A month with The Motor Company’s performance bagger beast

Every once in a while, a bike shows up that’s actually built for a guy my size. I’m 6’2″ and carrying a little north of two-and-a-half bills, and most of the “sporty” stuff in the touring world feels like I’m folding myself into a lawn chair. So when Harley rang Rob in late June and asked if the Road Dirt crew wanted to spend some time on a 2026 CVO Street Glide ST, I think it took him about a millisecond to say yes. So we coordinated with H-D and a local YouTuber to pick up the “Milwaukee Rocket”.

That worked out nicely for yours truly. Being the Harley guy on the Road Dirt crew, I got to hang onto this bad boy for a full month — rural roads near my home in east Georgia cow country, touring up in the North Georgia mountains, and enough back-and-forth commuting to actually learn the thing. As Rob likes to say, a three-mile test ride around the dealership doesn’t tell you much. Living with a bike does.

Fair warning up front: I ride a 2017 Road Glide. So no matter how hard I try, I’m going to end up comparing this Batwing to my Shark Nose. That’s just how it goes.

Beautiful, powerful, functional, all-day ride comfort.

The First Thing(s) You’ll Notice

It’s the weight. Or rather, the lack of it.

If you’re coming off an older Harley tourer, the CVO ST feels like somebody went through the bike with a scalpel. Even with a full tank of gas, it’s roughly a hundred pounds lighter than my ’17 Road Glide. The carbon fiber fenders and other treatments are doing real work there, and you feel every ounce of it the second you pull the bike up off the stand.

The word I kept coming back to was nimble. I never thought I’d say that about a Harley bagger, and yet here we are. Low-speed maneuvering is easy. Parking lots stop being a workout. And out in the twisties, this thing genuinely wants to play. I’ve never carved lines on a bagger the way I did on this bike — it settles into a curve, holds the groove, and asks for more. Over time my confidence at speed in the turns was higher than normal. 

The Motor Co seems to have ripped a page from the Italian design books of Ducati and the like. I love the stock sweeping curved bars which, surprisingly, were at a great height for my size. The air intake is also a nice little work of art. It bulged out a bit and prevented me from resting my right footsie on the engine guard to stretch but the design efforts are stunning.

Pinning the throttle in Sport mode, and you’d better hang on.

Power, Modes, and Restraint You Won’t Have

There’s 149 lb-ft of torque under you, and the throttle response is outstanding. Four ride modes — Rain, Road, Sport, and Track — all switchable on the fly with a button, no stopping required. We clocked the 40 to 80 mph burst at just under 4 seconds. The only thing faster was my smile.   

I’ll be honest: I lived in Sport mode. I never touched Track and generally stayed out of the Rain and Road modes. If Sport is that good, I can only imagine what Track has in reserve. There’s a certain law enforcement officer who cruised past me one afternoon whom I’d rather not have met under different circumstances. This motorcycle wants to go fast. Ride accordingly.

The suspension setup is a big part of the story. Inverted forks up front, adjustable air shocks in the rear that dial from firm to soft. I ran the bike with the rear shocks set to fully soft, and even at my weight it was the right call- it almost felt like the bike was nudging me into the corner rather than fighting me through it.

I could sit and stare at this mechanical marvel all day. But I’d rather ride it.

Living With It Day to Day

The rider triangle fits me well, which I don’t get to say often on some of the motorbikes we test. I did feel a bit closer to the tank than on my Road Glide Special, but nothing that bothered me over a long hot day in North Georgia.

The Skyline OS infotainment center is a legitimate leap forward. My phone pairs with my ’17 in 30-45 seconds; this thing connects damn near instantly. Menu navigation through the switchgear is clean and gets you where you’re going without hunting. Drop the phone in the little cubby under the dash and you’re off.

Other things that earned their keep:

• The bags. They look about the same size as the older units, maybe a little shorter, but there’s noticeably more usable space in there, like in the Street Glide Rob rode around Thunder Beach on. We haul camera gear on these bikes, so that matters.
• No gas cap to babysit. Lever-actuated fuel door. Pull up, flip it, fill it, go. Nobody’s leaving a cap on a pump island.
• The stereo. A real upgrade.
• The seat. We rode a full day in the mountains and my lower back was in far better shape than it usually is even on my own bike. Somebody in Milwaukee got this one right.
• The design. I love the curve of the bars on this CVO Street Glide ST and the look of the air intake. If you ask me, they borrowed a few cues from the Italians — and we’ve ridden enough Ducatis around here to mean that as a compliment. Milwaukee’s design department has clearly leveled up.

Keyless fob, start-stop, cruise control, engine guards — all the modern creature comforts you’d expect, and the paint is just gorgeous. The gray-and-red is sharp too.  Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Linked Braking (ELB), Traction Control System (TCS), Drag-torque Slip Control System (DSCS), Vehicle Hold Control (VHC – we never found where to set this), Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Wheel Lift Mitigation (most likely from the LiveWire programmers), so many amazing features on this high-end model.

Motorcycle design like artwork.

The Nitpicks

Nothing here is a dealbreaker, but you deserve the whole picture.

They moved the radio volume from the left side to the right. If you’re working the throttle and want to turn the music down, it’s a little awkward at first. Pure first-world problem, but existing Harley riders will notice.

The windshield is functionally invisible at my height. For me it does essentially nothing, so a taller shield would be the first thing on the list. I’m a Klock Werks fan so one of the new colors would be my choice. 

The footboards are small for my size 12’s. The front half (or back half depending) of my foot hangs off. You get used to it, but I noticed it a bit – not a major issue, however.

The front brakes squeak. Every stop, every time you touch the front lever, there’s a chirp up front. I don’t know whether something was sprayed on the discs before it came to us, but at a price point starting around $45K, you’d expect the brakes to be flawless. Odd one.

The odd placement of the sound system volume control, and the worthless (for my size) windshield.

Where This Bike Fits

Harley is working hard to bring in a younger demographic/newer rider, and believe it or not, I think this bike helps. Yes, the initial sticker is hefty. But once these get out into the market and start turning over on the used side, the pricing comes down and a younger buyer gets a real shot at one- and that’s good for the whole Motor Company. H-D’s second-quarter numbers just landed showing lower dealer inventories and higher unit shipments, so the rebound looks like it’s underway. This makes me happy.

If you’re shopping sport-touring, put the CVO Street Glide ST, or its Road Glide sibling, on the list to check out. These bikes feel like the direction the Motor Co is headed.

We had to hand this one back in early August, and I’m not going to pretend that didn’t sting. But I’d take another month in a heartbeat.

We’re just like you- we love to ride, we never get enough seat time in the summer, and we’re already looking forward to fall. #RIDELIFE

Phil G

For more on the 2026 CVO Street Glide ST, have a look here:
CVO Street Glide ST

*Check out PG’s review video below, without ever leaving this page.