It's fitting that Harley-Davidson held a secret screening of its 2025 CVO Road Glide RR—that's Race Replica, for you playing at home—in Austin, Texas. I was ostensibly in town to see what the new Softails were all about. But Circuit of the Americas is just down the street, and at last year's round of MotoGP held at the venue, the King of the Baggers race was one I'll never forget.
The sound of fat-ass V-twins roaring down the main straight at COTA and then immediately diving headfirst into turn 1 with the American flag waving in the wind is a sight that tends to stick with you. As do seeing pint-sized motorcycle racers coerce the 700-pound race machines around a track where their lithe 300-pound cousins screamed only moments before.
And I distinctly remember me wondering aloud if Harley would ever be brave enough to sell one of these motorcycles to the average Joe? You know, something that takes the race bikes and adds a number plate to the back of them. Wouldn't that be rad as hell?
