2025 Harley-Davidson Cruiser Review – First Ride

I feel that I can relate with the 2025 Harley-Davidson Cruiser line on a subcutaneous level. Once you get past our exquisite, carefully curated exteriors, we’re both filled with a toxic mix of liquid with our complexities hidden away from view, stuffed down so deep that no one would ever think twice to use the word sophisticated to describe us. Unfair? This sextet and I are Americana distilled. Brash and raucous, but genuinely… or generally.. just plain good – and getting better, even!

In model year 2018, H-D gave this crew of misfits a fairly substantial overhaul ushering in the current Softail platform while putting the Dyna line out to pasture (announcing its demise on my birthday in 2017, no less). For 2025, the Cruiser line-up gets the updated Milwaukee-Eight 117 cu.-in. V-Twin engine as well as ride modes enhanced by IMU-based rider aids. Aside from that, it’s the same pancake-piston poundin’ fun served up six different ways. Tuck that napkin into your shirt, grab some wet wipes, and forget the cutlery, we’re using our hands to tear into this heaping six-course feast. Let’s go!

Forget the sides, let’s get to the star of this smoke show. We’re going straight for the heart of these Hogs: the Milwaukee-Eight 117 cubic-inch V-Twin. For 2025, the Milwaukee-Eight 117 gets three new states of tune with each powering two of the six Softail cruiser models – more on that in a sec. Following updates to the Grand American Touring line in model year 23/24, the cruisers now use the same four-valve cylinder heads, combustion chamber shape with a 10.3:1 compression ratio, and oval intake ports with low-pro valve seats aimed at increasing performance and fuel economy. Likewise, the frame-mounted oil cooling which is routed backward through the heads is also carried over. A larger throttle body and airbox continues the focus while the external air intakes provide a visual cue of which state of tune the mill gets.

And finally, the Low Rider S and ST carry on the minimalist blank slate approach popularized by the Dyna line with a focus on performance receiving the “High Output” recipe with 114 hp and 128 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 11 hp and 3 lb-ft of torque compared to the 2024 model year’s M8 117.

Tariffs be damned, everything here is Euro 5+ compliant.

Oh, but don’t open those wet wipes yet, there’s more!

Rider Safety Enhancements

The whole of the 2025 Cruiser line now comes equipped with three ride modes, all of which are enhanced by a six-axis IMU offering varying levels of cornering ABS (C-ABS), cornering traction control (C-TCS), and cornering drag torque slip control (C-DSCS). To get a taste of this new (to H-D cruisers) tech, the folks from Milwaukee brought a Street Bob complete with outriggers to an open parking lot covered in sand and let us have at it. The most awkward portion of this test, perhaps, was getting the motorcycle off of the outrigger and moving while remembering the one rule, “Do not take your feet off the pegs!”

This wasn’t my first experience with outriggers, but it was with them attached to a cruiser. During the trip to Continental’s testing facility in Brimley, MI the KTM 790 Duke outfitted as such was for us to experience ABS in a safe(r) environment. Here, Harley set up a course to allow us to feel the various levels of TC attached to each ride mode while cornering slightly over a loose surface. It was interesting to feel the very obvious differences between Rain, Road, and Sport modes, but perhaps even more interesting was feeling the system work to give you back “control” of the throttle based on lean angle. Using the IMU, Harley had to design the curve in which power is fed back in based on lean angle, engine speed, throttle position, etc. You don’t want to just dump all that torque back to the rear wheel all at once, it needs to be smoothly reapplied and that was also clear and impressive during the handful of runs I did through the sand on the Street Bob.

Rounding out the tech, cruise control is standard across the line-up, as is the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). You also get a USB-C outlet near the simplistic, redesigned four-inch analog/LCD display. With the new technology, naturally, new switchgears have been incorporated onto the handlebar that do an admirable job of incorporating the extra functions without feeling crowded.

Springs

Before we get into our taste test of ride reviews, we’d be remiss to not mention an update to the suspension, a point of contention between the cruiser contingent and the rest of the motorcycling world. The 2025 Cruiser line offers up around five inches of fork travel across the board with rear shock travel coming in between 3.4 (Breakout, Fat Boy, Street Bob) and 4.4 inches (Heritage Classic, Low Rider S and ST). None of this has changed from last year, but Harley-Davidson did swap out the progressive springs for straight-rate ones. The MoCo says this helped them achieve a better balance between spring and damping performance. We’ll touch on that shortly.

Cruiser tasting

I sure hope you didn’t fill up just yet on that lil’ appetizer of information. We’re finally ready to slice into the bark of this brisket.

As you can probably imagine, sampling six motorcycles over the course of two days around Austin, TX isn’t going to provide a chance for in-depth performance testing of anything. What we do have here is a compilation of the observations we were able to ascertain during our time spent with Milwaukee’s best around Texas’ hill country.

Check out the individual morsels for a review of each bike below.

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