The Most Powerful Harley-Davidson Touring Bike In 2025 Is The CVO Road Glide RR

For the longest time, Harley-Davidson had neglected horsepower in favor of torque. After all, its most powerful bikes barely breached 100 horsepower, even with close to 2,000cc of cubic capacity. Today, though, things are quite different. Almost all of its big bikes breach the 100 horsepower mark. With that, Harley has also tapped into the ‘performance’ side of things, revealing some surprisingly powerful motorcycles.

The Pan America and Sportster S are clear examples of this, but in 2025, there is a touring bike that beats both these fair and square in the horsepower game. This very motorcycle even has an ‘RR’ in its–letters we usually see on sports bikes with well over 200 horsepower. To no one’s surprise, this is the most powerful Harley-Davidson touring bike today.

The CVO Road Glide RR Is The Most Powerful Harley Touring Bike In 2025

This comes as no surprise, considering the CVO Road Glide RR takes direct inspiration from the MotoAmerica race bikes. It is the only Harley that exceeds the 2,000cc mark from the factory and has one of the highest-spec V-twins ever made by an American bikemaker. As a result, the output lies at 153 horsepower and 150 pound-feet, both well clear of the second most powerful Harley-Davidson touring bike.

Speaking of which, in a close second place is the Pan America ST. While the ‘Special’ isa proper adventure bike, the ST is sports tourer with road-biased rubber and wheels. It still has the 150-horsepower Revolution Max 1250 engine, though–just three short of the RR. After that, things take a sizable drop and nothing even breaches the 130-horsepower mark.

The next best bike is the CVO Road Glide ST. It has the Milwaukee-Eight 121 High Output powerhouse, good for 127 horsepower and 145 pound-feet. This is arguably the most powerful H-D touring bike for the masses, considering it costs less than half of the RR’s MSRP. It’s not a limited edition like the RR, either. Finally, we have the CVO Road Glide and Street Glide. Both have the Milwaukee-Eight 121 VVT engine. This promises 115 horsepower and 139 pound-feet.

Most Powerful Harley-Davidson Touring Bikes (Decreasing Order)

• CVO Road Glide RR
• Pan America ST
• CVO Road Glide ST
• CVO Street Glide

The CVO Road Glide RR Employs A Race-Tuned Screamin’ Eagle 2,147cc V-twin Engine

Peak Power: 153 HP

While you already know the output, the Road Glide RR’s Screamin’ Eagle 131 V-Twin is much more than that. There are high-tech inclusions all over, starting with internal elements such as Stage IV ported cylinders, high-performance SE8-550 Camshaft, race-inspired intake, and a new billet clutch basket. This is topped with a Screamin’ Eagle Racing King 6 transmission. The transmission, in particular, is said to be battle-tested on Factory Race Team motorcycles and engineered for smooth shifting performance and durability.

Then, there’s the Akrapovic exhaust. This is a two-into-one system with titanium headers, carbon fiber exhaust shields, and titanium muffler shells with titanium fiber end caps. That helps make it 10 pounds lighter than the standard Milwaukee-Eight exhaust systems. All this while, Harley-Davidson claims the system maintains noise and 50-state emissions to make the package totally road-legal.

Key Engine Highlights

• Stage IV ported cylinders
• High-performance SE8-550 Camshaft
• New billet clutch basket
• High-capacity valve lifters
• High-performance valve springs
• High-capacity inner camshaft bearing
• Race-inspired intake with 68 mm throttle bodies
• Billet clutch basket (high-strength 7075 aluminum with a MIL-SPEC anodized finish)
• Akrapovic 2-into-1 titanium exhaust

2025 CVO Road Glide RR Engine Specs

An Army Of Rider Aids Ensure You Don’t Get Launched To The Moon

All Of Them Work Via A Six-Axis IMU

All that power is seriously fun. But as a wise Uncle Ben once said, with great power comes great responsibility. So if you yank the gas, all that 153 horsepower can cause serious damage to you physically and to your ego. That’s where the extensive electronics package of the CVO Road Glide RR comes in. Rider aids like traction control, torque control, cornering ABS, and cornering-linked brakes all come standard here, with a 12.3-inch TFT letting you fine-tune things.

Speaking of fine-tuning, the ride modes deserve a special shoutout. The RR brings four custom modes you can alter, along with a Track and Track Plus–both exclusive to this racy bagger. These two are fine-tuned by the H-D Factory team racers (like Kyle Wyman) precisely for closed circuit riding. They disable linked braking, so you’re all on your own.

Track-Spec Underpinnings Help The CVO Road Glide RR Be Fast Around Corners

Suspension: Ohlins Forks And Ohlins Shocks

While this is the most powerful Harley-Davidson today, it brings a bonus of being fast around the twisties as well. Much of that is again due to its King Of The Baggers origins where this bagger sets racetracks ablaze weekend after weekend. Helping it do that are cutting-edge underpinnings, be it the brakes, suspension, or wheels. Up top, top-drawer 43 mm Ohlins FGR 253 Hypersport fork are present and are developed in partnership between Ohlins and Harley-Davidson Factory Racing team. This is topped with Brembo GP4-RX CNC calipers and T-Drive disc brakes.

Moving backwards, Screamin’ Eagle Ohlins Remote Reservoir shock absorbers hide behind the saddlebags and do their thing here. They mount on a race-derived swingarm built out of 220-pound billet of 6061 aluminum. A set of race-spec forged wheels ensures low rolling inertia, all the while. A special shoutout also goes to the umpteenth use of carbon fiber to keep the weight limited to 750 pounds. We’ve listed some of these carbon bits below.

Carbon Fiber Elements On The CVO Road Glide RR

• Carbon fiber fenders
• Carbon fiber side covers
• Carbon fiber tank console
• Carbon fiber fork nacelle
• Carbon fiber radiator shroud
• Carbon fiber and Kevlar layup for the front fairing, saddlebags, and lids
• Dark carbon fiber weave pattern in select areas

2025 Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide RR Underpinnings