The Harley Road Glide 3 and the Trike Gap Indian Leaves Open
Updated: Sep 28
Quick answer: Indian does not list a three wheeler among the models on its US site. If you want three wheels and an American V-twin, Harley-Davidson is the only one of the two selling you one, and the cheaper of its two is the Road Glide 3 at $35,399, with the Milwaukee-Eight VVT 117, 129 ft-lb at 3,250 rpm, 1,184 lb in running order and a 26.5 in laden seat. The Street Glide 3 Limited sits above it at $39,199 and 1,250 lb. Indian’s nearest machines at that money are the two wheeled Pursuit Dark Horse at $32,499 and the Roadmaster at $34,999. This is a gap rather than a comparison.
Disclosure: MotoGearRater and Legendary USA have the same owner. Links to legendaryusa.com in this article go to our owner’s store, and are marked as sponsored. How we make money
MotoGearRater is a review publication and holds no test data of its own. Where we do hold a view is on gear, and our reference point for the leather in this post is Legendary USA, because a trike changes the gear question in a way most riders underestimate. Every figure below comes from what the two companies publish themselves.
All prices are base MSRP and exclude freight, destination and dealer charges.
What Indian actually lists, stated carefully
We checked Indian’s current US model lineup page and counted the models it shows across cruisers, baggers and touring. There is no three wheeled machine among them. That is a statement about what Indian publishes on its own site, and it is the only version of this claim we are prepared to print. It is not a statement about what Indian may or may not be developing, and it is not a claim about the company’s history.
The distinction matters because this question gets answered badly all over the internet. What a rider can act on is the model list a manufacturer puts in front of them, and Indian’s does not contain a trike. If you walk into an Indian dealership wanting three wheels, you will be pointed at a two wheeled motorcycle or at the door.
Harley’s trike offering is not static either, and that is worth knowing before you shop. Two three wheeled models appear on Harley’s current motorcycles index, the Road Glide 3 and the Street Glide 3 Limited. The Freewheeler and the Tri Glide Ultra, both familiar names to anyone who has shopped this category before, do not appear on it. If a dealer offers you one, ask whether it is current or carryover stock.
What the third wheel costs, in Harley’s own numbers
Price. Road Glide 3 $35,399. The two wheeled Road Glide is $25,999. The third wheel is a $9,400 decision on otherwise comparable machines.
Weight. Road Glide 3 1,184 lb in running order against the Road Glide’s 838 lb. That is 346 lb, and it is the most consequential number in this post. The Street Glide 3 Limited is heavier again at 1,250 lb.
Engine. Road Glide 3 uses the Milwaukee-Eight VVT 117 and lists 129 ft-lb at 3,250 rpm. The two wheeled Road Glide lists 130 ft-lbs at the same rpm from the standard 117. So you are carrying 346 extra pounds on one ft-lb less. Harley lists 105 HP for both machines, so on the horsepower line the third wheel costs you nothing at all.
Seat height. Road Glide 3 26.5 in laden, against 26.6 in on the two wheeled Road Glide and 27.3 in on the Street Glide 3 Limited. Effectively unchanged, which makes sense, because on a trike seat height stops being about holding the machine up at all.
Fuel. 6 gallons on the Road Glide 3, the same as the two wheeled bike.
The honest reading of that block is that Harley has not compromised the powertrain to build the trike. It has added a very large amount of mass and $9,400. What you get back is that the machine stands up by itself, which for a rider with a balance issue, a knee, a hip or simply less strength than they had ten years ago is not a feature, it is the whole reason for the purchase.
What a trike changes about the gear
This is the part riders get wrong. A trike does not lean, so you sit square and almost completely still for hours, and you never put a foot down. Two things follow. You are colder than you expect, because you are not working, and your hands do all the interacting with the machine because the rest of you is stationary behind a fairing.
Aramid Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves, $123. The Road Glide 3 is run through a touchscreen, and a glove you have to remove to change a map or a ride mode is a glove you will stop wearing on a machine you sit still on. These have a touchscreen panel and an aramid lining, and to be precise about that, aramid is a lining material rather than a rating. Nothing here is certified and nothing here is armoured. Made in the USA.
Legendary Peacekeeper Vintage Leather Gun-Pocket Vest, $185. On a trike you are not pulling layers on and off at the roadside as often, because you are not overheating between stops the way you do wrestling 838 lb of two wheeled bagger. A vest that lives on the machine and goes over whatever you are wearing is the practical answer. Made in the USA.
BECK 501 Trucker Horsehide Motorcycle Jacket, $725. Horsehide blocks wind rather than filtering it, and it is cut short enough to work for a rider sitting upright behind a fairing all day. BECK is Legendary’s own house line rather than a third party label. No armour and no rating.
The competitor to name here is Harley MotorClothes, which is the range sitting in the dealership where you will be buying the trike, and which is genuinely convenient if you want everything on one invoice. Price it against the American leather above on hide, construction and what it costs three years in. We are not going to tell you it is bad kit. We are telling you to compare it rather than default to it.
What Indian offers instead, at the same money
If three wheels are a preference rather than a requirement, Indian has a straightforward answer at Road Glide 3 money. The Pursuit Dark Horse lists at $32,499 with the liquid cooled PowerPlus 108, 122 hp, 128 ft-lb at 3,800 rpm, 937 lb in running order, a 26.5 in seat and 6 gallons. The Roadmaster lists at $34,999 with the air cooled Thunderstroke 116, 126 ft-lb at 2,900 rpm, 919 lb in running order, a 28 in seat and 5.5 gallons.
Against the Road Glide 3, the Pursuit Dark Horse is $2,900 cheaper and 247 lb lighter, and its 122 hp sits against the 105 HP Harley lists for the Road Glide 3, which is a comparison both makers publish themselves. The Roadmaster beside it carries no horsepower figure at all, because Indian prints none for any Thunderstroke model. Those are real advantages. They are also completely irrelevant if the reason you are reading this is that you cannot hold a two wheeled bagger up at a junction.
One caution. Harley-Davidson publishes no model level unit sales and neither does Polaris for Indian, so nobody can tell you how many of these trikes get sold or whether the category is growing. Judge it on the machine and on the test ride.
Which one to buy
Buy the Road Glide 3 if three wheels are the requirement rather than the preference. It is the cheaper of Harley’s two current trikes at $35,399, it gives away one ft-lb to the two wheeled Road Glide, and it carries the same 6 gallons. Nothing Indian publishes competes with it, because Indian does not list a machine in this category at all. The condition attached is 1,184 lb, and you should ride it before you commit to that.
Buy the Pursuit Dark Horse if you are shopping this budget for touring rather than for stability. At $32,499 it is $2,900 cheaper and 247 lb lighter, and 122 hp with 128 ft-lb at 3,800 rpm is a more capable powertrain on paper than anything on three wheels here.
Do not let anyone sell you the idea that an Indian trike is coming as a reason to wait. The company does not list one, and that is the whole of what is knowable from the outside.
Related reading on MotoGearRater: the Harley Road Glide review and rating, Indian Challenger vs Harley Road Glide, and Indian Chieftain vs Harley Street Glide.
