Harley-Davidson adds some much-needed vim, vigor, and vitality to its Grand American Touring lineup with the new-for-2022 Street Glide ST model. This is a bagger based on the large tourbike frame with the classic Batwing fairing up front and lots of long distance-comfort items on board. Best of all, it comes with a performance bent due to the Milwaukee-Eight 117 powerplant and optional electronic engine-management goodies.

Modern as the Street Glide ST is, folks familiar with the FL line in general will recognize plenty of features that hail back to origins in and around the 1940s. The fat front end is a good example of this with its classic rwu orientation and blackout beercan fork skirts that borrow from the earliest hydraulic forks. You can even go back to the few years where the juice front end and rigid rear end overlapped before the articulated fork and rear shocks replaced the latter forever.

In keeping with its boulevard bruiser mien, the fairing is the smaller variety of its bigger, full-size Batwing touring design, and it carries a heavily whacked smokey windshield for even more of that custom vibe that dominates the design. Plus, it sports a Splitstream vent that reduces the head-buffet effect where the upper rider’s wind pocket meets the slipstream for low-fatigue travel.

No room for the pimp lights that are stock on the larger fairing, the Street Glide ST sports a cyclops headlight housing complete with Daymaker LED projectors for effective two-way visibility, regardless of the prevailing conditions. The inner fairing rides with the mirrors set out in the tips of the wings rather than on unsightly stalks and the 5.25-inch stereo speakers mounted outboard of the 6.5-inch full-color TFT interface that handles the infotainment functions and, should you spring for them, the optional rider-safety electronics suite. A quartet of round analog gauges finish up the instrumentation for the more mundane metrics in the abbreviated dash panel immediately above, and the fuel tank console has been replaced by a blackout blank that bifurcates the six-gallon tank.

In keeping with its boulevard bruiser/clubber mien, the stock Street Glide ST rolls with a solo seat sans passenger footrests, so you are looking at an additional cost to get set up with even the minimal amenities if you want to share the fun with a friend. The stock solo saddle rides 28 inches high unladen, and providing you have at least 180 pounds of body weight, you can count on that seat height settling down to 26.7 inches off the deck in running order.

Standard-length, dual, color-matched hard-side bags provide 2.3 cubic-feet of secure dry storage. Also, the Smart Security System adds to the anti-theft yummygoodness with hands-free, proximity-based operation via a key fob that never has to leave your pocket. As with front, the rearward lighting is all LED for effective two-way visibility in all conditions.

Like the rest of the FLH/T family, the Street Glide ST comes built around H-D’s heaviest frame that keeps to tradition with a strong backbone, double-downtube/cradle, and yoke-style swingarm for the main structure. The front end draws from the 1940’s for its style and those nice beercan fork shrouds that clean it up and add to the overall visual beefiness.

As usual, mild steel was the material of choice for the standing frame and yoke-style swingarm with MIG-welded joints to bring it all together. A substantial steering head structure adds to the strength with a 26-degree angle modified by an offset in the tripletree for an effective rake angle of 29.25 degrees. That’s definitely at the stable end of the spectrum, and once the 6.7 inches of trail is factored in you’re left with the potential for some low-effort cruising, at or even above interstate speeds.

The downtube/cradle section completely supports the engine rather than using it as a stressed member and rocks a sporty little chin fairing that looks entirely at home and plays into the custom-sport vibe quite nicely if you ask me.

Cast wheels round out the rolling chassis in Harley’s Bronze Prodigy finish and come lined with Dunlop H-D Series hoops in a 130/60-19 ahead of a fat 180/55-18. The rubber comes with an “H” rating that will take everything the engine can dish out and more with its 130 mph top speed tolerance against the governed 105 mph top speed.

It’s fair to say there’s room for improvement in the suspension. The front forks come sans adjustment, but at least they pack Showa’s Dual Bending Valve tech for demand-driven damping and a superior ride to vanilla forks. Out back, the rear chocks rock a remote, hand-operable preload adjustment that lets you dial in for quick changes in the passenger/cargo loads.

All around 300 mm brake discs work with dual four-pot calipers up front and a third full-size caliper out back, plus it comes stock with vanilla-variety ABS protection to start out the safety electronics. If you prefer the corner-sensitive kind of antilocks you can spring for the optional Rider Safety Enhancements package that adds cornering linked brakes to the mix. Also included in this optional package is the Vehicle Hold Control feature that will hold the brakes so you can safely deploy both feet to the ground for takeoffs on a slope.

The optional fandanglery on the Street Glide ST continues into the engine controls with Corner Sensitive Traction Control that rocks multiple modes for quick personality changes. Plus, the Rider Safety Enhancements package also comes with a Drag Torque Slip Control that limits the backtorque in the system on hard downshifts and engine-braking actions and further protects the integrity of the rear contact patch.

Power comes from the impressive 117 cubic-inch Milwaukee-Eight variant to really put the “sport” in this sport-cruiser sled. The factory claims a power output of 106 ponies at 4,750 rpm with a whopping 127 pound-feet of torque on tap that develops fully at the 3,750 rpm mark. That’s pretty good for an H-D, and it bodes well for the overall fun factor that buyers of this model will surely be expecting. Yep, this is a machine for the fiery-eyed pegdraggers out there, you know who you are.

The engine is typical of the marque with a V-Twin layout and external pushrods that actuate the quartet of valves in each of the two heads. Perhaps best of all, the Mil-8 engine returns to the single-cam layout that for so many years had shaped the Big-Twin pushrod geometry up until the Twin-Cam engine changed the shape of the nosecone area. It runs with a 103.5 mm bore and 114.3 mm stroke, and the compression ratio is middling at 10.2-to-1 which should tolerate mid-grade pusholine just fine. A slipper-style clutch couples engine power to the six-speed transmission with the standard carbon-belt final drive.

Buyers will not exactly be overwhelmed by the possibilities when it comes time to pick colors. Naturally, there’s a Vivid Black model, and it’s at the bottom of the price list at $29,999. You can lighten things a skosh with the Gunship Gray package for $30,574, but both bikes come with plenty of blackout paint that covers just about everywhere else.

Harley-Davidson finds itself, once again, in a pitched battle against its longtime nemesis, Indian Motorcycle, and it seems the Chieftain Elite makes for a good competitor here.

Just a glance reveals that these two beasts have far more in common than not. Fork-mount front fairing and fat front end; check. Fairing vents and low glass; check. Fancy electronic doo-dads and a large color TFT screen; check.

Indian gives you a break with a mustang-style seat that is more comfortable for your passenger than a wadded up jacket, and stock footpegs. Like its counterpart, the Chieftain Elite is a full-on bagger, so it comes stock with hard bags down low and no topcase which makes it suitable as a tourbike-for-one.

Americans like their big V-Twin engines, it’s true, and Indian delivers with its own monster, the Thunderstroke 116 that cranks out 126 pounds o’ grunt. Even better, Indian took steps to channel the look of the old flathead engines, complete with faux cooling fins on the rocker-box covers and a parallel-pair pushrod arrangement. Let me just say, this is a good looking engine. Even if you take away the historical Easter Eggs, there’s a certain grace to an air-cooled V-twin engine, and it certainly fits with the history of both marques.

Amazingly, Indian put together even fewer paint packages — pretty much a black and off-black two-tone — and it goes for more cheddar with a $34,999 MSRP sticker.

Read our full review of the Indian Chieftain Elite.

“Wow, after a short CVO development phase, the Reflex goodies make their way into the baggers. Even if it’s optional, it’s still available. I’m definitely feeling the West Coast vibe with a hint of that Club Life mixed in just due to the power it packs, like an out-of-the-box dragbike of sorts. The colors are a little boring, but the custom-paint folks got to eat too, and I think the gray will lend itself to a nice reverse-fade flamejob like the CVO bikes have this year.”

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, “Okay...performance bagger. Let’s talk about that. I think the Street Glide ST is a good start, but for the serious hot-rodders, you may still be looking at something like a Concours 14, a 1290 Super Duke GT, or a GSX-S1000 GT among others out there. Don’t get me wrong, the new Street Glide ST is a really nice touring bike and it does have the big engine that you might not get with a bono fide sport-tourer. It is a nice platform to start with to make it your own. How is it different that the other Street Glides in the lineup? It comes with Harley’s biggest production engine to date that just recently was only available through the CVO line, so there’s no question about awesome performance. The taller rear shock – more like the Road King than the Street Glide Special – excels when it comes to freeway riding, which is where I think the SG ST feels the most comfortable. Engine performance is there, but I feel like the bike is more tour than sport oriented. To that end, the seat feels sporty and I think tall folks are going to want to push back just a tad more than the stock seat allows. Even if you don’t go for passenger amenities, you might still want to check out the accessories catalog for a more tour-friendly seat.”

Source: ​​2022 Street Glide ST & 2022 Road Glide ST | Harley-Davidson