Why Touring Trike Owners Are Already Planning Their Next 100K Miles
Touring motorcycles are built around a promise to keep going. They want to make long distances feel short and to make excuses to take the scenic route. But even the best two-wheeled tourer asks something from its rider at every stop, at every parking lot and at every awkwardly cambered gas station. A touring trike, on the other hand, changes that equation. It offers the same appetite for open roads, but with a little less balancing awkwardness and a little more planted confidence. For riders who value the comfort, cargo space, and freedom of travel of a touring bike, a trike can offer just a little more stability without entering car space.
Why Trikes Make Long-Distance Touring Easier
A conventional touring motorcycle can be wonderfully comfortable once it’s moving, but its sheer size often becomes most noticeable when speed drops towards zero. Add a passenger, luggage, a full fuel tank, and a sloping parking lot, and even experienced riders have plenty to think about. A touring trike removes one major piece of that mental arithmetic. There is no need to hold the machine upright at a stop, no anxious foot shuffle when backing out of a parking space, and no balancing act while the passenger climbs aboard.
This changes the ownership experience, too. Three-wheelers bring more room for luggage and a wider, more substantial touring footprint. You don’t have to worry about managing weight in the parking lot, but you do have to plan for space. They aren’t replacements for traditional motorcycles, either. They steer differently and carry their own unique personality, something not all motorcyclists may like.
The Segment Is Not Without Competition
Owing to this popularity, the trike world is not short of interesting choices. Harley-Davidson has long been one of the defining names in the category, and Can-Am has approached the formula from an entirely different direction. The Can-Am platforms look more like Ski-Doo snowmobiles on wheels with their reverse-trike layout, but their Spyder RT and Canyon trikes feature luggage and mounts for touring purposes. Other brands that approach the trike formula from another angle are Polaris and Campagna with the Slingshot and the Campagna trikes. Out of all these, one Harley serves a constant dream for enthusiasts.
The CVO Street Glide 3 Limited Is The Touring Trike That We Really Should Be Talking About
The Harley-Davidson CVO Street Glide 3 Limited is the obvious choice here as it represents the point where Harley’s touring trike formula stops making excuses. You don’t choose between performance and comfort or between luxury and practicality. The Street Glide 3 comes with loaded equipment expected from a flagship CVO model. You get luggage capacity, the massive Milwaukee-Eight 121 engine, and all the creature comforts you can imagine on a motorcycle, but you get all of this with one more wheel in the back to take away the stress of balancing that heavy machine.
The Milwaukee-Eight 121 Engine Is The Biggest Conversation Starter
At the heart of the CVO Street Glide 3 Limited is Harley-Davidson’s Milwaukee-Eight VVT 121 engine. This is a massive 1,977 cc V-twin that produces 114 horsepower at 4,500 rpm and 138 pound-feet of torque at as low as 3,750 rpm. Variable valve timing broadens that delivery, but imagine the kind of torque you have from the get-go. No unnecessary high revs to start from the parking lot or while overtaking. Twist a bit and go. Of course, this is a heavy machine, so it needs that kind of shove, and the engine is built to deliver it.
Harley pairs this engine with Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection, which sprays fuel into the intake port just as the valve opens. This hits the back of the valve, creating a better spray in the combustion chamber and a better fuel-air mixture. Now, this helps with mileage, and Harley claims an average of 39 miles per gallon. Paired with a six-gallon fuel tank, that’s about 234 miles of range.
Updated Chassis Boosts Long-Haul Abilities
Now, the Street Glide 3 Limited sits on a dedicated purpose-built trike chassis. The rear suspension system has been revised for the second generation with an advanced de Dion-style independent layout for improved handling, passenger comfort, and reduced unsprung mass. This also increased wheel travel from 2.3 inches to 5 inches. At the front, there’s a 49 mm Dual Blending Valve fork.
The dimensions of the bike are quite substantial, of course, measuring 105.7 inches long and 57.3 inches wide. The wheelbase measures 67.7 inches. Now, at the front, you have a 130/60B19 M/C 61H tire that you could find on touring bikes. At the rear, however, you get P215/45R18 83T tires that are usually fitted to small cars and compact sedans. At 1,283 pounds, this trike comes extremely close to car territory, and reverse gear becomes necessary, not optional.
Luxury Is Built Into The CVO Experience
The CVO badge has always represented Harley-Davidson’s more extravagant side, and the Street Glide 3 Limited wears that identity without remorse. Exclusive CVO colorways and premium finishes give the trike a presence beyond simply chrome plating and big trunks. This is a large bike with an enormous amount of surface area. At the front, the Batwing-style touring silhouette remains, but the entire package gives the trike a muscular, planted feel. This is also a tourer, so luggage capacity is important, 7.1 cubic feet of which is available straight out of the factory with the Grand Tour-Pak that comes standard.
The Audio System Turns This Into A Concert Hall On Wheels
The CVO treatment also means top-of-the-line electronics to go with your top-of-the-line motorcycle. The centerpiece is a 12.3-inch full-color TFT display running Harley-Davidson’s Skyline OS. This infotainment system supports Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth connectivity, navigation, and a wide range of phone and media functions. The other highlight is the audio system. The CVO Street Glide 3 is equipped with six speakers: two in the fairing, two in the lower fairing, and two in the Tour-Pak. Two of these are 150-watt channels and four of them are 125-watt channels, giving the CVO considerably more acoustic firepower than a motorcycle could reasonably need. But again, reasonable isn’t the point of this bike.
Built For Riders Who Have No Interest In Downsizing
The strongest argument for the Harley-Davidson CVO Street Glide 3 Limited is that it does not ask you to scale back the touring experience, and instead gives you a slightly different kind of one. Harley uses the trike format as a foundation for one of its most comprehensively equipped touring machines, with an almost 2-litre V-twin, 7.1 cubic feet of cargo space, heated seating and controls, electric reverse, premium suspension, and premium audio and infotainment. This combination explains why owners of this large touring trike have become fiercely attached to them. Given the convenience of standing still without balancing, along with everything else would feel like voluntarily giving up some very useful tools.
Source: Harley-Davidson
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