5 Of The Best Harley-Davidson Touring Motorcycles Ever Made

When you think of Harley-Davidson, the word "muscle" often springs to mind. Harley-Davidson's motorcycles may not be the fastest or most technologically advanced hogs on the market, but what they do have is old-school rugged road power. The brand makes a lot of different motorcycles for different purposes, but one of its oldest sectors is touring motorcycles, rides designed to safely ferry you across long stretches of highway and across state lines.

Harley's been in the touring business for decades, with several of its most well-regarded motorcycles either being touring-focused models or models that just happen to be excellent for long-distance rides. The precise way the brand tackles the concept of touring can differ from model to model, but it's all with the ultimate goal of getting you to your distant destination with a respectable degree of comfort and roadworthiness. Whether you're looking to get a touring bike yourself or are just interested in Harley-Davidson's back catalog, you can find some classic headliners of the long road within its halls.

One of the most fondly regarded Harley-Davidson motorcycles ever made, touring-focused or otherwise, is the Road King. This monarch of the road was introduced back in the mid '90s, and has remained a steadfast staple of the long-haul lineup ever since, still receiving regular new iterations to this day.

The Road King is built with straightforward functionality in mind. It's not a ridiculously fancy motorcycle, but it's resilient and highway-minded enough to safely get you from point A to point B reliably. To better accommodate different kinds of trips, it has a few helpful modular components, such as a removable windshield and hard side saddlebags for storing odds and ends. Pair all that with a sturdy V-Twin engine, and you've got the motorcycle equivalent of an old-fashioned beast of burden. It has exactly one job, and it does it with confidence, much like a reliable old king sat upon its asphalt throne.

Touring motorcycles can be a little hard to get a handle on for some new riders. It's a somewhat different beast from short, sporty bikes designed to take you across town in a quick hop. Riding a touring bike requires patience, resilience, and finesse, both in the rider and in the bike. If you wanted a touring motorcycle that's a little more accommodating to those new to the touring scene, that would be the territory of the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide.

The purpose of the Electra Glide is to carry you long-distance as seamlessly as possible. It doesn't have any fancy features like an infotainment system, instead focusing on stability features. The big draw is the bike's electronic cruise control system, which can help take some of the pressure off you while you're driving down a long, straight stretch of highway. It's also rather spacious as far as motorcycles go, with a full fairing and a large, comfortable seat. Your long drive on the Electra Glide might not be especially action-packed, but it will be safe and steady, and for some, that's the most important thing. That's one of the reasons the Electra Glide has been remade and reintroduced into the Harley lineup multiple times.

One of Harley-Davidson's most powerful marketing tools is its classic iconography. Imagine, a burly rebel soaring across the highway atop a rip-roaring steed of a Harley bike. That's the brand identity, at least, but it is a powerful tool for designing bikes. If you want to make a cool bike, the best approach is to evoke the cool bikes of years' past, and that's something Harley-Davidson has always been good at. You can see that for yourself in the Heritage Classic.

The Heritage Classic is a modern Harley-Davidson bike built in the image of the old-school choppers. Of course, it's not just a display model, it's also got muscle comparable to that of its ancestors. With the power of a Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine, this bike has more than enough beef to get you where you need to go in a timely fashion. Beef alone doesn't make a touring bike, though, which is why the Heritage Classic also offers comfort and convenience with features like an optimized seat, bright nighttime LEDs, and weather-resistant leather saddlebags. The Heritage Classic is a bike that respects its roots while building upon them in smart and sensible ways.

Harley-Davidson maintains a separate developmental wing for some of its fanciest models. This sub-brand is called Custom Vehicle Operations, or CVO for short, and it's where Harley has kept some of its most advanced (and most expensive) limited-run models since 1999. While the CVO motorcycles aren't exactly readily available, those who do get their hands on them will find some of the most feature-rich motorcycles on the market. For the purposes of touring, the CVO bike that takes the cake is the CVO Limited.

If you're taking a CVO Limited on a long tour, it's because you want to tour in the best style and comfort that money can buy. This bike has comfort options falling out of its proverbial ears, including heated seats and handlebars, a built-in infotainment system for music and navigation, and a triple-threat of saddlebags and a luggage carrier. Add a powerful Milwaukee-Eight 117 engine into the mix, and you have a motorcycle for the luxurious at heart. This is a vehicle for those who want the touring rider lifestyle, but aren't quite ready to abandon their creature comforts.

The big asterisk that comes with going on long motorcycle tours is that, no matter how much research you do ahead of time, you're never completely sure what the road is going to throw at you. You could be suddenly beset by heavy rain or powerful gusts of wind. Pre-planning goes a long way toward mitigating this, such as picking ideal routes, checking weather reports, and dressing appropriately, but the most important thing is having a bike that can handle a bit of inclement weather. For battling against the elements, few Harleys do it like the Road Glide.

The Road Glide's signature is its frame-mounted sharknose fairing. Besides giving the vehicle a very distinctive silhouette, this fairing also helps to keep the whole vehicle steady and stable while driving at high speed. This helps riders to weather intense gusts of wind on the open road, keeping them firmly on the road even when it feels like the wind will carry them away. It's also got powerful LED lights that can pierce through dense fog, and a built-in infotainment system in case you get lost. Riding a motorcycle through rough conditions isn't the most pleasant experience, but the Road Glide helps to make it a smidge less unpleasant.