FIRST RIDE
2017 Harley-Davidson Road King
Modernity PORT ANGELES, WASH. seems to scare some people. That which we don’t know, especially if we’re old and have become hidebound in our habits, seems to trigger some fight-or-flight response.
In the motorcycling biz, no one is more hidebound than a Harley-Davidson owner. Styling of Milwaukee’s finest has barely evolved over the last 20 years. Some would say their technological evolution has been even slower.
Despite Harley’s desire to broaden its horizons — hence its outreach program to bring women and minorities into its showrooms — it is still the precious core market that rules Milwaukee. Virtually every decision that went into designing the new Milwaukee-Eight, every nuance to its design, internal or external, pandered to the traditional audience.
Thus, though the new Milwaukee-Eight has a new balance shaft that could, theoretically, completely eliminate the 45-degree V-twin’s vibration, Harley decided to only balance the engine’s primary vibration by 75 per cent. Focus groups, largely comprised of that, again, core audience, flatly rejected a glass- smooth idle, preferring their big twin to quake rhythmically like a Harley of old.
No one minded, however, that the Milwaukee-Eight is glass smooth at speed. It’s uncanny how something can shake so much at 850 r.p.m. and yet be so completely unperturbed at 3,000. The Milwaukee-Eight is probably the smoothest of cruiser V-twins at speed, even revving to its 5,500 r.p.m. red line failing to make the mirrors — or the handlebar, seat and floorboards — vibrate. It’s a neat trick, rendering Milwaukee’s trademark shake, rattle and roll at idle and then revving as smoothly as a Gold Wing at speed.
Here’s another improvement traditionalists will love. Harley engines — and virtually all large-displacement, air-cooled twins — generate a lot of heat. The lack of cooling air flowing over the cylinder fins while idling can quickly cook the rider’s legs. It’s a real problem every time the mercury soars past 25 C.
Harley ingeniously solved the problem by first reducing the Milwaukee-Eight’s idle speed to 850 r.p.m. (thus generating less heat) and then routing the rear exhaust pipe (the one that really bakes your lower right leg) even tighter to the engine, moving all those BTUs away from weak flesh.
Of course, exhaust pipe routing and counterbalancing shafts are not the Milwaukee-Eight’s big news. No, that lies with the all-new engine design, the Big Twin’s first use of four-valve cylinder heads (two times four being eight, get it?) and whether all that new-found intake valve area (50 per cent more, says Harley) results in more power, and whether the addition of two extra valves in each combustion chamber makes it somehow less of a Harley.
The answer to the first is a whole heck of a lot and, to the second, a resounding and reassuring no.
First off, Harley says there’s 10 per cent more torque, a seriously manly 111 pound-feet for the air--and oil-cooled 1,746-cc version of the 2017 Road King’s Milwaukee--Eight. Punch the Road King at anything above 1,600 r.p.m. and it will pull away from the 2016 version, first edging ahead and then, as revs build, pulling away.
But torque has always been a Harley Big Twin forte. Horsepower, particularly high-r.p.m. horsepower, has not. That’s all changed with the addition of four valves. Where previous Big Twins started running out of steam beyond 4,000 r.p.m., the new Milwaukee-Eight keeps producing puff all the way to its 5,500-r.p.m. red line.
Harley doesn’t release horsepower figures, but the American Environmental Protection agency does and, according to some leaked testing documents, the 1,746-cc version of the Eight pumps out some 91 horsepower, about 20 more than current run-of-the-mill Harley engines. So eagerly does the Milwaukee- Eight rev, you’d swear Ducati had a hand in the development of the four-valve head — it completely changes the personality of the Road King. Thanks to all that high-r.p.m. power, and the vibration-free operation to exploit it, what was once a mere boulevardier becomes a real power cruiser. Snick off the quick-release fork- mounted fairing and you’re good for some stoplight grands prix, making pretty much anything not wearing clip-ons fair game. It really is fun to blow past unsuspecting sport bike riders.
Purists will be happy to know Milwaukee’s offbeat rumble remains undiluted. In fact, it’s been enhanced. Chief powertrain engineer Alex Bozmoski says thanks to tighter toler- ances, lighter, zero-lash valves and the combination of oil and liquid cooling, noise from the engine’s internals has been greatly reduced. This has allowed engineers liberties in the exhaust department. The Milwaukee- Eight’s exhaust note was more authoritative than the 2016 Twin Cams we had along for comparison, perhaps enough that maybe a few Harley owners will eschew their need for straight pipes.
There are, of course, other updates to the 2017 Road King. Primary among them is the revised suspension. An emulsion rear shock, with a more convenient remote preload adjuster, does a good job of controlling the Road King’s 75 millimetres of rear travel. But it’s the Showa dual bending valve front fork, essentially Harley’s version of a Race Tech emulator, that is the biggest improvement in comfort and roadholding, compression damping no longer locking up over large bumps.
But it remains Harley’s first new engine in 18 years that is a revolution in the making. More power and better heat management are upgrades Harley owners have been demanding for years. Still, there will be those who contend the Milwaukee-Eight’s smoother operation is somehow less manly, that liquid cooling and a four-valve head are modernizations too far. They will grouse that sophistication, modernity and inclusion (as in the conquest clientele all this new-found sophistication and modernity may bring to the brand) are anathema to the Harley experience. They’d be wrong.
The 2017 Road King is in Harley-Davidson dealerships now and starts at $22,899.