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The Low Rider ST combines legitimate back-road handling with all-day comfort.
Despite the performance and popularity of sport-touring motorcycles like the BMW R 1250 RS, Suzuki GSX-1000GT, and Yamaha FJR1300ES, long stretches of American highways and back roads remain dominated by domestic cruisers from Harley-Davidson and Indian. Until recently, cross-shopping sport-touring bikes and cruisers was a matter of apples and oranges. Harley-Davidson aims to change that with the Low Rider ST, a bagger with a modern fairing and enough suspension travel to rip when super slab gives way to twisty mountain roads. To find out where this $21,749 bike lands on the spectrum between sport and touring, I grabbed the keys for two weeks and gave Milwaukee’s finest a thorough shakedown.
The heart of the Low Rider ST is the stomping, 117-cubic-inch (1,923 cubic-centimeter) Milwaukee-Eight engine. The platform’s bones are familiar: two air-cooled cylinders, a long-stroke crank, and pushrod valve actuation combine to dish up fistfuls of torque right off idle. With the addition of oil cooling and four-valve heads, the current engine is a far cry from American V-twins of the past, both in power delivery and the mill’s willingness to rev. Claimed peak power figures are 103 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque.
The Low Rider ST sends this power to the rear tire via a six-speed transmission, 10-plate wet clutch, and belt final drive. The front 43-millimeter inverted forks and a rear coil-over that’s adjustable for preload make speed and acceleration more manageable. Slowing the bike down are dual four-piston calipers and 300-millimeter floating rotors at the front, and a single two-piston caliper and 292-millimeter floating rotor at the rear. The claimed curb weight of 721 pounds includes five gallons of gas. That should be good for more than 200 miles – assuming you can be judicious with the throttle.
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Cruiser styling is deceptively simple. The overall aesthetic hasn’t changed much in the past century, but getting it just right has proven too difficult for many a designer. Style is subjective, but most riders would probably agree that – at least in the looks department – Harley-Davidson rarely misses. The Low Rider ST uses a lot of familiar Harley-Davidson components, shapes, and surfaces to build on the already popular Low Rider S. Changes from the bike’s stripped-down predecessor include locking hard cases that add 1.9 cubic-feet of secure cargo room, and a clever frame-mounted fairing that’s less imposing than, say, the ones on the Road Glide or Street Glide.
The secret to the innovative fairing is aerodynamics. Three openings (one above the headlight and one on either side) channel air around the rider to reduce buffeting and wind noise while maintaining a sleek, athletic aesthetic. This fairing splits the difference between Harley-Davidson’s touring bikes and the bullet screens available for other cruisers, both visually and in its effect.
Riders can remove the hard bags without tools and are lock them with the same key used to lock the steering head. The right-side bag is slightly smaller than the left to make room for the dual exhaust pipes underneath it – this difference isn’t glaring, and asymmetrical side cases are common in other segments. If you wear a full-face helmet (and most cruiser owners don’t), you’ll have to have enough faith to leave it on the mirror or take it with you when you park. My AGV X3000 is very average-sized and it was far too big for the Low Rider ST's side cases.
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The Low Rider tradition has always been about a pure riding experience – hence the sacrificing of suspension travel in the name of seat height. Still, the new Low Rider ST sneaks in some tech without spoiling the lines of a bare-bones cruiser. Instead of a traditional analog speedometer or flashy, full-color TFT display like you’d find on the Pan America, the Low Rider ST provides the bike’s speed, current gear, and fuel level in a neat digital display on the handlebar clamp. A button on the left control cluster allows you to cycle through the odometer, two trip odometers, time, engine speed, and estimated range to empty on a second line of text on the display. Beneath the handlebar clamp is a small cluster for the usual notification lights. One of those lights is for cruise control, which riders can activate, set, and adjust up or down with a switch under the left-hand turn signal button. Factor in the innovative fairing aerodynamics, and the Low Rider ST has a lot more touring practicality than it lets on.
Pulling away from Harley-Davidson’s Milwaukee headquarters for the first time, the Low Rider ST felt welcoming, even for someone without meaningful experience on big cruisers. The clutch feel is intuitive and the bike’s low center of gravity masks its weight well. At 5’9” and 195 pounds, the ride was forgiving without feeling vague, and finding the foot pegs was as easy as could be. Forward controls would be nice for multi-day road trips, but the standard mid-controls are a better fit for this bike everywhere else. The handlebar doesn’t have as much bend as you’d find on a Road Glide or Street Glide. The resulting extra reach will place most riders forward and encourage an engaged – and I must say, sporting – posture.
On the highway, the Low Rider ST felt solidly planted and tracked straight ahead over cracks and bumps in the pavement. I was eager to see how the new fairing would perform, and the 75-mile trip home provided the perfect test. Unlike mainstream sport-touring machines that look more like fully-faired sport bikes or domesticated adventure bikes, cruisers usually get either an archaic clear shield or a massive touring fairing.
The Low Rider ST finally bridges that gap with a fairing that looks like a three-quarter scale model of the Road Glide’s iconic shark nose. Instead of two headlights, it gets one LED headlight with low and high beams. Rather than pushing air aside with sheer size, it channels it smoothly around the rider with minimal turbulence thanks to three slats. The result is a quiet pocket of air with a better view of the road ahead. I suspected that, if the Low Rider ST could handle as well as the marketing materials suggested, visibility would be important.
Once on curvy county roads, the 2022 Low Rider ST handled bumps well, partially thanks to the extra inch of rear suspension travel (4.4 inches compared to 3.4 inches) compared to the 2021 Low Rider S. Brake feel was quite good and, at times, the combined power of three discs and 10 pistons was entirely necessary to slow the pace. Feel and power at the lever was definitely a step up from most cruisers. The overall package is very good, but the motor is far and away the main event of riding the Low Rider ST. Decades of stubborn commitment to air-cooled, pushrod, V-twin engine architecture are evident because the 117-inch mill is excellent from idle to redline. Throttle response is gentle and intuitive enough that putting around town was no issue. The stock exhaust’s soothing burble is pure Harley-Davidson. At full chat, though, acceleration is firmly on the sporty side of sport-touring. Four-valve heads let the engine rev like no two-valve head can and the Low Rider ST pulls so hard it’ll claw right out of your hands if you aren’t ready. Yes, you can short-shift it like most cruiser riders do, but every rider should experience the exhilarating trip to 5,000 RPM on this bike at least once.
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After each ride, I found myself standing in the yard and staring at the Low Rider ST in the driveway. The design team clearly put in some hours to make this bike feel modern and new, but they didn’t lose sight of the platform’s essence. Notable features include cruise control, self-canceling turn signals (that actually work, thank you very much), and cylinder deactivation that keeps the rider’s legs cooler at a stop when engaged. By leaving features on the cutting room floor, they made the Low Rider ST a more pure, raw, and essential experience. That’s becoming increasingly uncommon in a world of electrical nannies that keep your own decision-making as removed from motorcycles as possible. The minimalist gauges and uncluttered cockpit make it clear that you’re there to ride – and that’s about it. In a market that’s increasingly saturated with tech, gadgets, and computers that consider your input and deliver a riding experience approved by corporate lawyers, it’s refreshing to ride something so direct.
During my two weeks with the Low Rider ST, I logged miles commuting through town, covering ground on the highway, and strafing back roads just for fun. In other words, I used it exactly as Harley-Davidson intended. When I handed over the keys, I mentioned that the optional audio kit is the only thing I’d add to the bike if I were to make it my own. That would push the grand total to nearly $23,000 – not exactly pocket change, but cost averaging is a useful mental tool when you can rack up the kind of miles this bike is capable of.
Currently, nothing in Indian’s lineup directly competes with the Low Rider ST and potential buyers probably won’t look further than that. Not only has the Low Rider ST planted its flag on a unique position in the sport-touring segment, it still feels raw and authentic in ways that other sport-touring bikes don’t. Some people will scoff at a bike that costs more than $20,000 without a suite of electronics presented on a beautiful full-color screen. That’s fine because they have plenty of other options. The Low Rider ST is for people who want to ride far, ride (relatively) fast, and feel intimately connected to their motorcycle the whole time. Harley-Davidson listened to its customers and put in the work to build the exact bike they wanted.
Scott is properly obsessed with cars and motorcycles. If he's not on a road trip or at a local meetup, he's probably building a presentation of recommended cars for someone he knows to buy. Now that the rebuild bug has bitten him, he's usually eyeing at least one potential project at any given time.