2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Review

Harley-Davidson’s Street Glide has always been my favourite Harley. Especially since 2009 when they changed the frame and made it handle properly. Harley can sometimes be their own worst enemy because they regularly improve and evolve all sorts of things on their bikes but their principle of keeping the styling similar means riders don’t understand how much better they become.

The 2025 Street Glide Ultra changes that because (to a Harley owner, at least) it looks very different. The fairing is new, the fuel tank is new, the leg guards are new, the top box is very new for a Street Glide and different to the box used on other HD tourers too. The clocks are new, the engine is new and there’s a pillion seat as standard now too. No more is the Street Glide the ‘lone wolf’ Harley tourer, your friends are welcome too.

Adding the dual seat and top box puts it dangerously close in HD’s range to the range-topping Ultra-Limited. Who knows why Harley thought this was a good idea, but I for one am glad they did.

Thankfully, we’ve mostly reached an age where we can appreciate this

Pros & Cons

In order, Billiard Grey / Chrome, Billiard Grey / Black, Vivid Black / Chrome, Vivid Black / Black, Blue Burst / Chrome, Blue Burst / Black, Whiskey Fire / Chrome, Whiskey Fire / Black, Iron Horse / Black and Mystic Blue / Black

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Price & PCP Deals

Base price is £28,495 for a bike in that mid-grey faux-primer colour that’s very popular in the car world right now. Vivid black or Blue Burst paint adds £550. Is blue paint really £550 more expensive than grey or is the grey actually primer?

Whisky Fire and Iron Horse two-tone colours are £1,100 extra and black metallic trim instead of the standard chrome is an additional £1,450.

Finally, a range-topping Mystic Blue - only available with black trim - adds £1,650 (as well as £1,450 for the trim) taking the price up to £31,595!

Harley’s finance deals both run at 7.9% APR at the time of writing.

On a PCP deal with £5000 deposit and a maximum mileage of 4000 per year you’ll pay £383.83 per month for 36 months with a final payment of £14,535 to own the bike outright and a total payment of £32,874 over the three years.

On HD’s hire purchase with the same £5k deposit you’ll pay £732.22 a month and £31,359 over three years.

Three year-old standard Street Glides currently sell for around £17-18k in dealers so you’d assume that the final payment on the Ultra will be low enough to leave you plenty of equity for your deposit on a new one, which should bring the monthly payments down and keep you in the family. That’s the idea and it generally works well for Harley dealers.

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Engine & Performance

Harley’s 117 cubic inch motor arrived in 2023 and was shared with the Road Glide and Street Glide in 2024. 117Ci is 1923cc (multiply the Ci number by 16.387 to convert to cc). In many respects it’s a traditional Harley motor. The vee-angle is 45-degrees, cams are operated by pushrods and the cylinder stroke is longer than the bores are wide. Concessions to modernity include water-cooled cylinder heads (not a fully water-cooled engine), four-valves per cylinder, fuel injection and a six-axis IMU that understands where the bike is in time and space, allowing lean-sensitive ABS and traction control.

Harley claims 107bhp at 5020rpm and 129lb-ft torque at just 3500rpm. Try and imagine a powerful turbo diesel engine that sounds like Hollywood and gives a thwack in your back with the smallest touch of throttle. That’s how this engine feels on the road.

I like it, it suits the laid-back feel of the bike while easily overtaking pretty much any four-wheeler you need to get past.

It’s an engine designed to get you to the front of the queue and then slow down to enjoy the freedom of the open road for as long as you can before the next queue appears.

The thing that really surprised me was how smooth it is. A pair of four-inch pistons exploding at 45 degrees 25 times a second should be lumpy, grumpy and feel like they don’t belong – just like most older Harleys did. But this motor is smooooth, even in high gears cruising along at low revs. Accelerate hard through the gears and it feels fast, or at least urgent as so much weight starts to move so quickly. Fifth and sixth gears are pretty close together unlike when Harleys first got a sixth gear where it was more of an overdrive.

Motorway cruising is brisk but relaxed, with enough in reserve for an opportunistic manoeuvre should it appear. Did I mention how smooth this engine is…?

The gearshift is the opposite. Older Harley tourers had a heel-and-toe gearshift where, as you might expect, you stepped on the rear lever with your heel to change up and on the front one with your toe to change down. It was a great system that hid the clumsy clunkiness of HD’s gearchange.

Now you have a conventional single lever and changing up requires a toe under the lever and a decent effort to swap cogs. Going down the box or (especially) from neutral into first produces a loud ‘thwack’ that resonates inside the enormous gearbox housing like one of those National Steel resonator guitars (think Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms).

The actual gearchange is good enough, just very, er, involving.

And the clutch adds to the experience too. The lever action is reasonably light, but there’s a sort of ‘click’ step in the action that feels like a strand of the clutch cable is broken (it wasn’t) making it feel a little notchy.

This could be called ‘character’ or just weird.

Finally, there’s the noise. From the moment you press the starter and hear (and feel) those two enormous pistons fighting to overcome physics to the well-silenced chug of this enormous twin on the move, it can only be a Harley-Davidson. I love a well-silenced Harley’s gently soulful burble. It’s only when people start fitting noisy pipes that they ruin it.  

19in radial tyre steers really well. Suspension has comfort and control and the brakes are superb. These days Harleys handle (kinda…)

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight)

When riders talk handling it usually means how confident does a bike feel in corners. This one feels more confident than you’d expect but carries the same limitations as any bike weighing 393kg with a 1625mm wheelbase and suspension designed for comfort ahead of performance.

Fast, twisting A-roads are surprisingly good. The usual HD caveats apply. Get your braking done early, let the suspension settle and wait till you can see the line through a turn before committing. Changing line mid-corner is possible in 2025 in a way it wasn’t in 2008 when I ran a Street Glide as a long term test bike – but it still needs some muscle and confidence in your back brake to tighten the line.

The older Harley tourers didn’t exactly weave in fast turns but the handlebars seemed to rotate in your hands as if you were operating a unicycle with your arms. The 2025 bike is much better but will still run wide if you misread the corner.

Bumpy B-roads are much more challenging. Again, the 2025 bike is better than older versions but the suspension gets unsettled by the bumps which, ties the bike in knots.

There’s a different kind of handling too, which matters less on a 200kg all-rounder than a bike weighing twice as much. Low speed manoeuvrability matters on a bike like this. Lifting it off the side stand reminds you not only of the weight, but how much of it (heavy fairing, screen and speakers) is bolted to the handlebars. At rest this is a big, clumsy lump of a motorcycle. Pushing it around with the engine off takes some practice to get confident. Thankfully, Harley’s locking side stand adds much needed confidence.

Once moving the weight disappears and the Street Glide Ultra is a joy to potter about at teeny-tiny speeds. Filtering through traffic was the biggest surprise. The bike feels enormous and very wide but is actually quite slim. The bars and mirrors are lower than those on an adventure bike – lower too than most of the vans and SUVs you’ll be filtering past. Which means it just sort-of, ahem, glides along, under the radar, feeling stable, smooth and unbelievably easy for a bike weighting half as much again as full-laden BMW R1300GS.

The other surprise is the brakes. The HD-branded Brembos have lots of power, plenty of feel and stop the bike impressively quickly. There’s a cornering ABS set up in reserve should things go wrong in a corner and the rear brake is easily accessible while cornering to do the magic that rear brakes do in a turn.

Fairing keeps the wind off well, but screen is a little tall. Adjustable vents cancel out buffeting. Dual-seat and passenger back-rest is spacious and very comfy

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Comfort & Economy

A large part of the low-speed handling and filtering ability mentioned above is down to a riding position that is almost perfect for cruising. Harley don’t always get this right and some of their other models are seemingly designed to be as uncomfortable as possible with bizarre placing of feet and arms.

Not so the Street Glide, which is mostly spot-on. Top half of the body is very well catered for, but my knees were aching after a couple of hours and the leg guards mean there’s nowhere to rest your feet as there is on the standard Street Glide.

The Batwing fairing has been redesigned in the last couple of years and looks much better for it. The standard Street has a short, sporty screen while the Ultra gets a taller, more traditional item. It’s tall enough that your natural position is to look through it rather than over. That’s ok until it rains heavily or it gets covered in flies. It is possible to look over the screen and into the distance - like your advanced riding instructor probably said you should – but it doesn’t feel natural.

These taller HD screens used to be awful for buffeting on a full-face helmet but this one has an adjustable flap underneath that directs air where you need it to remove the problem. It works really well and can also direct cooling air at you when needed because the fairing combined with deflectors on the forks and adjustable grilles in the knee-pods do a particularly good job of keeping most of the moving air away from the rider.

I didn’t ride the bike in the rain, but on one long, hot summer journey I was roasting until I opened all the adjusters and even then had to sit back on the pillion seat to get my helmet far enough into the breeze for the vents to work.

That pillion seat will be a welcome addition for many potential customers. There’s plenty of room, a comfy backrest and armrests too. No loudspeakers for the passenger though as you get on the full-fat Ultra-Limited.

Fast motorway work returned around 55mpg. Slightly more relaxed riding took that into the high 50s and even the B-road adolescence returned close to 50mpg.

That gives a theoretical range of around 250 miles from the 22.7 litre tank, although I’d probably fill up at 200 because you really wouldn’t want to push this thing anywhere.

Switchgear controls a lot of functions but is simple to understand. Your phone goes in the tray under the clocks.

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Equipment

Harley’s Skyline infotainment system has a 12.3in TFT display with very classy graphics and a user interface that’s easy to understand. Switchgear is relatively simple to work out on your own or there’s a whole load of enthusiastic Americans on YouTube who’ll explain it to you. Essentially most things are controlled on the left with music on the right.

There’s a pop-out drawer under the clocks where your phone goes with USB charging inside. The system is Apple Carplay (but not Android Auto) compatible and the sound system now puts out 50W per channel.

That’s more than loud enough to amuse the car drivers as you filter past, but not quite loud enough to be heard at 70mph in a full-face helmet with earplugs. I’ve enjoyed riding Harleys in America at lower speeds with music or radio to pass the long days, but in the UK in a hurry, I prefer my music in a Bluetooth headset (which the Street Glide also does brilliantly)

The built-in sat-nav is easy to program and mostly works well, although it did miss a couple of important manoeuvres on one journey. I prefer AppleMaps on Carplay for the live updates and crafty wiggling when things go wrong, but the standard system is a good back-up.

Other standard equipment includes four riding modes, heated grips, hill-hold control, cornering ABS and TC, Tyre pressure monitoring and keyless ignition and fuel cap.

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Rivals

You’d be surprised just how many super-size tourers are out there. You might also be surprised how the manufacturers are gently making them slightly smaller and (relatively) lighter with each revision. This is because most of them are bought by the same customers who bought the last version who are getting slightly older, slightly less confident, but still willing to pay big bucks for a tech-laden continent crusher.

BMW’s R18 Transcontinental is the curved ball here. 30kg heavier than the Street Glide Ultra, with less power, less torque and a lot less sales. List price is £27k, but there are deals out there if you fancy something different.

Indian’s Roadmaster is probably the closest alternative. Like the R18, you’ll probably be the only one in your county to buy one.

Other than that, it’s the Gold Wing or choice of BMW’s K1600 or maybe the new R1300RT. All are very different to the Harley, but not necessarily any better at the job. 

BMW R18 Transcontinental | Price: £27,875

Read more

Power/Torque

89bhp / 116lb-ft

Weight

427kg

Honda Gold Wing Tour | Price: £33,499

Read more

Power/Torque

125bhp / 125lb-ft

Weight

378kg

BMW K1600 Grand America | Price: £25,780

Read more

Power/Torque

160bhp / 133lb-ft

Weight

370kg

A lot of bike for £29k (in this colour) but you can use it for a lot of different things.

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Verdict

I flipping love this bike. Everything about it. If you have the means to buy a Harley Street Glide Ultra, the space to store it and the strength to lift it off the side stand, just buy one, ride it for a summer and face a serious decision about how the rest of your biking life might pan out.

Seriously, it’s that bloody good.

As a journalist I’m supposed to include turn my nose up at bikes like this and use some cliché like, ‘I don’t normally like Harleys…’ or other insecure nonsense designed to enhance my credibility with the mainstream riders who won’t be reading this review.

Sorry, but the truth is that I do like (some) Harleys. Not all of them in the same way as I don’t like all Ducatis or Suzukis or breeds of dog.

And the Harleys I like most are the big tourers because they are so flipping good at covering distance with ease, being comfy, entertaining and hugely welcoming to ride. But mostly because they mix modern with classic, ability with character and make me smile all the time when I ride them.

The Street Glide has always been my favourite Harley because it is capable tourer-for-one.

What lets the standard Street Glide down is that not having a top box limits its day-to-day practicality because, while the panniers have a large capacity, their shape and fastening limits what you can carry in them. 30 miles is enough to turn a Tupperware container of salad into Salsa so who knows what the inside of your laptop would look like.

The Street Glide Ultra solves all those issues and is a better bike all round than the last one I rode in 2022. Harley’s engineers are very, very good at subtly improving their not-especially-subtle bikes. They aren’t always as good at telling people about it.

So, let me do the job for them. The 2025 Street Glide Ultra is a flipping brilliant motorbike, but you might have got that impression already.

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Top box has plenty of room and a useful shape too, Panniers are less so

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra - Technical Specification

Keyless ignition, alarm and 393kg help with security. And there’s plenty of room to hide a tracker too

What is MCIA Secured?

MCIA Secured gives bike buyers the chance to see just how much work a manufacturer has put into making their new investment as resistant to theft as possible.

As we all know, the more security you use, the less chance there is of your bike being stolen. In fact, based on research by Bennetts, using a disc lock makes your machine three times less likely to be stolen, while heavy duty kit can make it less likely to be stolen than a car. For reviews of the best security products, click here.

MCIA Secured gives motorcycles a rating out of five stars (three stars for bikes of 125cc or less), based on the following being fitted to a new bike as standard:

• A steering lock that meets the UNECE 62 standard

• An ignition immobiliser system

• A vehicle marking system

• An alarm system

• A vehicle tracking system with subscription

The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.

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