2020 Harley-Davidson CVO Tri Glide First Ride Review

In the world of motorcycles, the trike often gets overlooked by die-hard two-wheelers. But you might be surprised that the Tri Glide is a favorite among many riders who are simply intimidated by the task of balancing a big heavy bike, with or without a passenger. This includes aging riders, amputees, and women. Harley's average Tri Glide customer is of retirement age, and ready to tour the country, putting on more miles than any other Harley customers. This is the first Tri Glide to don the CVO badge, making it truly one of the most premium trikes on the market. In fact, Harley-Davidson is the only company to offer a trike as a stock model direct from the manufacturer. It only seemed right to test out this three-wheeled palace from the industry's trike experts.

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The first thing I noticed about boarding the CVO Tri Glide was the seat, which is extremely cushy and comfortable. This is likely the most pampered my rear end has ever felt in a motorcycle seat. As if the saddle itself wasn't plush enough, the rider also gets a backrest. The passenger actually gets even more comfort with a wider and taller backrest and armrests. This is no longer a trike; this is a lounge chair on wheels. And if that still doesn't sound luxurious enough, both front and rear seats are heated, as are the grips. Being slightly inseam-challenged, I often pay close attention to the seat height of any bike I'm about to ride. With the Tri Glide, even with its extremely approachable 25.9-inch-high perch, the mere fact that I don't have to hold the bike up at a standstill made that concern disappear. All the bikes in the CVO lineup are large, but the Tri Glide was the only one I didn't have to worry about tipping over, especially during slow maneuvers.

What the trike offers in stability, it lacks in handling. The CVO Tri Glide is really best suited for straight-line touring, which it excels at. On the freeway and straightaways, the luxury trike feels planted and stable. When we hit the twisty roads, however, things got more interesting. Make no mistake, the Tri Glide is not a performance-oriented trike, in the sense that you can use up all your tires' rubber up to the edge of your sidewalls. Those back tires are not shaped for leaning, and the whole trike suffers from serious understeer while taking turns at a spirited pace. In the Tri Glide's defense, you'll be hard pressed to find any trike that doesn't understeer, simply due to the geometry of a traditional trike with one wheel up front and two wheels in back. Still, I was riding the CVO Tri Glide faster than I would imagine 99 percent of trike owners ride their rigs through the twisties, and it was taking a fair amount of arm strength pushing the handlebars to keep the front wheel aiming into each turn. It's got the power to keep up with the rest of the pack, but the trike's weight and layout of the wheels will always make the Tri Glide bring up the rear.

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While your two-wheel buddies are rippin’ up the twisty roads ahead, you can hang out in style on the CVO Tri Glide in the back, toting all the luggage you could possibly need for touring. The total luggage capacity of the CVO Tri Glide is a whopping 6.8 cubic feet, including a built-in luggage compartment between the rear two wheels that is 4.4 cubic feet and can hold up to 50 pounds. You could probably fit a stack of pizzas in the lower back compartment alone. But just in case that’s not enough room for you, there’s also a Tour-Pak top case with a built-in luggage rack. Both luggage cases are lockable and come with interior lights.

With the new 117ci (1,923cc) Milwaukee-Eight engine, the largest powerhouse offered from The Motor Company, and exclusive to the CVO lineup, the Tri Glide gets up to speed in a reasonable amount of time. With 125 pound-feet of torque, takeoff is enough from the Tri Glide to lift the front wheel (if you turn off all the nannies), as certain other editors proved later in the day. Throttle response was good, without any loose feeling in the grip or delayed feedback. As we entered the freeway, the Milwaukee-Eight engine had no trouble catching up to the rest of my riding crew on two wheels.

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Shifting that big burly trike meant getting a workout on my left hand. The clutch lever was heavily sprung, and required a fair amount of effort to pull back. I was only on the Tri Glide for an hour or so, but I could imagine after a full day of riding, I would have some hand fatigue from the heavy clutch lever. Shifting was easy with the heel shifter on the floorboard. Every gear I shifted into gave a very solid “thunk,” reassuring me I was in gear.

Speaking of heavy levers, the brake lever gave my right hand a workout too. The CVO Tri Glide is equipped with Harley-Davidson branded Brembo brakes, sporting four-piston calipers on dual 300mm floating rotors up front and a single-piston caliper on a fixed rotor on each rear wheel. I could definitely feel the 1,269 pounds of Tri Glide heft when actuating the brakes. Thankfully, as with all CVO models, the trike is equipped with Reflex Defensive Rider Systems (RDRS), which includes ABS, cornering ABS, Electronic Linked Braking (ELB), and Cornering Electronic Linked Braking (C-ELB) to give an extra bolster of stopping confidence. The ELB modulates braking power to both front and rear brakes when the rider applies pressure to either the hand lever or the foot lever. With the C-ELB, the system senses the lateral load of the Tri Glide while taking a corner and adjusts the braking force to help maintain traction of the bike while cornering. Since I never heard the rear tires screeching through the corners, I would say the system works well. Additionally, one of the unique features of the Tri Glide is a parking brake, which is integrated into the back wheels and comes in handy for parking on hills.

Suspension on the Tri Glide was adequately plush, featuring Showa technology. The fork innards use dual-bending valves, and soaked up the road nicely. The rear emulsion shocks have preload adjustment with a single hand crank knob, and hardly transferred any bumps to the seat. Mind you, that plush saddle probably helped a lot with that.

Within the suite of technology in the RDRS the Tri Glide comes with Cornering Enhanced Traction Control System (C-TCS) and Drag-Torque Slip Control System (DSCS). The C-TCS helps keep the back wheel from slipping during acceleration, and the DSCS helps keep the back wheel from slipping during deceleration. Basically Harley-Davidson threw all the possible technology it could at the CVO Tri Glide (and all CVOs) to help keep the bike in control and maintain traction.

One of the most unique features of the CVO Tri Glide is its reverse gear, which it shares with its three-wheel brother the Freewheeler. Some Harley-Davidson motorcycles can be as heavy as more than 900 pounds, but the Tri Glide is a hefty 1,269 pounds. Backing up any motorcycle, even ones under 500 pounds can be a challenge, especially if you need to go in reverse up a hill (for some unfortunate, poorly planned reason). The CVO Tri Glide makes this a nonissue, and is incredibly easy to operate.

Among the many features of every bike in the CVO lineup is an optional H-D Connect Service, a subscription service that uses the Harley-Davidson smartphone app to transmit information about their bike, including what their remaining range is, battery life, or tire pressure. It will even send an alert if a rider’s motorcycle is being stolen or tampered with. Each motorcycle is given a year of complimentary service that is enabled as soon as it is sold to its new owner, and since we were on bikes set up for editorial testing, we didn’t have a chance to try out this service. Add in the Boom! Box GTS infotainment system, blasting tunes through four Boom! Stage I two-way speakers (two in the fairing, and two built into the top case), and the CVO Tri Glide is quite possibly the most luxurious open-air touring vehicle that isn’t a car.

There are two color options for the CVO Tri Glide: Blizzard White with three-stripe graphic and gray wheels, or Black Stardust with a three-stripe pattern and gloss black wheels. The base price is $48,999, and the CVO Tri Glide is available now.

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