Harley-Davidson recently announced that it is building another limited-edition motorcycle. The newest beast is the MoCo’s CVO Road Glide RR. In keeping with its philosophy of making Harley-Davidson the most desirable brand in the world, only 131 of this particular machine will ever be built. If exclusivity is your thing and you have a big fat wallet, this bike could be for you.

King of the Baggers Replica

The machine is supposed to be the closest thing you can buy to Harley-Davidson’s factory-built “King of the Baggers” series bikes. This means that it comes equipped with a new exclusive to the model Screamin’ Eagle 131 ci V-twin engine that puts out a claimed 153 peak horsepower at 5,750 rpm and 150 pound-feet of torque at 4,750 rpm.

The bike also gets a host of upgrades, including CNC-ported heads with fully CNC-machined combustion chambers and ports, larger intake and exhaust valves, and liquid-cooled cylinder heads. The cam gets an increased lift, which is said to increase airflow at high rpm “…for maximum power.”

The bike’s fairing; it’s a love-it-or-hate-it design. Photo: Harley-Davidson

Staying with the “more power is better” mantra, the engine features a 68 mm throttle body and matching CNC machined aluminum intake manifold. Harley says the design matches the intake ports for “the smoothest airflow possible” and is shaped to minimize weight and provide extra rider leg clearance.

Other go-fast components include improved internal engine components like high-capacity valve lifters, springs, camshaft bearings, and a higher-volume oil pump. A new full titanium Akropovic exhaust system, billet clutch basket, revised primary cover, and Racing King 6 transmission round out the powertrain improvements.

More Than Just Engine Upgrades

The bike also gets a wholly upgraded suspension package with fully adjustable inverted Öhlins FGR 253 Hyperbike Superbike forks and dual fully adjustable outboard Öhlins Remote Reservoir shock absorbers. The setup increases the available lean angle to 35 degrees left and 36 degrees to the right. A new billet aluminum swingarm is claimed to be 10 percent stiffer and 10 percent lighter than the steel one it replaces.

Harley has also upgraded the bike’s braking components with Brembo GP4-RX CNC 2-piece front calipers using four 32mm pistons to help slow things down. At the rear, there’s also a four-piston caliper. Rotors have also been upgraded with 320 rotors up front and a single 300 mm rotor at the rear.

Lots of Other Upgrades

Finally, MoCo’s press release claims many other upgrades. It mentions “Rider Safety Enhancements,” six Ride Modes, “Performance Ergonomics,” and “High-Performance Audio.” The list is long if not a little over the top, and it’s filled with lots of adjectives and adverbs. When all is said and done, the MoCo’s CVO Road Glide RR is a very different animal from its non-upgraded sibling.

All the info you could possibly need for your race-replica Harley-Davidson, along with an ear drum-shattering sound system so everyone around you can enjoy your favorite music too. Photo: Harley-Davidson

But Is The Bike A Good Business Idea?

So now we have a highly upgraded Road Glide, which wears some of the wolf’s clothing of MoCo’s King of the Baggers race machine and possesses a couple of larger and longer canine teeth. But is it really a race machine? That’s one question that is relatively readily answered. No, it is not. It’s not sheep in wolves clothing, but a racebike it’s not.

This machine weighs a not-too-svelte 750 pounds, “shipped,” or 785 pounds, “In Running Order.” That’s a lot of weight regardless of any weight reduction. It’s not a race machine; it’s a race replica. Period. And that’s all Harley is saying it is.

What’s Wrong With A Race Replica?

Many manufacturers have been building race replicas for decades, and there’s nothing wrong with making them. However, this particular machine had its genesis as a cruiser, not a track bike. It wasn’t designed to be a race machine or extremely fast; it was designed to be a bagger. And putting some go-fast parts on a bagger won’t make it a race bike.

But perhaps the biggest question is whether this upgraded race replica bagger is worth its—wait for it—its $110,000 asking price. Why would anyone build a race replica that costs $110,000?

‘Still not a racebike. Photo: Harley-Davidson

Brilliant Strategy Or Losing The Plot?

Harley-Davidson’s financial position has been pretty horrible lately. They have had several quarters of poor financial performance, and their stock has fallen from a high of about $51 per share in January 2023 to its current position of about $25 per share. When your company’s stock halves its value in a little over two years, that’s not a good thing. In its 2024 full-year earnings meeting, Harley-Davidson said the outlook for 2025 is flat to down 5 percent.

So why is Harley building an outrageously pricey limited-edition motorcycle? Obviously, Harley-Davidson thinks that the CVO™ Road Glide RR makes good business sense, or they wouldn’t have built it. Part of its reason for being could be that it wants to resurrect the racing image it killed off when it ended most of its factory racing programs in 2020.

However, the most likely case is that Harley-Davidson smells money. This machine will have a huge profit margin. It won’t cost them anywhere near the bike’s $110,000 asking price to manufacture, and Zeitz and his team smell a pretty large per-machine profit and probably more than $10M in revenue. While $10M in revenue is a drop in the bucket of Harley’s yearly pail of money, it helps prop up the MoCo’s profit margin. It also places the brand squarely in Zeitz’s preferred position… the position of exclusivity and desirability. Well, at least on the exclusivity side of the equation, it would seem that Zeitz has once again executed his promise.

But Will They Sell?

But will MoCo be able to sell these bikes to the general public? The answer is likely no, and I would suggest that Harley-Davidson is OK with that. They are not looking to sell this machine to Joe Average. They are looking for the well-heeled, high-disposable-income one-percenters who think expensive means exclusivity and desirability. I would not doubt that the MoCo will sell all 131 of these, in my opinion,  ridiculously expensive motorcycles. So once again, from the outside at least, Zeitz has kept his promise to increase exclusivity and desirability. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Less Equals More?

Zeitz’s Hardwire plan, rolled out in February 2021, included steps to limit production and increase pricing, and hence desirability. But would this plan help ensure future success? Keeping the Hardwire promise, the Harley CEO has reduced production and raised Harley-Davidson motorcycle pricing substantially.

Harley-Davidson CEO and Hardwire mastermind, Jochen Zeitz. Photo: Harley-Davidson.

For those who have the money and the desire to possess expensive things, along with what they deem exclusivity, owning a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is worth the price they paid. But how many people of this kind exist in the world? Can latching on to a small percentage of motorcycle-riding wealthy people sustain and grow Harley-Davidson? Evidently, Zeitz and his executive team thought so. But if its current financials and outlook are an indicator, we know better, and hopefully, the MoCo’s executives have learned a lesson as well.

Braking The Code?

By the end of 2025, we will be nearly 5 years down the road from the implementation of Zeitz’s Hardwire plan. At first, the plan seemed to work well, with higher revenue and profit numbers. The Hardwire plan seemed to be working. However, as time passed, the numbers started to look less favorable. By Q4 2023, Harley’s financials began their downward trajectories. Had the MoCo used up all the interested affluent customers? Was the company’s uber pricing driving people away from the brand? Without doing a deep dive into the situation, it indeed appeared that the shine was off the Hardwire strategy.

A not-too-rosy financial result for Harley-Davidson in 2024. Image: Harley-Davidson

At the end of 2024, Harley’s financial numbers are poor. Revenue, profit, and sales are all down. Based on their recent performance, it would seem that it’s time to rethink the Hardwire plan. And perhaps Harley-Davidson is figuring this out. In a sea of high-priced cruiser motorcycles, MoCo has made a move to make the Harley-Davidson brand more affordable for the masses.

Lower pricing?

It’s early 2025, and a tiny island has risen out of the sea of Harley-Davidson’s expensive motorcycles. On March 14th, Harley announced new lower pricing on one of its smaller (and not best-selling) motorcycles, the 2025 Nightster. Touting a “…27-inch seat height, low center of gravity, and narrow profile,” Harley’s press release said that the bike’s $9,999 MSRP would make “…the authentic Harley-Davidson riding experience more attainable than ever.”

Harley’s least expensive bike, the 2025 Nightster, can be had for a new lower $9,999+ price tag. Photo: Harley-Davidson

Is the Nightster example a sign of things to come for Harley-Davidson? Have Zeitz and his executives finally figured out that they can’t continue to produce only high-end models and that continuing with the Hardwire plan is not sustainable? Or is the Nightster’s lower price just a small bone to be thrown to the masses to potentially attract less affluent riders? Could Harley-Davidson have finally learned that high pricing to drive exclusivity and desirability is not sustainable? Only the men and women sitting in Harley’s Boardroom know for sure.

What do you think?

Jochen Zeitz has undoubtedly been a polarizing figure on this site. But is his latest move to reduce pricing on a single machine an indicator that he has now determined that lower-priced Harley-Davidson motorcycles are necessary for the MoCo’s future? Do you think he will abandon parts of his Hardwire plan? Is Zeitz a brilliant moto strategist or someone who may ultimately severely injure or potentially kill an iconic motorcycle brand? Let us know in the comments below.