The Harley-Davidson Road Glide has always been considered as one of the best American tourers out there. Ever since its inception back in 1998, the Road Glide has been a favorite amongst the buyers due to its torquey V-twin motor that could do the highway speed limit all day long without batting an eye. The supremely comfortable seats and plush ride quality were also some of the other benefits.
With the arrival of the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide, which is launched for a base MSRP of $22,249, Harley-Davidson is back with the legendary cruiser to compete with the Indian Challenger Dark Horse, which is its biggest rival of the segment. Offered in three colors and coming with a long list of bells and whistles as standard, the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide is an offering that is hard to resist. Here are 10 things every motorcycle enthusiast should know about the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide.
10 The Milwaukee-Eight V-Twin Is Quite Torquey
Similar to the 2021 model year of the Road Glide, this 2022 moniker comes with the Milwaukee-Eight 114 V-twin motor, which is a single-cam push-rod motor with 4 valves per cylinder. This motor offers about 76.1 hp and 118 lb-ft of torque and comes with a compression ratio of 10.5:1, making it a very unstressed motor perfect for cruising.
The main highlight of this motor has to be the sweet surge of torque at the low and mid-range rpms and this helps the rider to attain the speed at the highest gear and a very low rpm. The motor sounds incredible with the stock exhaust and feels decently refined too. However, the top-end performance is mediocre, and the vibrations are quite high.
9 Has Got The Quintessential Harley Transmission
The 6-speed Cruise Drive manual transmission that comes with the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide is not the most sophisticated or refined transmission in the segment. In comparison, the Indian Challenger Dark Horse had much smoother gearshifts, offering no false neutrals and clunky noise.
When shifting from neutral to first gear, the 2022 Road Glide feels very archaic and doesn't exude the luxury that should have been part of the steep price of $22,249. However, the gearing is spot on for an American touring motorcycle with long fifth and sixth gears, aiding to low noise and vibration levels.
8 Not The Most Comfortable Motorcycle To Ride In The City
With a curb weight of 853 lbs, it is one of the heaviest baggers from Harley-Davidson, and that makes it pretty difficult to ride and navigate through the city traffic conditions. The weight is more concentrated to the front and the handlebar gets heavy at slow speeds. The motorcycle also gets very hot if not ridden at a reasonable pace.
The long wheelbase of 64" is not ideal for riding through the streets, and you would always need to keep an eye while navigating and splitting through the lanes. The front end dive under hard braking is high and that does take a toll on the shoulder and wrist of the rider. Apart from that, the suspension is on the stiffer side.
7 Highway Riding Is Where It Shines
This is what the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide is made for, and the motorcycle will impress the riders pretty well. The unstressed low compression ratio has got excellent torque to ride through the freeways without any need for a downshift. The sweet sound of the v-twin coupled with low heat level is a definite USP too.
The Showa 49mm dual bending valve suspension at the front and Emulsion shocks with hand-adjustable preload at the rear makes for an impressive ride on the highway. Since the suspension is tuned to the stiffer side, all the irregularities of the road (barring the biggest potholes) are absorbed well. The motorcycle doesn't get unsettled by the crosswinds as well.
6 Taking Corners Would Need Getting Used To
Even though the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide gets a stiff suspension system for the front and rear, this motorcycle is far from a decent handling machine. The heavy curb weight and the mild tubular frame of the motorcycle make it not the best motorcycle of the lot for taking corners too enthusiastically.
In comparison, the Indian Challenger Dark Horse offered a more competent cornering experience. The motorcycle could lean decently and could hold the line pretty well too. However, the 2022 Road Glide has its footpegs placed very low and that would result in scraping if corners are taken very enthusiastically.
5 Braking Performance Is More Than Adequate
The 2022 Road Glide takes forward the same braking hardware of the 2021 model and hence sees no changes in the braking performance. The front end comes with 300mm floating discs and the rear gets a single 300mm disc. Both sides get 4-piston calipers and ABS too.
The front brake is all that is needed to anchor this motorcycle from the highway speed. A gentle grab of the front brake lever reveals that the initial bite is above average. However, squeeze it a bit more, and you would notice the excellent braking progression on offer. The rear braking performance has nothing to fault too. The ABS intrusion is minimal as well.
4 Optional RDRS Offers All The Much-Needed Features
The Reflex Defensive Rider System (RDRS) is offered as an option with the 2022 Road Glide and should be opted if you intend to get the motorcycle. This system offers many rider assistance and safety features such as cornering ABS, cornering electronically linked braking, drag torque slip control system, vehicle hold control, and tire pressure monitoring system.
Offered for an additional price of $995, this system makes sure that the electronics are there to look after the rider at all times and that will come in handy especially when gunning the motorcycle around the B-roads or the freeways. However, some of these electronic features do poke in unnecessarily, making the motorcycle feel a bit restricted.
3 Shark Nose Front And Other Design Elements Makes It Look Iconic
The road presence offered by the 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide is next to none. The shark-nose front end of the Road Glide is still imposing to look at, and the twin-pod headlight makes it stand out from all the other motorcycles on the road. The 3 colors palettes (vivid black, reef blue, and white sand pearl) highlight the design very well.
The side and rear views of the 2022 Road Glide also see no difference from the outgoing model year. The chrome wrapped engine and exhaust, neat Harley-Davidson embossing on the tank, and the side carriers add to the looks. The LED taillight and indicators, sweeping rear fender, and the dual exhaust look neat too.
2 There Is An Audio System Onboard
The Boom! Box 4.3 infotainment is carried forward to this 2022 iteration, and that is a good thing. This audio system offers 25 watts per channel and gets 2-speakers, making it even better in terms of highway riding experience. The speaker size of 5.25" is reasonably big too.
Through this audio system, the rider could play AM, FM, weather band, SD card, flash drive, and MP3 playback via USB connection. With the P& A upgrade, 20 SiriusXM presents are present too. The audio experience turned out to be quite good, with excellent bass and mid-frequency output. However, the high-frequency audio output isn't pretty impressive.
1 The Instrument Cluster Is Intuitive To Use
The 2022 Harley-Davidson Road Glide comes with a massive analog speedometer and tachometer, along with a smaller temperature and fuel gauge. The dials are pretty clear and the analog dials add to the look of the dash. Along with the analog dials, there is also a color TFT display mounted in the middle.
The TFT display is quite large and offers all the relevant information like music, trip information, rider modes, and many more. The legibility is excellent, and the interface is decent for the segment. Many other infotainment features like Bluetooth, hands-free mobile phone connectivity, voice recognition, text to speech, etc. are standard too.
