2017 Harley-Davidson Street Glide CVO, So what's new for 2017? The introduction of the ninth generation of Harley's Big Twin engine, for one, plus new suspension, a new pannier mounting system, new paint and a host of other, smaller, changes across the Touring family. While there's no official word as yet, history shows it's inevitable the upgrades will filter through to other Harley platforms in due course, where applicable. The 45-degree Milwaukee-Eight engine is, as its name suggests, an eight-valve engine and it's available in three different guises: a 107 with either air/oil-cooling or liquid-cooling, and a liquid-cooled 114. The number refers to each engine's capacity in cubic inches, which translates to 1745cc for the 107 and 1868cc for the 114. The 107 is available across the standard Touring models with air/oil-cooling (and liquid-cooling for the Ultra Limited), while the liquid-cooled 114 is available on the CVO models. Harley-Davidson says it's invested significant effort to improve thermal efficiency, reduce mechanical noise and eliminate vibration in the new platform, while boosting torque (by around 10 percent) and enhancing acceleration. THE DIFFERENCES For starters, the CVO Street Glide gets the Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine, with its extra 15Nm, plus an upgraded Boom! audio system with four high-output speakers. It also scores a hot two-tone paint scheme, LED lighting front and rear, tyre pressure monitoring system and a heap of blacked-out components the forks, the engine cases, barrels and heads, the dash and more. The CVO also scores central locking for the panniers, plus instruments with black faces and chrome bezels and a different seat the latter with a markedly different pillion seat (more on that later). While the basic dimensions of the two bikes remain relatively unchanged, the CVO version is 22kg heavier. PACKING Each of these bikes has two hard panniers and for 2017 the pannier mounting system has been updated each case is mounted via two screws with easy-to-turn handles, instead of the more fiddly Dzus fasteners of old. A channel through the bottom of each case makes it easy to locate the pannier on each pannier frame rail. Why would you take the panniers off? Ordinarily you wouldn't. As 'baggers' these bikes need the panniers to look their best, and there are no carry handles to turn them into portable suitcases, but you do need to remove them to access the rear shocks and the rear wheel. While slim, each pannier is reasonably deep and can take a decent amount of gear, although the speakers built into the CVO pannier lids do cut into their capacity a bit and the associated wiring can get in the way. Panniers aside, the only other storage is limited to a small glove box on the dash for the rider's phone it's not a lockable compartment but it has a USB outlet for charging and hooking the phone up to the multimedia unit (although Bluetooth streaming is also available). Engine and transmission Displacement