THERE'S A school of thought that says you only really get the best out of a Harley once you've had a bit of a fiddle with it. Louder, less restrictive pipes, maybe an air filter mod, ECU tweak. The firm itself certainly backs this up - its accessories catalogue is like a phone book of bolt-on goodness, with loads of factory tuning parts - dubbed Screaming Eagle.
But what if you cannae be bothered with all that grubbiness? Well, Harley has thought of that, and offers its Custom Vehicle Operations 'CVO' range. A bit like similar setups in car firms, these are limited-edition customised versions of its bikes, with more power, premium finishes and added bolt-ons.
There are three new CVO bikes for 2019 - a CVO Road Glide, Street Glide and Limited. The main deal is a big-bore engine: a Milwaukee-Eight 117, which has 117 cubic inches or 1,923cc of capacity, which is pretty monstrous. There's a lot of low-down grunt of course, but they're a bit steady in terms of power still - around 100bhp at the tyre. Weight is still high as well - the Limited tourer is 411kg dry ffs, and the Road Glide is 390kg.
But you dinnae buy a Harley for lightweight supersport handling, do you? You buy it for cruising like a V-Twin Tarmac Emperor, clad in his finest bling. And there's plenty on the CVO bikes. Fancy paint, custom wheels, red rocker covers on the engines, special intake setups - they've got the lot. And they also get the new H-D Boom! entertainment system, plus hot grips, comfort footboards, special exhaust finishes, etc etc etc.
They're still road legal of course, so you'll still need to get your dealer to free up some dB with a set of cool pipes, but that apart, these monsters are pretty impressive. Impressive price tags too - current CVO prices are around £30-35k...
More info: www.harley-davidson.com
