The various booths and exhibits in the main hall displaying all the new products were staffed with engineers, engineers who had spent months questioning riders and passengers at rallies. They listened carefully to criticisms and instead of designing sales courses to overcome and get around customer objections, they went to work fixing them. And, they promised there was more to come and that this is now an integral part of their product development.

 

    The modernization of their York, Pennsylvania, facility completed a little over a year ago seems like it will allow The Motor Company to incorporate small changes much more easily than they could in the past when production was spread out in 43 buildings all over the Pennsylvania countryside. This is what excited the dealers. A decade or so of this attention to detail and eventually you won’t recognize the end product. It is pretty much what the Japanese did with cars many years back ─ the same philosophy of continuous improvement.

 

    In person, the new bodywork, while substantially the same, is slicker and nicer looking. The vented windshield makes a huge difference. You can open it and close it while riding and feel a tremendous reduction in buffeting. You can also ride with a two- to three-inch shorter windshield if you want and get an improved view with equal wind protection. Plus that great big vent in the new redesigned Batwing fairing lets everyone within a hundred yards know you are on the latest and greatest. The streamlined trunk, larger saddlebags, and subtly-reshaped fairing give the bike a smoother, more integrated appearance without destroying the classic looks. This balancing act was probably very hard to accomplish.

 

   The saddlebag guards, which caught many passengers’ legs for years, are now lowered out of the way and the saddlebag lids were slightly modified to allow more leg space. Extra space fore-and-aft plus side-to-side is available for passengers with the new larger seat. Also the elbow rest has been reshaped so their arms don’t slide off. My sister quit riding behind her husband mainly because she said she couldn’t get her arms comfortable. This was a small improvement, but a very important improvement and it certainly shows somebody at The Motor Company is listening. All the latches and buttons are now easier to operate and have a super high-quality feel, especially the saddlebag lids. One Harley executive demonstrated how easy it is by opening everything on the dresser with just one finger. One finger! These are little improvements that yield a much nicer motorcycle and a more pleasant riding experience.

 

   The numerous small improvements almost overshadowed the big one, the limited use of liquid-cooling for the exhaust ports on some models that Harley refers to officially as the Twin-Cooled High Output Twin Cam 103 (110 in CVO Limited). The motor still has fins and is air-cooled, but has an additional liquid-cooling system for the area in the heads just around the exhaust valves. Hence the bike is Twin-Cooled or cooled by two different systems.

 

   This could be crossing a line for many traditionalists, but Harley handled the improvement incredibly well. First, you can’t see the radiators or hoses in the lowers. My immediate concern was that one of our sales crew might mistakenly sell a bike as Twin-Cooled that wasn’t or vice versa. Honestly, it is that slick. But, other than not damaging the looks, Harley-Davidson also presented the line up in a way that those strongly opposed to the new Twin-Cooling system don’t have to have it. You can buy an air-cooled Ultra or a Twin-Cooled Limited in 2014. The CVO Limited has the radiators in the lowers, the CVO Road King doesn’t. They left it open to choice.

 

   Down here in the desert Southwest, I imagine the extra cooling will be appreciated by those who want both lower-operating temperatures and the comfort of lowers. This variation in the models lets the customer choose what they want without having to compromise on style which is always wise because people are different.

 

Other changes (you can see the list is getting longer) include increased torque and horsepower out of the 103-inch engine in the dressers. There’s enough of a power boost to easily cut a full second off the 60 – 80 passing time. That translates to a pass 90-feet shorter than before. Ninety-feet shorter is a huge difference when you’re trying to pass an 18-wheeler with on-coming traffic.

 

 

The new Reflex linked brakes with ABS are a good idea in my opinion. In general many riders overuse the back brake which can be a terrible habit in an emergency situation. The bike will now make sure both brakes will be applied to some degree even if you forget. The engineers thought of everything with this system and you won’t experience any parking lot or low speed weirdness since the linked system shuts off under 25 mph allowing you to use your front and rear brake separately.  

 

  And then we come to that infotainment screen on the dash. Overall the dash looks much, much better, but, as a person over 50, infotainment screens usually cause me to wince a little when I see one in a rental car. Again, this one wasn’t designed by a styling department, it was created by engineers for riders. These same engineers observed which features Harley riders used the most by using cameras set on the riders’ eyes then figured out what combination of switches and buttons minimized the time the riders spent looking down.

 

   I went through the five-minute Quick Start guide and it was pretty easy. Just about everything can be adjusted by either of the two thumb-operated joysticks, or you can skip the buttons altogether and go with voice activation. Those who enjoy technology will love the incredible connectivity, adjustment, personalization, and flexibility of the system. Those who don’t won’t be too depressed due to the incredible ease of use.

 

   If you just use the radio, once your presets are done, changing channels is super easy and there is a large mute/off button so you won’t embarrass yourself at stoplights if you get the volume out of whack. This improvement reminds me of the differences between myself and my brother who is sixteen years younger than I am and much more computer savvy. He always ends up in nicer hotels and cheaper rental cars than I do when we go somewhere; he understands all the modern shopping technology. Those who ingest both the Quick Start Guide and the much longer radio manual will be able to tailor the system to their exact likes.

 

  A final huge improvement is that the sound quality of the stereo has been greatly enhanced with much less distortion. An industry-best audio system I would imagine. With a few add-ons and a gas grill, you could use it for tailgate parties, it is that strong and clear sounding. The entire convention was peppered with short, tuner-car sound level blasts as dealers tested the new lower distortion for themselves.

 

   A lot of effort went into the restructuring of Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing facilities. They now can bring new products to market in much less time and we know they are listening. Riders should feel free to send comments to their dealers or to the factory if there is something on the bike you think needs to be improved. The company is chock-full of engineers with executive orders to listen and modify. This is what excited the dealer network in Denver this summer; it was one of the most upbeat conventions since the economy faltered. Doing all this in these uncertain economic times speaks well for the leadership of Harley-Davidson. They are soldiering on, not backpedaling or waiting for the rest of the world to improve first.

 

   Now that The Motor Company is all modernized and quick to set up and manufacture, can I put in a small request? How about real Panheads and a nice little generator-style cover for the Softail Slim? Let’s age that baby. Not sure what the opposite of a facelift is, but let’s make it look older. Really guys, after all this effort in 2014, how hard could that be? Couldn’t you carve one out on a 3-D printer this afternoon and send me a photo?

 

P.S. I didn’t manage to list all the improvements as there are so many. The larger diameter (49mm) forks for better handling and the greatly enhanced lighting are two items in Project RUSHMORE (Harley’s code name for the dresser improvements) that are pretty important. You can visit http://projectrushmore.harley-davidson.com/ and read about all the changes in detail and see videos of these new bikes in action.