Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/738714
12 nNovember 2016n www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS by Terry Roorda Photos by Riles and Nelson TACOMA, WASH., AUG. 30– SEPT. 1—It was fi tting that Harley- Davidson chose Olympic National Park and environs as the setting for their 2017 model year press launch and the formal roll-out of their momentous new Milwaukee-Eight 107 motor, the fi rst completely new Big Twin since 1999's Twin Cam. Fitting for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the National Park Service's centennial celebration that occurred the week we arrived. It was thus a convergence of sorts of two American icons at a historic moment for both. And it was further fi tting because the whimsical weather patterns of the region put all possi- bilities of temperature, precipitation, wind effects and road conditions on the table. Nothing was assured on this outing just as nothing ever is when you hit the highway to tour on two wheels. No lollygagging through the Wine Country for this junket, buddy. This would be serious riding, a serious workout of a deadly serious new powertrain. And we were treated to the full buffet of those climatic vicissitudes, a banquet virtually assured by the late summer scheduling of the event. Where once these press affairs were conducted as early as June, calendar creep pushed them back to July, and then pre- and post-Sturgis, and now to the threshold of September—a reliably volatile season in the Great Northwest. So many baggers, so little time. That was the challenge that awaited when the press corps arrived at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma for the press launch. Since it was only the 2017 Touring models that received the Milwaukee-Eight powertrain, it came as no surprise that the test fl eet was exclusively baggers—the machines the Company was there to highlight, and the press corps was there to assess. Nine models with the 107 version of the M-8, as well a trike so-equipped and a sampling of the 114-inch CVO take on the motor comprised the sta- ble. That was a tall order for testing, given the two-day, 400-mile agenda, and it was such a short window that the most valuable use of the time and distance would be to focus on a single model, give it a proper spanking, and wait for future opportunities to go deep with the other offerings. That decided, it was a no-brainer for me as to which bike would get my undivided attention, and for reasons both practical and nostalgic, that was the FLHR Road King. Long the darling of serious road dogs, the Road King is easily the most mini- malist of the lot, with minimal techno-toys to distract from the experience, and likewise minimal touring outfi tting— just an effective expanse of clear windscreen and a pair of hard bags. The standard cruise control is pretty much the only nod to techno-advance (though Refl ex-Linked ABS is available as an option). The essential Road Glide traces its lineage back to the FLHS models of 1987 (like mine—that's the nos- talgia part). Introduced as a chromed-out successor to the FLHS in 1994, the Road King has seen it all, staying perti- nent through the years and running the EVO 80, TC 80, TC 88, TC 96, TC 103 and now the M-8 107, running both fi ve- and six-speed transmissions as the times dictated. The bike has seen it all and remained, improbably, virtually unchanged aesthetically. It's also the lightest bagger of the bunch, and the purest mount for expe- riencing the full performance and aural impact that the M-8 107 delivers. But before we saddle up, let's recap some of the most operationally salient properties of the new motor. (A dramatically more thorough exami- nation of the powertrain can be found in Technical Editor Kip Woodring's two-part forensic deconstructing of the mill, both in this issue and online at thunderpress.net.) Wait. Before we get into the nuts and bolts, let's take a moment to just stand back and mar- vel at how arrestingly beautiful this thing is. The heads, the nosecone, the air cleaner. Pure perfection, evoking unequivocally the old while teasing you with all that's new. Not to put too fi ne a point on it, the toughest part of actually mounting the machine is peel- ing your eyes off that motor fi rst. Inside the M-8, the most signifi - cant changes are the use of four-valve heads in place of the two-valve set-ups that have gone before, and the engi- neering of an oil cooling/aerating sys- tem (and attendant half-quart increase in oil capacity) that fl ows lubricant through holes in the manifolds. A new counter-balancer calms the vibration level at operating speeds while retain- ing a signature shake at idle—which is now set down to 850 rpm for the sake of heat management. There are new enlarged throttle bodies to feed the beast, and a more potent charging sys- tem to accommodate all the electronics di dist stan ance ce wou ould ld be to to foc ocus us on a i single ROAD—AND RAIN—TESTING HARLEY'S 2017 FLHR ROAD KING Long live the King An old friend in Milwaukee-Eight trim The new suspension components put the rubber on the road and keep it there