displaying the 117 cubic inch on the derby cover there case anybody forgets you've got the hundred seventeen cubic inch insignia there this is the parking brake not to be confused with an emergency brake but yeah usually when I park these things I throw it in first and I show the parking brake down as well just to kind of have two levels of yes selfish surety that this thing's not gonna roll on me the left side of the engine here and horn cover you can see there the lower rocker box covers then that blaze orange matching bar and shield insignia on top of the horn cover there the closer shot of the paint graphics the paint styling is on these bikes it's like every year for a long time on the CEOs there's always kind of like one or two colors it shines and there's usually like a third color that you know people very rarely wanted it took a special someone to light that color I feel like both these colors so far this model year we've had people asking about him equally which is always kind of a good sign that there's not you know one color that isn't gonna sell both these colors I think are really appealing so here's a shot inside shot of the gauges and everything they're real sporty looking and you got economies protruding bezels that pop out there with a hooded design to him titanium back gauges I believe real sporty looking gauges there's a four o'clock bars need to be turned all the way to the left of course you flip that top flap off and it exposes the locking mechanism there so you've got two lines of defense basically on this bike the electronic cut on the ignition and also the four o'clock the four o'clock does not double as the ignition by the way this is all keyless you hit the run switch and that's what activates the ignition on this bike if you want to just do the accessory mode only you'll hold down this trigger switch there's your grip by the way kahuna collection grips and the grips are heated by the way so we're entering the bike into the accessory mode I'll show you the screen just for a second here so this is the new boom audio 6.5 GTS system not to be mistaken with the GT system that ran from the 2014 model year to the 2018 model year so the new system has a higher resolution that's a lot faster processor so go going from different modes is that everything's a lot quicker and snappier that button here is for the exhilarate lamps I'm gonna give you a shot of the front of the bike in a second I'm gonna switch the ignition on now so that the lights will actually turn on an accessory mode the lights do not turn on so we've got the front of the bike here so day makers their reflector day makers this is actually the lighting that I have on my personal bike pretty dang happy with it you've also got on like the street glide so you do streak land unlimited you've got those adaptive day makers that are projector day maker I slightly prefer those to be honest but I think they went with this because of the passing lamps I don't know maybe they want to just kind of give it a different look the rest of CBO's here's a shot of that screen again and I'm gonna I'm gonna flick off the ignition I'm gonna turn the accessory mode back on you've got am/fm weather band as well note you do not have XM radio on this anymore so it's got a question I get asked a lot in the comments these new 2020s you do not have ex radio you can get that module I want to say it's three or four hundred dollars get the the module here's your menu for your intercom your CV so you do have CB radio on here like I mentioned intercom you'll need to buy the passenger headset to utilize the intercom intercom is just a rider to passenger communication and here's your math notice as I'm flipping through everything this is all real time guys like the flipping from your communication to your GPS everything's real quick and really snappy definitely industry-leading definitely faster than the regular GT system there's a close-up shot of all the gauges here so you get your volts rpm your gas in your miles per hour on there the rest of the informations gonna be all in the system in one touch access to your gas tank you got a six gallon fuel tank and of course one of the new features this year for the 2020 model year is the are DRS you can see that TC for traction control above the horn button there here's your cruise control nothing new there really since the 2014 model year that's always kind of been there and high beam low beam and you've got your voice command button there voice command is very underutilized guys if you get one of these bikes or even if you get just any touring bike that has this unit in it I recommend getting the headset and utilizing it it's pretty dang cool come in handy and this right here it doubles as your starter button and your reverse button as well I'll demonstrate the reverse in just a minute but yeah this bike does have a separate electric reverse gear on it so comes in handy when you park downhill this is a heavy bike this bike weighs it's right around 1,100 pounds I want to say and here's a shot of the mirrors again you got chrome switch housings you know everything on here the brake master cylinder the switch housings everything is all chromed out throw mirrors here's your heated grip you can adjust the intensity level of course which is kind of nice because it's there's a big difference between you know being 42 degrees outside and 32 degrees outside so everything from the center console those of you who aren't real familiar with the CEO of treatment there's a lot of things I'm leaving out just you know everything from the finishes on the crane case the casings on here it's like this special like almost like a gunmetal gray on the case of the CVO every little detail on this bike has been upgraded from its counterpart just a regular tri Glide so that pretty much sums up the bike and the first color so I have the second color as well so I'm gonna show you guys some quick shots of that this one is called black Stardust with magnetic gray and wicked red so the magnetic green wicked red are obviously in the stripes and that base color is the black Stardust and this is probably my favorite of the two colors although I definitely am partial to white bikes I really like them both I don't know I'd have a hard time choosing but yeah I really like this this color scheme as well so yeah pretty much the same features and everything even down to the detail on the engine the same highlights and everything but yeah definitely a beautiful bike you have the cushions as well on this bike so on the backrest and on the rider seats you have come this additional pad that we've also seen on the limited as well but you know one thing I kind of left off so let's move over to a 2014 tri glide real quick it's kind of point out some differences so 2014 tripod you had the twin cam so this was a 103 so definitely not underpowered by any stretch of the imagination but after riding a CVO if I rode the CBO then got on this this thing kind of fell a little bit doggish but you know I rode these back in the 2014 and felt like they had plenty of power it's just funny how you get acclimated to more and more power and then anything below that just seems you know really slow but you know if you just look at the details on the wheels and things like that definitely not the finish and the level of you know detail and quality that you see in the CVO same dimensions pretty much on everything with the fenders a tour pack the trunk in the back but you know you don't have the some of the technology as well so I will say in the 2019 model year carly davidson really revamped some mechanical aspects of this bike which i'm going to get into it in a second but everything from like the brakes to what they call the are DRS a reflex the defensive rider system that this bike did not have any of that stuff so they have grown kind of leaps and bounds as far as just the chassis and the controls and everything here's an inside shot of the fairing here you've got the boom audio GT system again not bad but not as good as the new GTS system and you know everything's kind of plain-jane the stereo i'll mention as well on the CVO is the boom audio stage one so you've got you know the upgraded speakers you've got you know the upgraded amp and everything as well not to be mistaken with the boom audio stage - like what comes the CVO roguelite and Street Glide but you know still a really good system so the last bike that I wanted to compare the CBO is try glad to was the free wheeler and I feel like the free wheeler is a bike that gets forgotten about sometimes and it's very much alive and in the harley-davidson trike lineup the free wheeler is kind of your stripped-down version of the tri glide it was first introduced in the 2015 model year there was a bike right after the trike was first introduced in onine there's a bike called the the Street Glide trike that ran for two years in 2010 and 2011 that element sold very good so harley-davidson ditched it was basically a batwing fairing bike without the trunk and so there wasn't enough to differentiate it from the tripod I feel like and so harley-davidson got rid of it but the the free wheeler definitely has more sporty-er aspects to it you got kind of the bog defenders back there you have more tire exposed more of a low-profile seat to it obviously no front fairing on there has kind of fun that resembles a road King front end on it and it controls everything you know very much you look like a road king but it's got a lot of the same of electronics you got the are DRS on it as well the windshield actually does not come on this bike we have it installed on this one but you can see that you got your traction control and your cruise control and all that good stuff on it but yeah the free wheeler you're you know you're gonna save quite a bit of money off of a try glide as well the free wheeler you're looking in the upper 20s I think they're like 27 9 for the free wheeler we're gonna take it out and we're gonna kind of compare it to the CVO try Glide so I want to cut for a minute to a shot and video footage that I took at the 2019 dealer announcement meeting and they made a lot of changes to the trike platform in the 2019 model year and I spent a lot of time with the engineer kind of going over everything they change so let me run down some of that stuff with you real quick so first off in the front ends it went to a duel bending valve run suspension for the forks that was a change that they applied to the 2017 two-wheel touring family so now you have on the Tri Glide definitely a lot more plush shock that kind of caters to exactly the type of impact you're experiencing up front so I'm gonna go over a question I get asked a lot about the trike you guys a lot go ask me if it has independent left and right suspension and the answer is no this is a straight axle setup with a differential I get asked a lot about that so less parts more of that real go-kart feeling this here is a knob that adjusts the preload in the shocks the shocks are no longer an air shock you've got an emulsion style shock in the rear which is a lot better the knob adjusts both sides of the suspension by the way as opposed to just one side like the air shocks of old work so definitely a big upgrade there a lot of times I ask okay well what kind of made you go to you know a straight axle and the Clutton the answer I get from the engineers most of time is just that you have you know really go-kart style handling on these things as opposed to come too sleepy handling of independent suspension and it's also less parts I mean these tail ends here are you know pretty much bulletproof less moving parts and so more heavy duty and more resilient as well you've got upgraded brakes as well they went to Brembo brakes this year on the trikes which a lot of people might be saying well I thought they already had Brembo brakes on the two old vehicles they've had Brembo brakes for over a decade now but they just applied them to the trial ID now you have electronically linked ABS now and so before you had hydraulically linked braking with no ABS before the 19 model year then just last year they went to ABS which is huge and you also have the are DRS which last year they weren't even calling it the are DRS which is the reflex defensive rider system that many of you are aware of now which is basically your traction control your drag torque slip control and your cornering enhanced ABS so a lot more rider assists electronics on this bike now the engineers is kind of pointing out too they change like the the brake master cylinders on this bike as well this is gonna be your brake controller here so this is the rear brake switch that he's pointing out here that can sense and measure the pressure that you're applying to the brakes and tailor your traction control you know based on the the pressure there and the the control module so yeah a lot more electronics on this bike now the braking is a lot better and obviously the addition of the traction control your riding and safety is a lot better these trikes now as well one guy commented to me recently too about the are DRS he was skeptical I said he was buying a two wheel bike and he was a little bit skeptical about buying the are DRS on the first year and I said well you know believe it or not they are DRS actually came out last year on the trikes and so now they were applying it to a smaller sample a smaller pool of motorcycles or I should say trikes out there and I feel like they kind of did that on purpose too you know baby maybe flush out if there are any problems which by the way I haven't heard of any problems on the are DRS this here is the IMU the inertia measurement unit so this is what's gonna measure your your left and right it's basically a lateral acceleration and so you know based on that it's measurement and those calculations are gonna be applied to your traction control and the system is gonna make adjustments according to that so basically in a nutshell you've got the RDR s now you have better suspension both front and rear and you have better brakes on these bikes which is a very significant upgrade on these trikes as well and he's also mentioning at the 114 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] since 2009 when harley-davidson first started selling the Tri Glide I've seen a whole bunch of different riders purchase these I think oftentimes we pigeonhole certain types of riders into the ideal buyer for a tri Glide and usually it's someone with like a physical ailment maybe they're getting older maybe they don't have the strength to ride anymore and those types of riders certainly buy the trike but it's actually a lot broader than that and I think a lot of times people think well if you're on a trike that's because you don't have the physical capabilities of riding a two-wheeler anymore and that actually couldn't be further from the truth there's a lot of trike clubs out there that they just enjoy the look and the function of a three-wheeler and just kind of a novelty of it all because really there aren't that many trike or three-wheeled vehicles out on the road so you're kind of putting yourself in a very small group of people that ride these bikes and so once again it's kind of a novel thing but you know certainly I do sell and see a lot of people riding that for whatever reason aren't comfortable riding a two-wheeler anymore and so that would be one type of rider I've seen guys whose wives just feel more comfortable on the back of a three wheeler more stable and just more confident in it for whatever reason some guys just like the storage of it I've had guys buy it because they want to ride a Harley but they don't have a whole lot of experience riding two wheelers and they're kind of starting late in the game they just don't have a whole lot of confidence in their abilities anymore and so they just want to have the Harley Davidson experiences so they get the the trike which by the way the Tri glide definitely delivers the Harley Davidson feeling a character the engineering of the bike kind of the beauty that simplistic style and aesthetic yet real premium nature to it you definitely get all those aspects out of a tri glide a turning is completely different going in a straight line shifting the gears running the engine up all that is very much the same as a two wheeler and you definitely feel like you're on a harley-davidson you know I've read another three wheel vehicles like you know the spider and some other ones out that are more of a sport bike feeling because the engine is you know you're water-cooled higher revving motor but this is still that low-end torque II grunt and so you don't lose any of that at all translates directly over on the Tri Glide but you know going through turns there is absolutely no leaning at all on a two-wheel vehicle when you lean over the inertia of the turn pushes you further into the seat on these the first time I remember I turn this you've got kind of that centrifugal force or the inertia that is moving your body the opposite side of you know the outside of the turn which at first is kind of unnerving a little bit because it's almost like the tracklist to you know throw you off the the seat or something like that but you know quickly as as you ride it more and more it's just it's like a really fun feeling it's it's almost like you want to go through the turns you know faster and faster and faster and now maybe you get over that after your own these but whenever I get on one of these bikes it's like you someone like steer it and you'll go through the turns really quickly and you know kind of have that that go-cart feeling like I mentioned before but so the the steering is very much different where you're not counter stirring anymore you're directly steering in the direction of the turn that you want to make and so that reason I get sometimes people asking me well is it fatiguing and yeah you know I think if you get on like a switchback road we were doing a lot of turning especially sharp turns yeah your upper body could get fatigued and so you know maybe maybe limit that at first if you're not really sure about your abilities and I guess your stamina but for the most part most roads you're gonna be perfectly fine and it's really not a fatiguing bike to ride at all so to kind of compare the two models a little bit so you know out on the freeway obviously a lot of the same principles apply you know the fairing is a really good for wind deflection the wind shield is decent but if you're gonna be going out on longer trips and doing a lot of highway mileage I definitely recommend doing the tripod and there's the obvious stuff as well with the storage capacity the 117 on the CVO specifically is pretty dang fun it's definitely the most powerful engine I've ridden on a tripod so today was the first time I've ever ridden a CVO with a 117 it definitely has more giddyup then like your your 107 in your 114 that I've written in the past the seat comfort is awesome you know one thing guys if you're ever wanting to get a little bit more long road trip seat comfort a writer backrest is a single best thing that you can invest in you know more comfortable more padded seat is good but a rider backrest just be able to rest your your lower torso against that that makes a big difference in this kind of your your overall torso fatigue as you're riding down the road also helps out your back to people that have lower back issues and things like that the rider backrest makes a huge difference so if you're on the maximum you know comforts go for that rider backrest which by the way the CBO does come with it I don't know if I mentioned that or not I think a common question that people ask themselves as well is okay well am I gonna get the regular tri glide or do I want to pony up and get the CVL and really what am I getting for my money so I'll break that down real quick for you so yeah you are paying an extra what is like thirteen fourteen thousand dollars for the CVO so my personal opinion I wouldn't do it just for the engine upgrade alone there's been a 114 and a seven in the 117 isn't worth the thirteen fourteen thousand dollars really if you want the things like the heated grips the heated seats if you know you're gonna get the wireless headset with the limb in there which is the wireless headset the interface module if you like the cosmetics if you like the wheels you like the fancy paint then once you add all those things up it's certainly worth and getting the CVL and you know the cherry on top is kind of exclusivity so if you're gonna get a lot of that stuff anyways and spend the money and get that installed you're better off just getting the CVO from a value standpoint as well that stuff coming from the factory on the CDO is gonna hold its value a lot better than if you install that stuff on the bike after the fact so I'll break it down like this who do I recommend the CVO tripod for well people that want a trike in the first place so who'd I recommend a trike for in the first place I would definitely recommend test riding one before you buy one because they do handle quite a bit different than a two-wheeled motorcycle they're fun though I will say that you know I've the first time I ever rode one I had a lot of fun on it I had a lot of fun on it and I don't know if it was just a novelty of it I'm certainly not ready to try to trade in my two wheeler at this point you can't split lanes on this thing very well but the guys out there that want to try something different well the novelty of a three-wheeler or if you've been riding harleys your whole life or for whatever reason you physically can't ride a two-wheeler anymore the try ride is a great alternative so then you're a star so okay well do I get the trial ID or do I get the CVO try Glide at that point like I mentioned it's just a matter of if you value the cosmetic appeal of the CVO the exclusivity of the CVO and some those are the things you get on it namely the heated grips that heated seat the upgraded sound system the wireless headset the extra bags the covers that come with it the passenger adjustable floorboards the rider backrest the more comfortable seats it really does add up guys you know everything from you know the cosmetics on the floorboards and the grid for the Kahuna collection if you value all that stuff I would say go for the CVO as far as just pure riding they both have the are DRS the same chassis the engine upgrade to the 117 isn't real significant so if you just really want the core Rider without the frills and some of those extra bells and whistles if you can do without them then just go with the regular try glide like I said test ride it first the more you ride it the more you get used to it and the more fun it becomes when you first get on it it's funny like you feel like it's a little bit sketch but you know you get used to it really really quick and there's really no learning curve hardly to ride these things you know a lot of people you know ask me okay is it hard to ride how do you ride it you know how to ride a two-wheel harley-davidson you're gonna jump right on these things and you're gonna meet all the right at no problem believe the only bad habits that people may have when they first start on it is they're gonna have kind of that instinct to drop their feet down to the ground when they come to a stop and you have to kind of mentally get over that to where you just keep your feet on the floorboards doesn't take very long but that's something that I see people kind of making the mistake of having the the tendency to put their feet down which isn't really a big deal I think the cbhi guy was a cool vehicle to come out with I definitely was not expecting it I mean this is obviously a real niche bike trikes we probably sell maybe one every two months or so and now you're kind of pigeonholing spike into even a narrower category because of the price point I hope harley-davidson doesn't produce a ton of these and run this for two three years I would assume they're gonna run it for at least two years just because of all the R&D and everything that went into you know making a vehicle like this but I personally just hope that they don't produce a whole lot of them because this is a market that could get saturated very quickly with too many of these bikes in the pool anyways guys let me know what your opinion is down below especially I want to hear from you trike riders do you track riders feel like the CEO is appealing even at this high ever price points is this something that you've been wanting is this something you've been asking for or is it something that's you know you wouldn't spend the extra money for I want to know your guys's opinion you guys are looking for a trike or any other holiday was sitting in the Southern California area be sure to hit us up at Laidlaw Harley Davidson and thanks all for watching guys make sure you subscribe as well if you haven't hit that subscribe button take care guys below [Music]

Channel: Matt Laidlaw

Views: 537,225

Keywords: Harley-Davidson, Motorcycles, Laidlaw's, TriGlide, CVO Trike, Harley-Davidson CVO, Matt Laidlaw, Trike Review, Trike Test Ride, BAgger, Custom Vehicle Operation, CVO TriGlide, FreeWheeler, Harley 3-Wheeler, Laidlaw's Harley-Davidson

Id: nyC63UrDb54

Length: 37min 29sec (2249 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2020