Harley-Davidson brought together two of its best subcategories – the Limited line – to field the 2022 CVO Road Glide Limited. This machine sits at the tippity-top of the food chain with the best of just about everything the MoCo has to offer as far as touring goodies go along with the largest production Big Twin to date. As always, the King Of Paint has some sizzlin' hot combinations on the palette to set it even further apart from the pack.

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Design

This is it, folks, the pinnacle of H-D's two-wheeled lineup. Outpriced only by H-D's CVO Tri Glide that shares the same red flame paint job, the CVO Road Glide Limited looks a lot like its non-CVO cousin, but the devil is in the details.

First off, the paint is top shelf. A pair of sporty, two-tone packages combine black with either orange or yellow over chrome, which are both classy if not quite classic in their layout and edgy quality. Of course, my favorite is the red and black reverse-flame fade over blackout that adds an undeniable custom flavor to the mix with an extra side of mad curb appeal.

A high-side fender leads the way under the frame-mount Sharknose fairing that usually has a fork-mount, Batwing fairing-equipped equivalent, but in this case the CVO version is in a class all its own. Even more than usual, that is. The vented windshield is fairly tall with comfort as its main attribute, but if you're too cool for school, you can always throw on a chopped or even tinted screen. Maybe both.

The speedo and tach each have their own analog gauges just above the handlebar clamp, but all of the top-shelf fandanglery comes shoehorned into the 6.5-inch color TFT display. The latter has quite the workload with ride metrics, navigation, and weather on board, plus it manages the Boom! Box GTS music options with Rockford Fosgate yummygoodness in the speakers. Party on, Wayne.

Tomahawk wheels and Kahuna grips dress up the chassis, and this bike also comes stock with blackout highway pegs for pilot comfort. Both rider and passenger floorboards are of the Kahuna line for the comfort and style they bring to the table. Heated Kahuna grips come paired with heated pilot and passenger seats, and the pilot backrest rocks a new lumbar support to improve long-distance comfort. The passenger also benefits from a full backrest supported by the Tour Pak.

Hard bags come stock with liners for quick loading/unloading, and join with the Pak for a total of 4.7 cubic-feet of secure dry storage. As for the storage in the fairing lowers, you can stop trying to pry the cover off, that storage was traded off to make room for the twin-cooling equipment.

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Chassis

In keeping with the norm, the factory went with mild steel as the material of choice for the CVO Road Glide Limited, on both the main frame and yoke-style swingarm. A heavy, box-style backbone lends its great strength to the structure, but the rest of the frame proper is tubular steel with MIG welded joints.

It all comes together at the steering head up front that sets a rake angle of 26 degrees, but an offset in the tripletree makes the actual fork angle 29.25 degrees from the vertical. Factor in the 6.7 inches of trail over the 64-inch wheelbase and you have a very stable ride that tracks well in a crosswind with low-effort steering corrections.

Providing that you weigh at least 180 pounds, you can expect to push the seat down to its running position at 28.2 inches off the deck. That's really not very tall for such a big bike, and it joins with the mid-mount foot controls and medium-lift handlebar to make for a comfortable, upright riding position for most average body types. If that's no good for you, a range of suspension and seating changes lets you massage the rider's triangle a bit to accommodate your needs.

Cast wheels round out the rolling chassis in the Tomahawk design with a 130/60-19 hoop ahead of a 180/60-18. The CVO Road Glide Limited is the only bike in Harley's touring stable that comes with a 21-inch front wheel.

The tires are Dunlop's Harley-Davidson series with an “H” speed rating that will tolerate speeds up to 130 mph, which is plenty fast for this kind of machine. If it ain't, then you're looking at the wrong kind of bike, my friends. A hand-adjustable rear suspension setup allows for quick and easy preload changes sans tools and dirty knees, but the front suspension is special indeed with the Showa Dual Bending Valve technology that delivers demand-driven damping for a plush with no adjusters with which to fiddle.

The dual front brakes and rear brake all center around 300 mm discs with dual, four-bore calipers up front to provide the bulk of the stopping power. Lean-sensitive ABS joins with H-D's Enhanced Electronic Linked Braking to help you safely use that great braking power to the max with no fear of breaking loose at either end. Harley's Hill Hold Control finishes out the brake goodies by holding the brake for you so you can safely but both feet down at stops on grades.

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Drivetrain

The electronic fandanglery on the CVO Road Glide Limited continues well into the engine controls with corner-sensitive versions of the traction control and drag-torque control features as part of the standard equipment package. This brings H-D into the 21st century as far as electronic safety equipment goes, and this suite will stand against the best comparable designs in the world.

Credit where it's due, the factory put in an engine that, at 117 cubic-inches, is large by anyone's standards. But, it could be better if H-D instead shoehorned in its Milwaukee-Eight 122 monster, so there is room for improvement, even if it's minor.

As for what the CVO Road Glide Limited actually does have, the 125 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm holds it in good stead, even with its nearly half-ton wet weight. Tweaks to the intake tract lower drag to improve volumetric efficiency just a tad, and they work alongside a high-performance camshaft and low-resistance exhaust to pretty much roll with a built-in stage-one performance package.

While those performance goodies will get you to top speed more quickly, the governor still limits revs to 105 mph in top gear with the stock final-drive pulleys. A six-speed transmission and slipper-style clutch make the connection from engine to the tarmac with a fiber-reinforced belt for the final drive that delivers quiet, low maintenance service.

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Price

Needless to say, all those bells and whistles in the CVO Road Glide Limited add up at the end of the day. The base model in Dante's Red Fade over blackout starts at $44,899. Whether you choose Wicked Orange Pearl or Hightail Yellow Pearl, both colorways over black and chrome, you can expect to shell out $47,899.

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Competitors

Indian Motorcycle doesn't have an exact model for my competitor section, but the Pursuit Dark Horse looks to me like it's probably close enough for government work.

Indian Pursuit Dark Horse

The similarities between the Pursuit Dark Horse and CVO Road Glide Limited are obvious, from the broad fixed front fairing to the rear-end luggage and the huge V-twin in between. Indian meets its domestic foe tit-for-tat with all-around LED lighting for high, two-way visibility, but gets a win with its power-adjustable windscreen that lets you dial in for preference.

A seven-inch TFT display handles Indian's proprietary RIDE COMMAND and Apple's CarPlay music service to more or less match the MoCo's infotainment features, though the actual engine electronics fall short of Harley's pure ride-control brilliance. As for hardware brilliance, you can forget about it. The Pursuit Dark Horse runs blackout everywhere that doesn't get shot with the sheet-metal paint.

The PowerPlus engine in the Indian runs a 108 cubic-inch displacement with 128 pound-feet of torque on tap to get a couple or three extra pounds of grunt, but that difference is not even a blip on the old heinie dyno at the end of the day. I can tell you what is though, the price.

Indian manages to get the Black Smoke model to the checkout with a $30,999 MSRP. Models with non-monochromatic paint fetch $31,749 while the two-tone sells for $32,499, to leave a substantial amount of cheddar on the table.

Read our full review of the Indian Pursuit Limited and Pursuit Dark Horse.

He Said

“Holy smokes sports fans – this bike pretty much has it all, including badder-than-usual paint to put a bow on it. I'm digging the reverse-flame fade, to be sure, but it's the infotainment goodies and ride electronics that really make the sale for me.”

She Said

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, “The CVO Road Glide Limited is the luxury-touring version of luxury tourers. Passenger amenities abound as well they should on a machine of this type. The backrest on the topcase makes a snug, comfy perch for your passenger and components from the upscale Kahuna Collection add to the prestigious nature of the bike. What else can I say? It's top-shelf all the way.”

2022 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Limited Specifications

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