Most cooling arguments are between brands. Indian's is inside one showroom. The company sells a liquid-cooled PowerPlus and an air-cooled Thunderstroke at the same time, to buyers who are often cross-shopping them against each other, and it has not shown any interest in picking a winner. 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 Two Engines, One Floor The PowerPlus 108 arrived in 2020 in the Challenger: 1770cc, liquid-cooled, 122 hp and 128 lb-ft. Seat height 26.5 inches, 796 lb wet, $21,999. Indian launched it as a flagship and ran an explicit Challenger Challenge campaign aimed directly at the Harley Road Glide Special, which tells you exactly which buyer it was built for. The Thunderstroke sits in the Chief, which arrived as an all-new MY2022 platform: steel-tube frame, round headlight, 4-inch round TFT, 26 inch seat, 670 lb in base form, and prices from $14,499 to $20,999 across six variants. Buyers choose between the Thunderstroke 111 at 1811cc and 108 lb-ft, or the 116 at 1890cc and 120 lb-ft. Both are air-cooled. Set the headline numbers next to each other and the liquid-cooled engine wins on paper: 128 lb-ft against 120 from the largest Thunderstroke, with 122 hp quoted where the air-cooled engines are sold on torque alone. Set the weights next to each other and the picture inverts. The Challenger is 796 lb wet; the base Chief is 670 lb. That gap is most of what the cooling decision actually costs. What Liquid Cooling Buys, and What It Charges For A liquid-cooled engine holds a tighter temperature range, which lets a designer run closer tolerances, higher compression and a higher rev ceiling without the metal moving around underneath. That is why the PowerPlus can quote a power figure at all in a category where competitors usually quote only torque. The bill arrives as parts and mass: radiator, pump, hoses, coolant, fans and the packaging space to put them. Some of the 126 lb between the Challenger and the base Chief is fairing and equipment rather than cooling system, and it would be dishonest to attribute it all to the radiator. But the direction is not in dispute, and neither is the added service surface. More components that can leak is simply what a cooling circuit is. What Air Cooling Keeps The Thunderstroke's argument is subtraction. No radiator, no pump, no coolant, no hoses, and finned cylinders that look like what a lot of cruiser buyers came to the category for. It also allows the Chief's 670 lb base weight and its $14,499 entry price, which is a long way under the Challenger. The constraint is that the engine's temperature is set by airflow, and airflow is set by road speed. At a standstill there is nothing to manage it with, which is why heat complaints in this category are always stop-and-traffic complaints rather than highway complaints. The 111 and 116 make their case at 108 and 120 lb-ft respectively, which is plenty of engine, arriving through an architecture with fewer things in it. Why Indian Kept Both The sequence is the tell. The liquid-cooled Challenger launched in 2020 as the flagship. The all-new air-cooled Chief platform arrived two model years later, in MY2022, after the liquid-cooled bike was already on the floor. Indian had every opportunity to make the Chief liquid-cooled and did not. The Scout complicates any neat theory further, because it is liquid-cooled too, running 1133cc and 100 hp at 8,100 rpm through most of this window before the SpeedPlus 1250 replaced it for MY2025 with 105 hp and 82 lb-ft at 6,300 rpm. So Indian is not an air-cooled company hedging with one radiator. It is a company that picked cooling per platform, based on what each motorcycle was for. How that played out commercially is not knowable from public data. Harley-Davidson publishes no model-level unit sales, and neither does Polaris for Indian or Honda for the US market. BMW Motorrad is the only one of the four that does. Indian's global volume passed 30,000 for the first and only time in this window in 2021 and was 25,792 in 2024, but those are brand figures. Our 2020 Indian best seller post and 2022 Indian best seller post lay out what can and cannot be established for the Challenger and Chief launch years. What Owners Report About Heat The consistent line in Challenger feedback is that the bike runs cooler than the air-cooled alternatives but is not cool. Liquid cooling moves heat away from the cylinders efficiently; it then has to put that heat somewhere, and on a large V-twin that somewhere is often close to the rider's legs. Owners who expected the radiator to eliminate the issue generally report that it reduced it instead. That, and the rest of what comes up in ownership, is in our Indian Challenger owner reports. That is the finding worth carrying into a showroom: the cooling decision changes the degree of the heat complaint, not whether the complaint exists. A Note on Layering Riders who move between these two engines usually end up rethinking their mid-layer before anything else, because a bike that puts heat at your legs in traffic and cold air at your chest at speed is asking for something you can add and remove without stopping. Vests get bought for that job and often turn out to be built for a different one. Legendary USA's piece on the difference between a riding vest and a fashion vest is a fair breakdown of what separates the two before you spend. What This Means for a Buyer Today Decide what your riding actually looks like before you decide what the engine should be. If most of your miles are highway, air cooling is being handed the conditions it was designed for and the Chief's 670 lb base weight and $14,499 entry price are real advantages. If a meaningful share of your miles are urban, in traffic, in summer, the PowerPlus is solving a problem you will genuinely have. Weight is the other honest filter, and it is felt at walking pace rather than in the numbers. 796 lb wet against 670 lb is not a trim difference. Anyone who has to reverse a motorcycle up a sloped driveway should treat that as a separate decision from the engine spec. Displacement inside the Thunderstroke range is a smaller decision than it looks. The 111 at 108 lb-ft and the 116 at 120 lb-ft are the same architecture with a 12 lb-ft spread. If budget is tight, the base engine is not a compromised version of the motorcycle, and $14,499 to $20,999 across six variants means most of the money is going somewhere other than the cylinders. Indian selling both, at once, to overlapping buyers is the most useful thing about this comparison. A manufacturer that had a definitive answer would only be selling one. Cover photo: "Indian Roadmaster - June 2024 - Sarah Stierch" by Missvain, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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 For club riding in denim, the vest to buy is the Legendary Nightshift Black Denim Vest at $145, made by Legendary USA, because the thing that decides whether a denim cut lasts is fabric weight and how the panels are sewn, and this one is built to carry patch work rather than to look good on a rack for one summer. A denim vest spends its life being sewn into, washed rarely and worn constantly, and thin denim gives up at the shoulder seams long before the patches wear out. The harder question underneath is whether denim is the right material at all, and that depends on what the vest is for. Denim breathes in heat that makes leather miserable, it takes stitching beautifully, and it costs a fraction of what leather does. It also abrades faster and offers less in a slide. Neither denim nor leather here is armored or CE certified, and neither one is protective equipment. If you want to know which to buy, I have put the comparison in its own section below rather than burying it. The Basis for These Rankings For a club cut, three things decide it. Fabric weight, because everything else follows from it. Panel and seam construction, because a back that puckers ruins the look of any patch sewn onto it. And cut, meaning whether the vest sits flat over a shirt without riding up when you are seated. Price mattered as value rather than as a number, which is why a $65 vest and a $145 vest both made the list. Both are Legendary USA vests, the Revolution Men's Black Denim Vest at $65 and the Nightshift Black Denim Vest at $145, and both are in stock. The scores are our editorial view, based on wearing these and inspecting how they are assembled. They are not lab results and we do not run destructive tests. No score predicts crash performance, and none of these vests carries any protective certification. Prices verified August 2026. 1. Legendary Nightshift Black Denim Vest, Best for Patch Work The Nightshift at $145 is the denim vest I would put patches on, and that is the only test that matters for a cut. Black denim heavy enough to hold a back patch flat, seams that do not pucker when a tailor runs a machine through the panel, and a cut that sits properly over a shirt while seated. It costs more than twice what the basic denim vests cost, and the difference is entirely in fabric and construction rather than in anything you can see in a photograph. If the vest is going to carry your colours for years, start here. Legendary USA lists it at $145 and it is in stock. Not armored, no certification. Price: $145 Score: 8.8 out of 10 Best for: a denim cut that will carry patches for a decade 2. Legendary Revolution Black Denim Vest, Best Value At $65 the Revolution is the cheapest thing on this list and the one I recommend most often, because a lot of riders want a denim vest for exactly what it is: a layer over a t-shirt that does not flap apart at 65mph and does not cost much to replace. Lighter denim than the Nightshift, so think twice before committing serious patch work to it, but for a summer vest that lives on the back of a chair it is honest value. Buy two colours for the price of one heavier vest if that suits how you ride. Price: $65 Score: 8.2 out of 10 Best for: a cheap, breathable summer layer without patch commitments 3. Milwaukee Leather, Best Budget Alternative Legendary USA Does Not Carry Milwaukee Leather is the name that comes up whenever price is the deciding factor, and Legendary USA does not carry it, so there is no product link in this entry. Being fair about it: they cover sizes that a lot of American makers skip, including tall and extended ranges, and they are widely stocked so you can often try one on in person before buying, which is a genuine advantage when you are buying a cut you plan to keep. What you give up is fabric weight and consistency between production runs. If you are on a strict budget or hard to fit, they are a reasonable answer, and I would rather say that than pretend the only vests worth buying are the ones this guide can link you to. Price: sold by other retailers, not carried by Legendary USA Score: 7.8 out of 10 Best for: tight budgets and sizes outside standard runs 4. Legendary Ole Blue Denim Vest, Best Classic Blue The Ole Blue is the same $65 idea in traditional blue denim, and it fades the way blue denim is supposed to. That matters more than it sounds, because a blue cut that has been rained on and sun-bleached for five seasons looks like it has been somewhere, while black denim mostly just goes grey. Riders who want the older look pick this one, and riders who want patches to pop against the background usually go black instead. It is the same weight as the Revolution, so the same caution about heavy patch work applies. Price: $65 Score: 8.1 out of 10 Best for: traditional blue denim that ages visibly 5. Legacy of Legends Denim Downshift Cropped Vest, Best Cropped Cut The Denim Downshift at $150 mixes blue denim with black leather panels in a cropped cut, and it is the pick for riders who find a full-length vest too much fabric when seated. It is a Legacy of Legends vest built by First Manufacturing and stocked at Legendary USA, not a Legendary house product, and it earns this award slot on the cut rather than on the label. Small and medium are sold out as we publish; large, XL and 2XL are the sizes still available. A cropped body stops riding up against a backrest, which anyone who has fought with a bunched-up vest on a long day will appreciate. The leather panels also put the wear points where wear happens. It is a different look from a plain denim cut, so try it against the Nightshift before you decide, and remember that a cropped back gives a back patch less room to sit. Price: $150 Score: 8.3 out of 10 Best for: riders who want a shorter body and mixed materials Denim Cut or Leather Vest, How to Decide This is the question behind most denim vest searches, so here is the comparison without hedging. Both are unarmored and neither is protective equipment. Heat. Denim wins by a wide margin. Leather in August is a decision you regret by the second gas stop. Abrasion. Leather wins, and it is not close. Denim tears where leather slides. Patch work. Denim takes stitching more easily and cheaply, and it is more forgiving if you ever move a patch. Leather holds a heavy back patch flatter over years. Cost. A denim vest runs $65 to $150. A leather club vest starts around $179.99 and climbs from there. Longevity. Leather, easily, if it is looked after. Denim is a consumable that you will replace at some point. Fit over time. Leather with side lacing adjusts to you. Denim does not, though vest extenders solve the front closure problem on either material. Most riders who put real miles on end up owning both and choosing by the forecast. If you can only buy one and you ride in a hot climate, buy denim first. Common Questions Best denim biker vest for club riding? The Legendary USA Nightshift Black Denim Vest at $145 is the pick, and it is in stock, because it is the heaviest denim of the group and the one built to carry patch work without puckering. If you want the same idea for less, the Revolution at $65 is honest value in lighter fabric. Buy the heavier vest if the patches are going on permanently. Denim cut vs leather vest for MC riding? Denim is cooler, cheaper and easier to sew into, while leather resists abrasion far better and lasts much longer. Riders in hot states often run denim through summer and switch to leather in the shoulder seasons. Neither is armored, so the choice is about comfort, cost and how you want the vest to age, not about protection. How should a club vest fit? It should sit flat over the shirt you actually ride in, with the shoulders sitting on your shoulders and the front closing without strain. Check it seated on your own bike, because a vest that fits standing can ride up against a backrest. If the front is close, extenders are cheaper than the next size up. What I Would Put in the Garage Buy the Nightshift Black Denim Vest at $145 if this vest is going to carry your patches and get worn every warm weekend for the next ten years. Buy the Revolution at $65 if you want a summer layer and do not want to think about it. Those two cover almost every rider who searches for this, and the runner-up in each case is the other one. One last thing for the riders who take a cut seriously, the real ones who put a hundred thousand miles behind them: fabric weight is the whole ballgame. Patches outlive vests, and moving them is a pain. Spend the extra eighty dollars once. The rest of the range, in denim and leather, is in the American-made vest collection if you want to compare them side by side.

This is not a road test. Nobody at MotoGearRater rode a Honda Rebel 500 for this piece. What follows is a synthesis of what actual owners report after living with the bike: recurring themes pulled from Honda Rebel owner forums, long term owner reviews and owner review aggregations, with hard numbers taken only from published specifications. 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 What the Rebel 500 is The Rebel 500 is Honda's midsize entry cruiser, built on a 471cc liquid cooled DOHC parallel twin. Seat height is 27.2 inches and curb weight is 408 lb for the base bike, 414 lb with ABS. For 2025 the range ran $6,499 base, $6,799 with ABS and $6,999 for the SE. Torque deserves a footnote, because Honda US publishes no figure for this engine in any model year. Honda Europe lists 31.9 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm, verified for the 2022 through 2025 model years. The engine is unchanged going further back, but the earlier figure was never published, so treat any number quoted for a 2020 or 2021 bike with suspicion. The important dividing line for used buyers is 2020, when Honda gave the Rebel a new fork, LED lighting and an assist and slipper clutch that cut lever effort by about 30 percent by Honda's own accounting. For 2025 Honda revised the seat and handlebar position, ergonomics only. For 2026 Honda drops the non-ABS bike entirely, making ABS standard at $6,799, and Honda's own release language calls the Rebel 500 the industry's best selling cruiser. What owners consistently praise Reach to the ground is the most repeated positive, and it is not a vague one. Owners with short inseams describe the 27.2 inch seat and 408 lb curb weight as the specific reason they bought the bike and the specific reason they still have it. In beginner bike threads on the Rebel owner forums, riders who could not flat foot anything else routinely say this is the one that worked. Low workload is the second theme. The assist and slipper clutch draws consistent praise from riders with small hands or wrist trouble, and owners describe the 471cc twin as tractable enough that it does not need to be revved to move cleanly in traffic. Running costs come up constantly in long term owner reports. Owners describe fuel, tires, chains and insurance as cheap enough that the bike effectively disappears from a monthly budget, and reliability reports across owner review aggregations cluster hard around nothing having gone wrong. That is not a dramatic claim, but it is the most consistent one in the whole body of Rebel owner reporting. Styling gets more credit than is usual at this price. Owners repeatedly say the blacked out bobber treatment is why they picked it over other entry bikes, and that it does not read as a learner machine in a car park. What owners consistently complain about The seat is the loudest and most consistent complaint by a wide margin. The Rebel owner forums carry standing threads on seat comfort, on thigh and lower back pain, and on passenger seats that owners rate as worse still. The pattern in the reports is specific: fine for an hour, unpleasant after that, and an aftermarket seat is the most common first purchase on the bike. Honda revised the seat for 2025, and reports on whether that changed anything are still thin and mixed. Treat that revision as unproven rather than as a fix. Rear suspension is second. Owner forums run a continuous conversation about shock replacement, about preload settings, and about aftermarket shocks that turn out stiffer than the originals rather than better damped. The recurring description is short travel that copes with smooth roads and then delivers a sharp jolt over expansion joints and square edged holes. This one is contested along rider weight lines. Lighter owners often report the stock setup is perfectly acceptable, while heavier owners are the ones filling the replacement threads. Wind is third, and it shapes what the bike is actually good for. There is no bodywork, and owners are blunt that the machine will hold interstate speed all day while the rider is the part that runs out. Long highway stints come up again and again as the thing the Rebel does least well, and owners whose commute is mostly freeway are the ones who report the shortest ownership. Fuel range and the tank generate their own cluster of threads: owners asking about a bigger tank, owners trying to work out the real usable capacity as opposed to the claimed one, and owners comparing notes on where the fuel gauge starts lying. The practical complaint is not that the range is unusable, it is that owners plan fuel stops more often than they expected to on a bike this economical. Passenger use is a recurring disappointment. The bike ships as a solo machine and the pillion seat and pegs are accessories, and owners who carry someone regularly describe the result as a compromise rather than a solution. Equipment is sparse too. There are no ride modes and no traction control, and while most owners accept that at the price, it surfaces whenever someone compares the Rebel with newer rivals. On whether owners outgrow it, the honest answer from the research is that reports are genuinely mixed, and they split along use case rather than along experience level. Owners who ride mostly in town, mostly alone and mostly for under an hour at a time report keeping the bike for years and not wanting anything else, and short riders in particular describe it as hard to replace. Owners whose riding drifted toward interstate miles, two up trips or long weekends report moving on inside a year or two, and they tend to name wind, seat and suspension rather than engine performance as the reason. The engine is rarely what people say they outgrew. Who it suits and who it does not It suits new riders, returning riders and anyone with a short inseam who has been told to buy something they cannot flat foot. It suits urban and suburban commuting, rides measured in tens of miles rather than hundreds, and riders who want the cruiser shape without cruiser weight or cruiser running costs. It also works as a second bike for experienced riders who want something simple. It does not suit riders whose regular route is mostly freeway, riders who carry a passenger more than occasionally, or riders who want electronics. It is a harder recommendation for heavier riders on rough roads unless they plan to spend on the rear shocks, and it is the wrong bike for anyone whose weekend ambitions are measured in states crossed. For where the Rebel 500 sits against the other category leaders, see our comparison of Harley, Indian, Honda and BMW for 2025. What to check on a used one Start with drop damage, because this is a first bike and a lot of them have been down at walking pace. Look at bar ends, lever ends, the exhaust heat shield, the footpeg feelers and the mirror stems. None of that is necessarily disqualifying at this price, but it should be reflected in what you pay. Establish the model year. Pre 2020 bikes lack the revised fork, the LED lighting and the assist and slipper clutch, and the difference in lever effort is one owners notice. From 2025 you get the revised seat and handlebar position. Confirm the trim as well, because base, ABS and SE were separate SKUs at separate prices, and from 2026 ABS is standard, which affects what an older non-ABS bike is worth. Ask whether the seat and rear shocks have already been changed, and whether the original parts come with the bike. Given how common both swaps are, a bike that has had them done well is worth more than the mileage suggests, and one fitted with cheap stiff shocks is worth less. Look harder at maintenance than at mileage. These are often owned by people new to motorcycle servicing, so check chain and sprocket condition, ask for valve clearance documentation at the correct interval, and check tire date codes rather than tread depth on a low mileage example. A high mileage commuter with records is usually a better bike than a garage queen with old rubber and stale fuel. If an aftermarket exhaust is fitted, ask what was done about fuelling. The Rebel 500 has led its category for six straight years, and owner reporting explains why without much romance: it is cheap, it is easy, and it does not intimidate anyone. The complaints are equally consistent, and what stands out is that almost all of them are comfort complaints rather than reliability complaints, and most are answered with a seat and a pair of shocks. Buyers who understand that this bike's limits are measured in hours in the saddle rather than in horsepower tend to be the ones who keep it. Where the Gear Budget Goes First The Rebel is most people's first bike, which means the gear question arrives at the same time as the bike question and usually with money already spent. The order most experienced riders recommend is gloves, then helmet, then jacket, on the basis that hands make contact first and gloves cost the least. Legendary USA's guide to buying a first leather jacket makes the same argument and is worth reading before the jacket money is committed. Cover photo: "Honda CMX500 Rebel parked at Hogs for Hospice, Leamington, Ontario, 2025-08-02" by Chris Woodrich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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 There is no women's cut vest with built in gun pockets in this catalog, so the honest recommendation is the Legendary Peacekeeper Vintage Leather Gun-Pocket Vest at $184.99 in the smallest size that fits your shoulders, or Fox Creek if you want a women's pattern with the pockets already in it. Anyone who tells you there is a deep bench of women's carry vests is selling something. This is a harder question than the men's version for one specific reason. Carry vests are almost all drafted on men's patterns, and the four things that change on a women's pattern are exactly the four things that decide whether a vest conceals cleanly: shoulder width, armhole height, torso length and bust darting. A vest that hangs off the shoulder gaps at the front. A vest that gaps at the front prints. So the fit problem and the carry problem are the same problem, which is why sizing down out of a men's rack works for some women and not at all for others. Before Anything Else Carry law is state law, and it changes at the county line in some places and at the state line in all of them. Reciprocity, permit requirements and where you may carry on a bike are yours to confirm before you buy anything in this post. Nothing here is legal advice and none of it substitutes for reading your own statutes. Second, a gun pocket is a pocket. It is not a holster, it has no retention, and it does not cover a trigger guard. If you carry in one, carry in a holster inside it. That is not a product criticism, it is what these pockets are: a lined, reinforced space in the right place, sized for the job. How I Ranked These Pocket placement and pocket construction first, then how the vest closes, then how well the pattern suits a woman's frame, then price. A vest that conceals well but rides up over the shoulders every time you reach for the bars is not a carry vest, it is a costume. The numbers are editorial ratings from wearing and inspecting these, not measurements. We do not run lab tests of any kind, and no score here says anything about crash performance. Every leather piece below is unarmored, uncertified and offers no impact protection. Prices verified August 2026. 1. Legendary Peacekeeper Vintage Leather Gun-Pocket Vest, Best Pockets If the Shoulders Fit The Peacekeeper at $184.99 is the vest most women who carry on a bike end up in, and it is the one I would try first. The gun pockets are properly built rather than tacked on, the vintaged finish hides wear, and the price sits below the heavier vests in the line. It is a men's pattern, which is the caveat that matters: order by the shoulder measurement rather than by chest, and expect the body to run longer than a women's cut. If the shoulder seam lands on your shoulder, everything else about this vest works. If it does not, no size in the run will fix it and you should read on. Price: $184.99 Score: 8.5 out of 10 Best for: women whose shoulders sit inside a men's size run and who want real pockets 2. Fox Creek Women's Concealed Carry Vest, Best Actual Women's Pattern Fox Creek is a small American maker that does the thing the rest of the market skips: it drafts women's carry vests on women's patterns, with the pockets built into a body that is shaped for a woman's frame rather than added to a men's shell. That means the front closes flat over a firearm instead of pulling, which is the entire game in concealment. We do not sell Fox Creek and there is no link here. It costs more than the Peacekeeper, the styling is plainer than the club cuts riders often want, and you are ordering from a smaller operation with the lead times that implies. If the men's fit does not work on you, this is the answer and I would rather send you there than sell you the wrong vest. Price: not sold by us, generally above the Peacekeeper Score: 8.3 out of 10 Best for: anyone who has tried men's vests and found the front will not sit flat 3. Mae Women's Zippered Leather Motorcycle Vest, Best Women's Cut to Carry Under If you carry on the body rather than in the vest, which plenty of riders prefer for retention reasons, the vest stops being a holster and starts being a cover garment. That changes what you want from it. The Mae Women's Zippered Leather Motorcycle Vest from $119.99 is cut on a women's pattern and closes with a zip, so the front panel holds a straight line over a belt rig instead of gapping between snaps at speed. There are no gun pockets in it and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What it does is conceal a holster cleanly and fit properly, which two of the vests on this list cannot both claim. Price: from $119.99 Score: 8.1 out of 10 Best for: on body carry, riders who want the correct pattern more than built in pockets 4. Legendary Peacemaker Leather Vest, Best Built of the Gun-Pocket Vests The Peacemaker at $210 is the step up from the Peacekeeper: same idea, better hardware, with buffalo nickel snaps that hold their finish and feel like they will outlive the leather. The heavier build is a genuine advantage for carry, because a stiffer front panel drapes over a firearm instead of following its outline. It is also a men's pattern with all the same caveats, and it is $25 more. Between the two, buy the Peacekeeper if you want the lower price and the aged look, and the Peacemaker if you intend to wear this thing for the next decade. Price: $210 Score: 7.9 out of 10 Best for: riders who want the heaviest build and the best hardware in a pocket vest 5. Bessie Women's Gray Leather Motorcycle Vest, Best Low Profile Option Grey leather does something black does not: it breaks up the shadow line that makes printing obvious. The Bessie Women's Gray Leather Motorcycle Vest from $119.99 is a plain women's cut vest in exactly that colour, and it is the least conspicuous piece on this list by a distance. No gun pockets here either, so this is another cover garment rather than a carry system. It also does not read as motorcycle gear from thirty feet, which some riders want and others hate. Judge it on fit and on how it sits over whatever you actually carry. Price: from $119.99 Score: 7.6 out of 10 Best for: discreet carry, riders who do not want the vest to announce itself How to Judge a Carry Vest Work through this before you order anything, whether it comes from the women's vest range or from the men's gun-pocket vests. Confirm your own state law first, including how it treats carry on a motorcycle and where you may and may not go armed. Check which side the pocket is on and whether the vest offers both. Ordering a vest you cannot draw from is a common and expensive mistake. Use a holster inside the pocket. Trigger coverage and retention are not features of a pocket. Judge the shoulder seam before anything else. If it hangs past your shoulder, the front will gap and the vest will print. Sit on a bike in it. Concealment that works standing in a mirror often fails in a riding posture. Prefer a zip or closely spaced snaps. Wide snap spacing lets the panel lift at speed and open a window. Heavier leather conceals better than thin leather, because it drapes rather than clinging. Remember the vest is unarmored leather. It carries no CE rating and offers no crash protection, whatever is in the pocket. Common Questions What women's concealed carry motorcycle vest do you recommend? The Legendary Peacekeeper at $184.99 if a men's cut fits your shoulders, and a Fox Creek women's carry vest if it does not. That is the whole honest answer, and it is short because the category is small. We do not sell Fox Creek, and I would rather name them than pretend a men's vest fits everyone. Are there women's cut vests with built in gun pockets? They exist, but they are rare, and we do not currently carry one. Most vests marketed to women are cover garments without pockets, and most vests with pockets are drafted on men's patterns. If a built in pocket on a women's pattern is your requirement, you are shopping outside this catalog and that is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on it. Can I just size down a men's carry vest? Sometimes, and the shoulder seam decides it. Sizing down narrows the chest and shortens the body but does nothing about armhole height or bust darting, so the front may still refuse to close flat. Order by shoulder measurement, try it on over what you carry, and return it without sentiment if the panel lifts. Where I'd Put the Money Start with the Legendary Peacekeeper at $184.99. It has the pockets, it costs less than the alternatives, and for a lot of women the men's cut is close enough once it is ordered on the shoulder measurement. The Legendary Peacemaker at $210 is the runner up if you want heavier leather and better snaps, and the extra weight genuinely helps concealment. If neither fits, stop trying to force it. Buy a Fox Creek on a women's pattern, or carry on the body under a properly cut vest like the Mae from $119.99. The rest of the men's gun-pocket vests are worth a look too, but every one of them has the same pattern caveat, and a vest that does not sit right will not conceal right no matter how good the pocket is.

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 Ask around a parking lot full of Milwaukee iron and the jacket that gets named most often by people who have been riding thirty years is a heavy American horsehide, and the one I would put first is the BECK 777 Northeaster at from $815. BECK is Northeaster Flying Togs, a separate American maker founded in 1928 that Legendary USA carries as an authorized dealer, and the whole line is cut from 1.3mm front-quarter horsehide. It is the traditional silhouette, in the hide that outlasts the bike, from a shop with almost a century of doing only this. Here is the part the search results leave out. Ask ten Harley riders and four of them will tell you they wear a vest most of the year and only pull a jacket out when it drops below sixty. That is a real answer, not a dodge, and it is why a vest appears on this list. The other thing worth saying up front: none of the leather here is armored or CE certified. Heavy leather resists a slide. It does nothing for impact, and anyone who tells you their jacket will protect them in a crash is selling something. How I Ranked Them I gave the most weight to what long-term owners say after five, ten and twenty years, because that is the only question that separates a good cruiser jacket from a photogenic one. After that: hide and weight, how it is assembled, and how it behaves at highway speed on a bike with no fairing, which is a different problem than it is on a sportbike behind a screen. Scores here are our editorial opinion, formed by wearing this gear and by taking the construction apart with our eyes. They are not lab results. We run no abrasion testing, we certify nothing, and no number below should be read as a claim about what happens to you if you go down. Prices verified August 2026. 1. BECK 777 Northeaster Horsehide Jacket, The One Long-Timers Name The BECK 777 is the traditional cut in 1.3mm front-quarter horsehide, from $815, in chestnut brown or black. What makes it the answer for cruiser riders is coverage and weight. Sitting upright at 70mph with nothing in front of you, wind is the thing you fight all day, and a heavy hide with a proper collar cuts it in a way a light fashion jacket does not. It arrives stiff. Everyone says so. Ride it for a month and it takes the shape of your shoulders and stays there for the next twenty years. Unarmored and uncertified like the rest of this list. Price: from $815 Score: 9.0 out of 10 Best for: upright cruiser riding in wind and cold, bought once 2. Vanson Leathers, What Riders Who Have Crashed Recommend We do not sell Vanson and there is no link here to click. It belongs on the list anyway, because the riders who bring it up are usually the ones who have already been down once. Vanson has built competition-weight leather in Massachusetts for decades, they build to order rather than to a size run, and their jackets can be specified with pockets for CE armor at the shoulders, elbows and back. That last part is the genuine advantage over everything else in this roundup, all of which is abrasion clothing and nothing more. The tradeoffs are a lead time you have to plan around and a cut that runs tighter than a lot of cruiser riders expect. Price: sold direct by Vanson, we do not carry it Score: 8.9 out of 10 Best for: riders who want heavy leather that also takes armor 3. Legendary Men's Leather Club Vest, What Actually Gets Worn Be honest about how cruiser riders dress most of the year and the Legendary Men's Leather Club Vest at $179.99 earns a place on a jacket list. Between May and September, a lot of riders put a vest over a shirt and leave the jacket on the hook, and no amount of gear advice changes that. The side lacing lets you adjust it as your build changes, it takes patches, and it is the least expensive piece here by a wide margin. It covers your torso and nothing else, which is exactly what it claims to do. Do not confuse it with protection. Price: $179.99 Score: 8.6 out of 10 Best for: summer riding, patches, and the way most cruiser riders actually dress 4. Legendary Black Hills Leather Jacket, Best Mid-Price Cruiser Jacket The Legendary Black Hills starts at $675 and it is the jacket I recommend when someone wants American-cut leather but the BECK number makes them wince. It is a Legendary house jacket rather than a BECK, and it is not front-quarter horsehide, which I would rather state plainly than let you find out. What it does is give you a full-weight leather jacket at a price where you will wear it in October drizzle instead of protecting the investment. A jacket that stays in the closet protects nothing. Price: from $675 Score: 8.4 out of 10 Best for: real leather at the price most riders actually spend 5. Legendary Hellcat G-1 Leather Flight Jacket, Best Cold Weather Alternative Not every cruiser rider wants a motorcycle jacket silhouette, and the Hellcat G-1 at $605 is the one that gets pulled off the hook once the mornings turn. It is a G-1 pattern flight jacket with side entry pockets, which is a friendlier shape for riders who find the classic motorcycle cut too aggressive off the bike. It is shorter in the body than the BECK jackets, so check how it sits when you lean to the bars. Same disclosure as everything else here: leather only, no armor, no certification. Price: $605 Score: 8.1 out of 10 Best for: cold mornings and riders who want a jacket that works off the bike Before You Take Anyone's Recommendation Two names come up constantly and both deserve a straight answer. Schott made the jacket that defined the look, and the Perfecto is a genuine piece of American history, but it is a fashion benchmark now more than a riders' benchmark. Harley's own branded jackets cover a huge range, from serious to merchandise, so judge the individual jacket rather than the badge on it. Then run this checklist. Ask how many seasons the person recommending it has actually owned theirs. A two week review is not a recommendation. Ask for hide and thickness. Front-quarter horsehide at 1.3mm is a different product than 0.7mm lambskin, whatever the marketing says. Sit on your own bike wearing it. Upright cruiser posture wants length in the back and a collar that closes at speed. Decide about armor separately. If you want impact protection, buy a jacket with armor pockets or wear a CE-rated armored layer under the leather. If you want patches, look at a vest first. The American-made vest range is what most riders end up wearing between May and September anyway. Common Questions What leather jacket do Harley Davidson riders recommend? Most long-time cruiser riders name a heavy American horsehide jacket, and the BECK 777 at from $815 is the version of that answer we would stand behind. Riders who have crashed tend to name Vanson instead, because it can be ordered with armor pockets. Riders who ride mostly in summer will tell you they wear a vest, which is also true. Do I need a Harley branded jacket for a Harley? No, and nothing about the bike requires it. The branded jackets range from good to merchandise, so evaluate the specific one in front of you: hide, thickness, where it was made, how the seams are finished. Badge loyalty is not a construction spec. Leather jacket or leather vest for cruiser riding? Buy the jacket if you ride in cold, wind or at highway speed, and the vest if your riding is mostly warm-weather and social. Plenty of riders own both and pick by the thermometer. Neither one is armored, so neither one is protection in an impact. The Answer You Will Hear at a Bike Night Buy the BECK 777 Northeaster at from $815 if you want the jacket that riders with real mileage keep naming. The runner-up is the Legendary Black Hills at from $675, which gets you into full-weight American leather for a good deal less, and Vanson if armor pockets are the thing you cannot compromise on. And be realistic about the vest. If most of your miles happen in July, the leather club vest at $179.99 will get worn ten times as often as an $815 jacket, which makes it the better first purchase for a lot of riders. Buy the jacket when the weather makes you want it.

Six model years of the same four motorcycles are now sitting on the used market, and they are not equally good buys. Some years are mechanically identical to their neighbours and priced as though they are not. Others are the first year of a ground-up redesign, which is a different kind of purchase entirely. This post sorts them. 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 Street Glide: 2024 is the value year, with one caveat The 2024 Street Glide launched at $25,999 against $27,999 for the 2023 Special and $27,749 for the 2025. For less money it carried the Milwaukee-Eight 117 at 1,923cc, 130 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm and 105 hp, in place of the 114's 1,868cc and 118 lb-ft. Weight fell from 827 lb to 811 lb, a 12.3 inch TFT running Skyline OS arrived, four ride modes arrived, rear travel went to three inches, and Harley claimed a 60 percent average reduction in helmet buffeting. The caveat is Harley's own framing. The company called this the most comprehensive product development in the touring platform in well over 10 years, which is another way of saying a 2024 is the first year of everything. A cheaper, stronger, lighter motorcycle and a first-year platform are the same bike here. Street Glide: 2020 to 2023 if you want the settled version The outgoing generation ran $27,699 in 2020, $27,099 in 2021, $27,449 in 2022 and $27,999 in 2023, all base Vivid Black excluding freight. Underneath: Milwaukee-Eight 114 at 1,868cc, 118 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm, 827 lb in running order, 26.1 inches laden and 27.2 unladen. Harley's published 2020 torque figure was different, roughly 122 to 123 lb-ft at about 3,000 rpm, because the published measurement changed for 2021 rather than the engine. Read the model designation rather than the photographs. Through 2023 the Street Glide and the Street Glide Special were separate SKUs at different prices, and most of the desirable used stock is Special. 2023 adds a second wrinkle: it was Harley's 120th anniversary year, with seven limited editions carrying published build counts including 1,600 Street Glide Specials, so a 2023 listing may be one of those and priced accordingly. The fault patterns on this generation are well documented by the people who own them, and we are not going to repeat them here. Our synthesis of owner reports on the 2020 to 2023 Street Glide 114 covers what to ask about and roughly what the fixes cost. The arrival of a cheaper, better-equipped 2024 is the reason these are now affordable, which is a reason to shop them, not a reason to avoid them. Scout: the 1133 or the SpeedPlus 1250 From 2020 through 2024 the Scout ran a 1,133cc liquid-cooled 60 degree V-twin at 100 hp at 8,100 rpm and 72 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm, with a 25.6 inch seat. The Bobber held $10,999 in 2020 and 2021, reached $12,249 by 2023, and stayed there for 2024. We publish no weight for these years because the available figures, 552 lb wet and 533 lb dry, cannot be reconciled. The most actionable fact here is that 2024 was a colors-only year on the outgoing platform, so a 2024 is a 2023 in different paint and a premium for the newer title buys exactly that. 2021 is the deepest pool, since Indian's global volume passed 30,000 that year and did not again through 2025. 2023 is the widest, at seven SKUs sharing one engine. The 2025 is a different motorcycle: new steel-tube frame, new engine, 11 percent more power and 14 percent more torque than the 1133. The SpeedPlus 1250 makes 105 hp and 82 lb-ft, both at 6,300 rpm, and the Bobber weighs 522 lb as shipped at $12,999. It is the better machine on paper and it is also a first-year bike. Our Scout owner report synthesis covers the complaints that follow this platform, including reports on very early 2025 examples. BMW: the superseded generation is the point The R 1250 GS held $17,995 with the Adventure at $20,345 from 2021 through 2023, running the 1,254cc ShiftCam boxer at 136 hp and 105 lb-ft at 6,250 rpm, a 33.5 inch standard seat and 549 lb. That torque figure carries a note: BMW's global release says 6,250 rpm and BMW USA says 6,500, so quote the lower one and say why. The R 1300 GS replaced it for 2024 at $18,895: 1,300cc, 145 hp, 110 lb-ft at 6,500 rpm, 523 lb. What changed underneath is substantial. A new sheet-metal main frame with a die-cast aluminium rear section, the gearbox relocated below the engine, EVO Telelever at the front and a revised EVO Paralever at the rear, a new Enduro mode, and 26 lb less weight despite more displacement and nine more horsepower. For a used buyer the 1250 is interesting precisely because it was superseded. BMW published GS and GS Adventure figures of over 60,000 combined for 2021, almost 60,000 for 2022 and about 56,000 for 2023, which is a lot of the same motorcycle in circulation. Our R 1300 GS owner report synthesis covers the electronics teething and the seat height disagreements that shaped the newer bike's first year. Rebel 500: the model year barely matters, except for one trim This is the simplest case in the series. The 471cc parallel twin, the 27.2 inch seat and the 408 lb figure, 414 with ABS, are unchanged from 2020 through 2025, and the only change was a revised seat and handlebar position for 2025. Base prices ran $6,199 to $6,499. The one thing that does matter is trim. ABS was optional through 2025 and Honda dropped the non-ABS bike entirely for 2026, making ABS standard at $6,799. On the used market that means checking which configuration a given bike actually is, because the model year will not tell you and the listing photograph will not either. The years to approach carefully The three first-year bikes are the 2024 Street Glide, the 2024 R 1300 GS and the 2025 Scout. All three are the most capable versions of their platforms and all three carry the risk profile that comes with a launch year. The 2024 Scout is the mirror image: an outgoing platform in its final season, which is a reason to pay less rather than more. What this means for a buyer today If you want the most motorcycle per dollar, the 2024 Street Glide is the standout of the six years and you should read the owner reporting on the redesign before you commit. If you want the fewest unknowns, the 2021 to 2023 Street Glide Special, the 2021 to 2023 Scout and the R 1250 GS are the settled, high-volume, widely documented options. Two rules apply to all of them. Buy the specific bike rather than the model year, because within these platforms the years are often mechanically identical and priced as though they are not. And on any bike with an option list, confirm the configuration in writing before you travel, because seat, suspension and ABS decisions do not appear in the model name. A gear note on buying used gloves with a used bike Buying a used motorcycle tends to lead to buying used gear, and leather is the item where that logic breaks down. Leather stretches to the hand that wore it, so a secondhand glove arrives already shaped for somebody else, and a new one feels wrong for a while by design. Legendary USA's note on how leather gloves stretch and break in is a clear explanation of what that process actually involves, which is useful whether or not you buy from them. The pattern across these six years is consistent. Best value sits a year before or a year after a redesign, almost never on the redesign itself, unless the manufacturer cut the price. That happened exactly once. Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Museum May 2024 06 (The AMF Years--1981 Nova Touring non-functional prototype--OHV V-Four)" by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nobody at MotoGearRater rode a Street Glide for this article. What follows is a synthesis of recurring owner reporting, gathered from dedicated Street Glide forums, ownership threads on general motorcycle boards and owner review sections at established outlets, with every hard number taken from published specifications. It covers one machine: the Milwaukee-Eight 114 Street Glide sold from 2020 through 2023, the generation Harley replaced in 2024, and the generation now filling the used market. 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 What the 2020 to 2023 Street Glide is One detail matters before you read a single used listing. Through model year 2023, the Street Glide and the Street Glide Special were separate SKUs, and the Special was the better equipped of the two. For MY2024 Harley collapsed both into one Street Glide. A listing headed "2022 Street Glide" and one headed "2022 Street Glide Special" are therefore not the same motorcycle, and the price gap is real. Most of the owner reporting below is about the Special. The Special ran the Milwaukee-Eight 114, 1,868cc, rated at 118 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm from 2021 onward. Harley's published figure for MY2020 was roughly 122 to 123 lb-ft at around 3,000 rpm on the same engine; the engine did not get weaker, the published measurement changed. Seat height was 26.1 inches laden and 27.2 unladen, weight in running order was 827 lb every year, and base MSRP in Vivid Black, excluding freight, ran from $27,099 in 2021 to $27,999 in 2023, with 2020 at $27,699. What owners consistently praise The engine comes first and by a wide margin. Owners who moved to the 114 from a Twin Cam or a 107 describe the torque increase as the change that justified the money, and the praise is specific: roll-on in top gear without downshifting, easy two-up passing, and less of the vibration older owners remember. Long-tenured forum members treat the 114 as the point at which the touring chassis finally had enough motor under it. The second theme is around-town manageability. This is an 827 lb motorcycle, yet owners describe the batwing bike as the easier of the two big Harley touring shapes to place in traffic, because the fairing turns with the bars rather than sitting on the frame. Riders with both shapes in the same garage repeatedly pick the Street Glide for town work. Third, these hold up: the pattern across the forums is high-mileage owners describing routine maintenance rather than catastrophic failure. Owners also treat the aftermarket as an advantage rather than a consolation, since almost every complaint below has several documented fixes others have already installed and reported on. What owners consistently complain about The rear suspension is the loudest and most consistent complaint attached to these bikes, and it is not close. Owner after owner describes the factory rear shocks as harsh over broken pavement, worse with a passenger, and not meaningfully improved by adjusting preload. Many report that replacing them was the first modification they made, ahead of the exhaust. A recurring sub-theme is that passengers feel it worst, with complaints about jolts going straight to the pillion's neck over potholes turning up again and again. Owners disagree about which replacement is best, splitting between emulsion and separated gas-and-oil designs and between 12 and 13 inch lengths, and a few report that an expensive aftermarket set was no better than stock. There is very little disagreement that the factory unit is the weak link. Helmet buffeting is second, and it is well documented because the affected owners are specific. Riders report head shake and blurred vision at highway speed, headaches inside the first hour, and passengers taking a worse beating than on other bikes they own. It affects short and tall riders both, which is why the fixes vary so much: recut windshields at several heights, triple tree deflectors, fork deflectors and fairing lowers all appear. The catch is that the parts that cut buffeting most also route more engine heat onto the rider, so the fix is a trade. Owners in hot states describe removing the deflectors they fitted the previous winter. Engine heat is third, and it is the most contested item on the list. Owners in hot climates report the rear cylinder cooking the right leg in stop-and-go traffic. Harley's answer, the parked-idle cylinder deactivation system, is widely disliked: owners describe surging, stumbling and stalling from a standstill with it enabled, and many report switching it off permanently and living with the heat. Others counter that it helps when genuinely stationary for several minutes and that the temperatures they log are normal for an air-cooled twin. The honest reading is that this is a hot motorcycle in traffic, that the factory mitigation annoys a lot of people, and that oil coolers move the number less than the people selling them suggest. Fourth, the stock seat. The pattern is close to uniform: fine for a few hours, punishing beyond that. The forums are full of owners who replaced it, had it re-foamed or added a gel insert, and several wish they had done it at delivery rather than at 20,000 miles. Fifth, the Boom Box GTS infotainment. Owners complain that navigation is clumsy, that map and traffic updates became a paid subscription, and that Apple CarPlay requires Harley's own interface module and headset rather than the gear an owner already has. Android Auto is absent. A number of owners have swapped in an aftermarket automotive head unit, which tells you how they rate the factory version, though it costs them the factory information screen. How it compares to the bike that replaced it For MY2024 Harley replaced this bike outright. The Milwaukee-Eight 117 arrived as standard at 1,923cc and 130 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm with 105 hp, weight fell from 827 lb to 811 lb, a 12.3-inch TFT running Skyline OS replaced the Boom Box, four ride modes arrived, rear travel went up to three inches, and Harley claimed a 60 percent average reduction in helmet buffeting. Base MSRP dropped to $25,999, around $2,000 under the outgoing Special. On paper, that answers the top three owner complaints above. The used-market consequence was immediate, and owners said so loudly at the time: trade-in values on 2020 to 2023 bikes fell hard the moment a cheaper, more powerful, better-equipped replacement appeared. Used buyers describe that same event as the reason the 114 became affordable. The counterargument from owners who kept theirs deserves weight. Nothing from the older bike transfers to the 2024, so an owner with a settled seat, bars, exhaust and shocks starts over. Several report that once they fixed the shocks and the seat and sorted the windshield, they preferred what they had to a stock 2024. The redesign is not a clean sweep, and it does not make the 114 a bike to avoid. It makes it a bike whose known faults have known prices. What to check on a used one Read the model designation rather than the photos and confirm whether the bike is a Street Glide or a Street Glide Special, because through 2023 those were different motorcycles at different prices. Ask what has been done to the rear suspension: a bike already wearing quality aftermarket shocks has the most common complaint solved on the seller's money. Ask about the seat too, since a re-foamed or aftermarket saddle is worth real money. Ask about the primary drive compensator. Owners who lost one describe it going with no warning, and those failures cluster on hard-launched and heavily modified bikes, so ask about stage kits and how the bike was ridden. Run the VIN through Harley's recall lookup: a software recall covering 2020 to 2022 Touring models addressed brake lamps remaining illuminated, and there is no reason to assume a used bike had it done. Finally, sit on it. The 26.1 inch laden seat height flatters these at a standstill and tells you nothing about managing 827 lb in a parking lot. A gear note on the hands The two complaints most likely to shape a long day on one of these, heat in traffic and buffeting on the highway, both land on the hands before anywhere else. Owners who ride in real summer conditions generally stop hunting for one glove that covers every situation and settle on a ventilated pair for hot traffic alongside a heavier pair for cold mornings. Legendary USA still cuts gloves in the United States if that is the direction you go, and their US-made glove range is a shorter list than the industry once offered. The short version The 2020 to 2023 Street Glide is a well-liked motorcycle with a small number of very specific faults, all of them documented and priced by owners. The rear shocks are the real one. Buffeting and heat are negotiable. The infotainment is dated and will stay dated. The 2024 redesign is better on the exact points owners complained about, and its arrival is the reason these are now worth a look. For the sales context behind the nameplate, our post on Harley's best seller of 2022 covers it. Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Street Glide parked at Hogs for Hospice, Leamington, Ontario, 2025-08-02 04" by Chris Woodrich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nobody at MotoGearRater rode a Road Glide for this article. What follows is a synthesis of owner reporting: themes that recur across Harley owner communities, model-specific rider forums, and ownership threads on general motorcycle boards. Where the owner record is thin, or where owners flatly disagree, we say so rather than smoothing it over. 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 What the Road Glide is The Road Glide is Harley-Davidson's frame-mounted-fairing bagger: shark-nose fairing, hard saddlebags, audio, and a large air-cooled V-twin, on the same touring chassis as the Street Glide. The fairing mount is the whole difference between the two, and it is the single thing owners argue about most. For model year 2024 Harley redesigned both bikes together, in the company's own words the most comprehensive product development in the touring platform in well over 10 years. The Milwaukee-Eight 117 became standard, with a 12.3-inch TFT display running Skyline OS, four ride modes, rear suspension travel up to 3 inches, and a Harley claim of a 60 percent average reduction in helmet buffeting. That split matters when reading owner threads, because owners discussing the Road Glide are often describing two different motorcycles. One caution about the sales talk around this bike. Harley publishes no model-level unit numbers, so any claim about how many Road Glides sell, or about whether the Street Glide outsells it, is consensus rather than measurement. What Harley does publish is family-level: Grand American Touring shipments were 85,757 in 2024 and 69,252 in 2025. For how the touring platform sat in 2024, see our look at Harley's best seller of 2024. What owners consistently praise Crosswind composure is the headline and the most repeated point in the owner record. Owners who ride open interstate, coastal routes, or two-lane roads with oncoming trucks report that the frame-mounted fairing keeps gusts out of the steering, while the fork-mounted batwing transmits them into the bars. Owners who have run both bikes make the point most specifically, and riders in windy regions cite it as the reason they will not go back. Steering effort follows from the same design. With the fairing weight off the forks, owners describe the front end as lighter and the bike as easier to move around a parking lot. There is a flip side owners raise honestly: some report the bars feel almost too light at first, wanting to fall left or right at walking pace, and describe a settling-in period of a few hundred miles. Cockpit space comes up repeatedly. Owners report the dash sits lower and further forward than the Street Glide's, and riders who found the batwing cockpit crowded prefer it. It is not universal. Owners with aging eyes report the opposite, and a recurring counter-complaint is that the touchscreen sits deep enough in the fairing to be awkward to reach. What owners consistently complain about Updraft is the defining Road Glide complaint, and it is a different problem from the Street Glide's. Rather than wind hitting the chest, owners report air coming up from below and around the fairing and striking them in the face and helmet. Riders with beards report it worst. The fixes owners try, usually in sequence, are a taller windshield, aiming the fairing vent as high as it will go, fitting fork deflectors or lower fairings, and in some cases removing material from the vent housing so it will point higher still. Owners regularly report buying two or three windshields before finding one that works. Harley claims a 60 percent average reduction in helmet buffeting for the redesigned bike, and owner reports on whether that holds up are mixed. Updraft complaints continue on 2024 and later machines. The seat is second, and as a replace-on-day-one item it is close to unanimous. Owners report the stock saddle being tolerable for an hour or two and punishing after that. What owners do not agree on is the replacement. Threads run very long, with owners reporting buying two and three seats, several brands needing a thousand miles or more before they soften, and the same seat drawing opposite verdicts from riders of different builds. Budget for more than one attempt, and note that a thicker seat raises the rider, which reopens the windshield question. Batteries and early electrical faults on 2024 and later bikes are the most concerning recent pattern. Owners report new machines with batteries going flat repeatedly, bikes trailered back to the dealer within weeks of delivery, dealers who had not applied an available software update before handing the bike over, amber fault warnings with no stored codes, and gauges and audio cutting out then recovering. The volume is enough to call a pattern rather than bad luck. The counterweight is that owners who pushed through the software update and the first service generally report the bike settling afterwards. Infotainment draws separate complaints on each generation. On the older Boom Box GTS system, owners report Bluetooth audio stopping after a few minutes and the system reverting to FM radio. On the Skyline OS screen, sun glare is a persistent report, with owners resorting to matte film and cut-down anti-glare sheets. Android owners have a specific grievance: there is no factory Android Auto, so they buy third-party adapter boxes, and owners report those boxes running hot in the fairing cubby and failing. Audio is a complaint fairly specific to this bike. Because the speakers sit in a frame-mounted fairing further from the rider, owners report the stock system is harder to hear at speed than the Street Glide's, and speaker upgrades are a common purchase. Fit is a recurring cost. Owners over roughly six feet report fitting taller bars or risers, extended-reach seats and different foot controls. Cable length runs out before bar height does, so a longer cable kit becomes part of the job, and every change that raises the rider brings the updraft back. Heat is present but it is not the dominant theme here that it is on the batwing bikes, and reports are clearly climate-dependent. Owners treat the factory idle temperature management system as a partial measure rather than a cure. Isolated reports of near-new bikes failing badly, and scattered lifter noise on heavily modified engines, belong in the outlier column. Who it suits and who it does not It suits a rider whose miles are mostly highway, especially in open or windy country, who wants weather protection, hard bags and audio as standard equipment, and who has a budget beyond the purchase price for a windshield and a seat. Riders who found the batwing cockpit crowded tend to end up here. It suits less well the rider who expects the bike to be right as delivered, or who wants the headlight to follow the steering on dark rural roads, because a frame-mounted fairing aims the light where the bike is pointed rather than where the bars are. Owners also report the fairing blocks the view of the ground immediately ahead, which matters in tight spaces. What to check on a used one Establish the generation first. A 2023 Road Glide Special and a 2024 Road Glide are different motorcycles, and an ST is different again. On 2024 and later bikes, boot the display, pair a phone, and confirm the software updates have been applied, because owners report dealers delivering bikes without them. Ask whether the battery has been replaced, whether the bike lives on a tender, and whether the seller has seen amber fault warnings. Then check what is already fitted. A windshield that works, a replacement seat, deflectors or lowers, and better speakers are all money you do not have to spend. If the exhaust or intake has been changed, ask whether the ECM was retuned, because owners flag untuned modifications as a driveability problem rather than a gain. Look at belt condition and tire dates on bikes that have sat, check fasteners and exhaust for corrosion, and run the VIN for recalls. A gear note on the hands One practical observation from the owner record that does not get much attention. Riders comparing the two fairings note that the batwing puts the hands and wrists in its shadow, while the frame-mounted shark nose leaves them further out in the airstream. That shows up as cold hands earlier in the season and more wind fatigue on long days, and it is part of why Road Glide owners talk about gloves more than Street Glide owners do. The answer most long-distance riders land on is two pairs rather than one: something ventilated for summer, something lined for cold mornings. Legendary USA still cuts deerskin gloves in the States if that is the direction you go. The short version The pattern is consistent. The Road Glide is bought for the fairing mount and kept for the way it behaves in wind, and it is complained about for updraft, the seat, and a run of electrical teething on the redesigned bikes. Owners who solve the wind and the saddle in the first season tend to keep the bike a long time. Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Museum May 2024 20 (1998 FLTRI Road Glide--OHV V-Twin)" by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nobody at MotoGearRater rode a Pan America for this article. This is a synthesis of owner reporting drawn from dedicated Pan America owner communities, adventure riding forums and long-running ownership threads. The bike attracts loud advocacy and loud dismissal, and the aim here is to report what owners describe rather than to settle that argument. 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 What the Pan America is The Pan America 1250 arrived in February 2021 as Harley-Davidson's first adventure bike, built around the liquid-cooled Revolution Max 1250 rather than anything from the cruiser line. It was a real departure for the company, launched into a segment defined by long-established European and Japanese machines. Harley has since widened the family: for 2025 the lineup included the Pan America 1250 ST at $19,999 and a CVO Pan America at $29,249. Harley publishes no model-level unit sales, so nobody outside the company can tell you how many Pan Americas were sold in a given year. What Harley does publish is family-level shipments, and the Adventure Touring numbers are the most useful public signal available: 9,916 in 2021, 10,774 in 2022, then 5,128 in 2023, 4,535 in 2024 and 4,415 in 2025. That is a halving after the second year and a continued slide since, and it is the single fact that complicates both of the popular stories about this motorcycle. For the wider context of the year it launched, see our look at the best sellers of 2021. What owners consistently praise The engine is the most consistent point of praise in the entire owner record, and owners who are otherwise furious with the bike still single it out. Owners describe it as strong, eager and willing to rev in a way they did not expect from the badge, and riders arriving from established adventure bikes commonly report it as the more exciting motor of the two. Adaptive Ride Height, fitted to Special models, is the feature owners cite most often as the reason they chose the bike. It lowers the machine at a stop and raises it once under way, and shorter riders repeatedly report it solving the problem that had kept them off tall adventure bikes entirely. Capability on mixed surfaces draws steady approval. Owners report the suspension coping well with rough ground and loose material, and describe multi-day trips on unpaved routes as within the bike's range. Owners are generally positive about the electronics package and ride modes. The sentiment that recurs most often in owner threads, almost as a stock phrase, is that the bike is excellent when it is running properly. That formulation is doing a great deal of work, and it leads into the next section. What owners consistently complain about Fuel pump failure is the most widely reported specific fault. Owners describe a loud whine or scream at startup that precedes failure, and multiple independent owners report being on their second or third pump. It is usually described as a nuisance rather than an immediate breakdown, with the noise running a long while before anything stops working. Owners believe later machines changed the fuel tank lining and expect the problem to recede from model year 2024, but that is an owner expectation rather than something demonstrated by high mileage. Electrical faults are the broadest complaint and the one owners return to most. The recurring items are weak factory batteries, charging system and stator failures concentrated on the earliest bikes, parasitic drain that some owners and dealers attribute to the hand controls, key fob batteries failing in a way that mimics a dead motorcycle, and transient fault codes that appear and clear without explanation. Owners report limp mode as a repeated experience rather than a one-off. Fitting a lithium battery is close to a standard owner modification. Time off the road is the complaint that does the most damage to ownership. Owners repeatedly describe long stays at the dealer, waits for parts, and dealers escalating to Harley's technical services rather than diagnosing locally. Some report cumulative downtime measured in months and describe losing whole riding seasons. Extended warranty coverage is treated in owner threads not as a nice-to-have but as the thing standing between them and a large bill, and several owners report trading the bike at precisely the point their coverage expired, at values they blame on the model's reputation. The stock seat is a strong and specific complaint. Owners report numbness and pain arriving early, and the thread pattern is owners cycling through aftermarket saddles, covers, cushions and modified seat mounts looking for a fix. It is not unanimous: some owners, particularly taller ones running the seat in its high position, report it being better than what they had on previous adventure bikes. But the weight of reporting is clearly negative, and it is one of the first things owners spend money on. Two smaller items recur often enough to mention. Owners report handlebar vibration and commonly fit weighted bar ends to deal with it, and many report the headlight arriving badly aimed from the dealer. The most important pattern is that model year matters enormously, and owners say so without prompting. The consistent view is that the 2021 and 2022 bikes carried most of the problems, that things improved steadily, and that 2024 and later machines are a different proposition. Owners advising buyers routinely say to buy a later bike, or an early one only with documented major repairs already completed. This is owner consensus, not a manufacturer statement, and should be read that way. One counterweight, stated plainly: owner forums select for problems, and owners with functioning motorcycles post less. In the same threads where owners describe miserable experiences, other owners of the same model year report high mileage with nothing worse than routine servicing. Both are in the record. Who it suits and who it does not It suits a rider who wants a large adventure tourer with a strong engine and a full electronics package for less than the established European alternative costs, who has a dealer nearby that has actually worked on the platform, and who is buying either a later model year or an earlier one with warranty coverage and repair history in hand. It suits shorter riders unusually well because of the ride height system, which has no direct equivalent elsewhere. It suits less well the rider whose use case is long remote travel far from support, because the faults owners report most often are the kind that stop a bike rather than merely annoy its rider. It suits less well riders a long way from a competent dealer. And it is not a light off-road machine: owners are consistent that this is a heavy adventure tourer and that treating it as a dirt bike is a category error. What to check on a used one This is a bike where provenance matters more than mileage, and owners say so directly. High miles with records read better than low miles with none, because a machine that sat unused for a long stretch is a recognised warning sign in Pan America listings. Get the model year and, if you can, the production date, because owners report later production within a given year being better than early. Ask specifically whether the stator or charging system has been replaced, whether the fuel pump has been replaced, and whether the fuel tank is the later lined type. Get shop records rather than verbal assurances. Listen at startup for the pump noise owners describe. Check that the kickstand bracket is the updated design and its fasteners are tight, because owners report the original arrangement working loose. On early bikes, look at how the coolant hose is routed relative to the exhaust, which owners report as a heat damage point later addressed. Confirm the adaptive ride height system raises and lowers as it should on Special models. Ask what battery is fitted and how old it is. Run the VIN for open recalls, noting there have been campaigns on this platform covering a seat and grab handle issue and instrument cluster software in cold conditions. Finally, ask whether any extended service plan is still in force and transfers, because owner reports make that worth real money here. The short version Neither easy story about the Pan America survives contact with the owner record. It is not a triumphant arrival: shipments of the Adventure Touring family halved after 2022 and have slid since, and the early-bike fault list is long enough that owners routinely warn each other off 2021 and 2022 machines. Nor is it a bad motorcycle: the engine and the ride height system draw praise from owners who otherwise have nothing kind to say, and later bikes are reported as a different ownership experience. What the record supports is narrower than either camp wants. This is a capable, distinctive adventure bike that had a rough first two years, improved, and still asks a buyer to care more than usual about model year, service history and which dealer is nearest. The Weather Problem An adventure bike gets ridden in conditions a cruiser gets parked in, and the owners quoted above ride theirs year round. Cold and wet together is the combination that ends days early, and no untreated leather glove solves both on its own. Legendary USA's write-up on riding in cold rain is unusually straight about that, including why a thin liner under a standard glove beats a thicker glove. Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Museum May 2024 29 (2023 Pan America 1250 Special)" by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Quick answer: Under $100 per item, the gear that is actually good in 2026: Alpinestars SMX-1 Air V2 armored gloves at about $90, Legendary USA's Bad Billy goatskin gloves at $99.99, Frogg Toggs rain gear, Saddlemen's $78 made-in-USA backrest pad, and a $75 Fodsports intercom. Helmets and armored jackets are the two categories where under $100 does not work, and we say so. 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 The Rule for Budget Gear Cheap gear is good when the category is simple and bad when the category is life-critical engineering. Gloves, rain shells, pads, and comms can be excellent under $100 because the materials do the work. Helmets and armored jackets cannot, because certification and construction cost real money. Every pick below is under $100; the honest limits section covers what is not. The Picks Armored Gloves: Alpinestars SMX-1 Air V2, about $90. MGR Rating 8.8/10 Full-grain leather palm, hard knuckle armor, real airflow. This is the strongest protection-per-dollar item in motorcycling, and it embarrasses gloves at twice the price. The REV'IT Mangrove 2, also under $100, is the hot-weather alternative with a hard knuckle protector. MGR Rating 8.5/10. Heritage Gloves: Legendary USA Bad Billy Goatskin, $99.99. MGR Rating 8.7/10 USA-made goatskin, a hide tougher than deerskin, sized S to 2XL by knuckle measurement with free exchanges. This is what a budget heritage glove looks like when it is built to last a decade instead of a season. The honest tradeoff: no CE armor, so you are buying abrasion resistance and longevity, not certified impact protection. Summer Gloves: Legendary USA Fingerless Deerskin, $72.99. MGR Rating 8.0/10 American Whitetail deerskin palm with a fully perforated back for maximum airflow. Fingerless means exposed fingers, and we will not pretend otherwise; as a hot-weather cruiser glove that beats riding bare-handed, it earns its spot. Rain Gear: Frogg Toggs Rain Suits, mostly under $100. MGR Rating 8.6/10 The open secret of budget riding: Frogg Toggs suits are so cheap and so waterproof that a co-branded version is sold through motorcycle retailers. Keep one under the seat and weather stops dictating your schedule. Backrest Pad: Saddlemen Explorer, $78. MGR Rating 8.6/10 Made in the USA with universal brackets for factory Harley and most 5 inch sissy bars. For two-up riders it is the biggest sub-$100 comfort upgrade available; our passenger gear guide goes deeper. Intercom: Fodsports M1-S Pro, about $75. MGR Rating 7.9/10 Bluetooth 5.0, IP65 water resistance, FM radio. It will not match a Cardo mesh network, and its multi-rider claims are optimistic, but as a first intercom for rider and passenger it does the essential job for a quarter of the flagship price. Balaclava and Base Layer: under $30 each. MGR Rating 8.4/10 A windproof balaclava and a synthetic wicking base layer are the two highest warmth-per-dollar purchases in riding. No brand loyalty required; fit and windproofing are the whole spec sheet. Category Pick Price Armor? MGR Rating Armored gloves Alpinestars SMX-1 Air V2 about $90 Yes, hard knuckle 8.8/10 Armored gloves alt REV'IT Mangrove 2 under $100 Yes, hard knuckle 8.5/10 Heritage gloves Legendary USA Bad Billy goatskin $99.99 No, heritage leather 8.7/10 Summer gloves Legendary USA fingerless deerskin $72.99 No, fingerless 8.0/10 Rain gear Frogg Toggs rain suit mostly under $100 Not applicable 8.6/10 Backrest pad Saddlemen Explorer $78 Not applicable 8.6/10 Intercom Fodsports M1-S Pro about $75 Not applicable 7.9/10 Balaclava and base layer Any windproof and wicking under $30 each Not applicable 8.4/10 How We Chose Every pick was checked against current published pricing at manufacturer or major US retailer listings in August 2026, and rated on materials, certification where applicable, and durability reputation per dollar. We claim no physical testing, and nobody paid to be here. Honest Limits Two categories cannot be done well under $100. Helmets: the cheapest lid we would put on a head is the HJC i10 at about $160, DOT and Snell certified in the standard sizes; below that price, certification and shell quality thin out fast, and our budget helmet guide explains the tier. Armored jackets: real CE armor in a durable shell starts near $200 with the REV'IT Eclipse 2. Save the money elsewhere on this list and fund those two properly. And twice on this page we recommended unarmored heritage leather; both times, that tradeoff is stated, not hidden. Frequently Asked Questions Is any motorcycle helmet under $100 worth buying? Not by our standard. Certified, well-built helmets start around $160 with the HJC i10. A helmet is the one item where stretching the budget is always the right call. What are the best motorcycle gloves under $100? For certified protection, the Alpinestars SMX-1 Air V2 at about $90. For heritage leather that outlasts everything else at the price, the Legendary USA Bad Billy at $99.99. They solve different problems; pick the problem you have. Is budget motorcycle gear safe? Budget gloves, rain gear, and comfort items can be genuinely good. Budget helmets and budget armor are where corners get cut invisibly. Spend where certification lives, save where it does not. Are fingerless gloves worth buying? As hot-weather cruiser gloves at $72.99, yes, with eyes open: exposed fingers mean less protection than any full glove. They beat bare hands, and that is the honest comparison. Where should riders never cut costs? Helmet first, armored jacket second. Everything else on this list tolerates a budget approach far better than those two. What budget gear is actually as good as the expensive version? Rain gear is the clearest case: a Frogg Toggs suit keeps you as dry as shells costing four times more. Backrest pads and balaclavas are close behind. Related Reading Best Motorcycle Gloves Under $100 That Actually Last Best Budget Motorcycle Helmets Under $200 Best Motorcycle Gear Setup for New Riders 2026 Sources It's Better on the Road: Best Motorcycle Gloves Under $100 It's Better on the Road: Best Budget Motorcycle Helmets Frogg Toggs: Rainwear Bikes and Bays: Best Motorcycle Intercom Systems 2026 Saddlemen: Explorer sissy bar pad Legendary USA: Bad Billy goatskin gloves Legendary USA: Fingerless deerskin gloves Last updated August 6, 2026.

Should you buy the 2026 Indian Challenger or Pursuit? Yes, if you want the strongest engine in American touring and rider-assist tech Harley only matches on its priciest models. The PowerPlus 112's 126 hp leads the class, though weight, a smaller dealer network, and softer resale keep it honest. We rate the pair 8.8 out of 10. 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 MGR Rating: 8.8/10 This combined rating covers the Challenger, Indian's fixed-fairing bagger, and the Pursuit, its full-dress touring version. It is an editorial research verdict built from verified manufacturer data, published road tests, and documented owner feedback. We do not conduct instrumented ride testing. Criterion Score Why Engine and performance 9.5/10 The liquid-cooled PowerPlus 112's 126 hp and 133 lb-ft are the strongest factory numbers in American V-twin touring, ahead of Harley's Milwaukee-Eight 117. Comfort and touring capability 9.0/10 A 26.5 inch seat, power windshield, and huge storage, 18 plus gallons on the Challenger and 36 plus on the Pursuit, make both genuine long-haul tools, at the cost of serious mass. Technology and electronics 9.0/10 SmartLean cornering control, radar-based blind spot and rear collision warnings, and Ride Command with CarPlay lead the price point, though the 7 inch screen now trails Harley's 12.3 inch display. Value for money 8.0/10 $27,999 to $32,499 starting prices undercut comparable CVO Harleys, but options climb fast and discounts vary widely by region. Reliability reputation 8.5/10 The PowerPlus platform has run since 2020 with a mostly clean record; the open questions are dealer coverage and long-term resale rather than mechanical trust. Verified Spec Card: 2026 Indian Challenger and Pursuit Spec Challenger Pursuit Starting MSRP $27,999 (Dark Horse trim $31,999) $32,499 Engine PowerPlus 112, 1,834cc liquid-cooled V-twin PowerPlus 112, 1,834cc liquid-cooled V-twin Power 126 hp 126 hp Torque 133 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm 133 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm Wet weight 855 lb 937 lb Seat height 26.5 inches 26.5 inches Fuel capacity 6.0 gallons 6.0 gallons Storage 18 plus gallons, locking saddlebags 36 plus gallons with trunk Key electronics 7 inch Ride Command with CarPlay, SmartLean six-axis IMU, blind spot and rear collision warning, power windshield, TPMS Same, plus heated two-up seat and 200 watt four-speaker audio Specs verified against Indian Motorcycle's official 2026 specification pages and cross-checked with Motorcycle.com's database. The PowerPlus 112, enlarged from the original 108, is now the standard engine across both lines, with rear cylinder deactivation to manage heat in traffic. Who It Is For, and Who Should Skip It Buy it if: you want maximum American V-twin performance with modern chassis manners, the inverted-fork and radial-brake hardware matters to you, or radar-based safety tech at a sub-CVO price seals the deal. Pick the Challenger for bagger duty, the Pursuit if a trunk and passenger backrest are non-negotiable. Skip it if: resale value and dealer density are your top criteria, where Harley still wins clearly, you want the traditional air-cooled look and sound, or 855 to 937 lb is more motorcycle than your riding actually needs. Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths Class-leading power: 126 hp and 133 lb-ft, delivered with liquid-cooled consistency in summer traffic. Chassis hardware, an aluminum frame, inverted forks, and radial Brembos, that road tests consistently rank ahead of the touring norm. Rider Assist radar features at price points where Harley charges CVO money. Six gallon tank and huge locking storage make both bikes genuine distance tools. Weaknesses Owner-reported heat from the rear cylinder in slow traffic persists despite cylinder deactivation, especially on the fully faired Pursuit. Indian's dealer network is a fraction of Harley's, and owners in rural states report long service waits. Resale values trail equivalent Harleys, which affects total cost of ownership even when the sticker undercuts them. The 7 inch Ride Command screen, once the class leader, now looks small next to Harley's 12.3 inch Skyline OS display, and the Pursuit's 937 lb wet weight is the heaviest figure in this comparison set. Buying Advice The base Challenger at $27,999 is the performance value of American touring; the Dark Horse trim at $31,999 buys finish, not function. The Pursuit's $32,499 start makes sense only if you genuinely tour two-up with a trunk, otherwise the Challenger with accessory racks covers most missions for thousands less. Negotiate: Indian dealers discount more readily than Harley stores. Cross-shop honestly against the Street Glide, which we rate 9.22, and the Road Glide at 9.34; the Harleys win our ratings on ecosystem and resale, while the Indian wins on outright hardware for the dollar. Gear Pairing for the Challenger and Pursuit Riders of big American tourers overlap heavily with the heritage leather crowd, so we asked the gear specialists at Legendary USA, whose American-made leather we have reviewed extensively, what Challenger and Pursuit owners typically run. Their view matches our own testing notes: deerskin gauntlets for cold-morning highway miles and a fleece-lined pair for the shoulder seasons, because touring comfort comes down to hands that still feel the controls at hour six. Their Classic Deerskin Gauntlets are $145, the Fleece-Lined Deerskin Gloves $120, and the Classic Short Wrist Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves, also $120, keep Ride Command usable without bare fingers. For wet-weather insurance, Aerostich's rain gear remains the non-leather pick we recommend alongside. Two-up riders should also see our passenger gear guide and cold-weather layering system. FAQ What is the difference between the Indian Challenger and the Pursuit? The Challenger is the bagger: fixed fairing, saddlebags, 855 lb. The Pursuit adds a trunk with passenger backrest, heated two-up seat, more audio, and lowers, bringing storage past 36 gallons and weight to 937 lb. Same engine, same chassis. Is the Indian Challenger faster than the Harley Street Glide? On paper, yes. The PowerPlus 112's 126 hp and 133 lb-ft beat the Milwaukee-Eight 117's factory figures, and comparison tests consistently give the Indian the straight-line and braking edge. Harley counters with character, ecosystem, and resale. Is the Indian PowerPlus engine reliable? Its record since the 2020 debut is solid, with no widespread pattern failures documented. Liquid cooling keeps thermal stress down, and Indian backs both bikes with a 2 year unlimited-mileage warranty. The longer-term unknown is simply fewer high-mileage examples than Harley's platforms. How much does a 2026 Indian Pursuit cost? The Pursuit line starts at $32,499, with Limited and PowerBand Audio configurations climbing from there. The Challenger starts at $27,999. Does the Challenger handle heat well in traffic? Better than air-cooled rivals, with a caveat. Rear cylinder deactivation cuts heat at idle, but owners still report warm right-leg temperatures in slow summer traffic, more noticeably on the Pursuit with its lowers fitted. Should I buy the Challenger or wait for discounts? Indian dealers discount more aggressively than Harley dealers, particularly at model-year change. If you are flexible on color, late-summer and fall purchases routinely save four figures. Sources Indian Motorcycle, 2026 Challenger Indian Motorcycle, 2026 Challenger Limited 112 specifications Indian Motorcycle, 2026 Pursuit Limited 112 specifications Motorcycle.com, 2026 Indian Challenger 112 Dark Horse specifications Last updated: August 6, 2026

2025 is the year Indian finally replaced the Scout's engine, Harley put $1,750 back on the Street Glide's price without changing the bike, and BMW's taller Adventure variant became the GS that mattered. Honda adjusted a seat and a handlebar and left the price at $6,499. One of those is a genuine reason to reconsider the class. 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 Four Category Leaders, Not Four Rivals Nobody is torn between a Street Glide and a Rebel 500. An 811-pound touring bagger, a low-seat midsize cruiser, a 408-pound beginner twin and a 593-pound adventure bike are four separate answers to the question of what a motorcycle is for, and lining up their spec sheets to crown a winner is close to meaningless. The heaviest here weighs roughly twice what the lightest does. The most expensive costs around four times the cheapest. Neither fact helps you buy anything. The comparison that does help is fit. Each of these bikes leads its category because it does one narrow job well, and the four jobs barely touch. Identify your job and the choice largely resolves itself. On how the four are picked: Harley-Davidson publishes no model-level unit sales, and neither does Polaris for Indian or Honda for the United States. BMW is the only one of the four that reports at model level, and 2025 was the first year it split individual models out. So the Harley, Indian and Honda entries here are consensus picks supported by family-level data and each company's own claims, not by unit counts anybody can check. The BMW entry is the Adventure because 2025 was the first year that variant outsold the base GS. The 2025 Numbers, Side by Side Spec H-D Street Glide Indian Scout Bobber Honda Rebel 500 BMW R 1300 GS Adventure Engine Milwaukee-Eight 117, 1,923cc V-twin, 105 hp SpeedPlus 1250, 1,250cc, 105 hp at 6,300 rpm 471cc liquid-cooled DOHC parallel twin 1,300cc boxer twin, 145 hp at 7,750 rpm Torque 130 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm 82 lb-ft at 6,300 rpm 31.9 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm (see note) 110 lb-ft at 6,500 rpm Seat height 26.1 in laden, 28.1 in unladen 25.6 in 27.2 in 34.3 to 35.0 in as standard, 31.0 to 36.0 in across all seat options Weight 811 lb 522 lb as shipped (see note) 408 lb, 414 lb ABS, 419 lb SE 593 lb MSRP $27,749 $12,999 $6,499, $6,799 ABS, $6,999 SE $22,745 plus $695 destination The caveats here are unusually important. The BMW entry is the R 1300 GS Adventure, which is the taller, heavier and more expensive variant. The base R 1300 GS is a genuinely different proposition at $19,495, and if the Adventure's seat height rules you out, the base bike may not. Indian's 522-pound figure for the new Scout is the company's "as shipped" number, which is neither strictly dry nor fully wet, so treat it as indicative rather than directly comparable. Honda's US arm publishes no Rebel 500 torque figure in any model year, so the 31.9 lb-ft shown is Honda Europe's. Harley's MSRP is base Vivid Black and excludes freight. Who the Street Glide Is Actually For Mechanically this is the 2024 bike. Same Milwaukee-Eight 117 making 130 lb-ft at 3,250 rpm, same 811 pounds, same 26.1-inch laden seat. What changed is the price: $27,749, up $1,750 on the year. A leftover 2024 at $25,999 is the same motorcycle for less money, so ask what a dealer still has on the floor. The bike itself remains a pavement tourer built for long straight distances, usually two-up, usually loaded. Peak torque just above idle means it never asks you to work the gearbox, which is right for a 400-mile interstate day and wrong for anything tight and technical. The laden seat is low enough that inseam is rarely the barrier. Managing 811 pounds at walking pace on a sloping surface is, and that is a skill you either have or need to build first. Buyer profile: an experienced rider covering serious distance with a passenger and luggage, budgeting $27,749 before freight and accessories. Not a first motorcycle. Who the Indian Scout Is Actually For This is the significant change of the year. The Scout got an entirely new SpeedPlus 1250 engine in a new steel-tube frame, making 105 horsepower at 6,300 rpm and 82 lb-ft at 6,300, which Indian puts at 11 percent more power and 14 percent more torque than the 1,133cc engine it replaced. The more useful detail is where the power now sits: the old engine made peak power at 8,100 rpm, the new one at 6,300. It is still a revvy cruiser motor by American standards, but it is easier to use. The seat stays at 25.6 inches, the lowest in this table by a wide margin, and Indian claims it is the lowest in the industry. That is Indian's claim rather than a measured comparison, but the number is real and it is why this bike sells. Weight is 522 pounds on Indian's "as shipped" basis. The wider lineup matters too. The Bobber at $12,999 is the entry to the 1250, the Super Scout at $16,499 and 571 pounds adds a screen and bags for riders planning distance, and the 101 Scout at $16,999 makes 111 horsepower. Below all of it, the SpeedPlus 999cc Scout Sixty family starts at $9,999 with 85 horsepower and 65 lb-ft. Buyer profile: a rider who wants a real cruiser rather than a starter bike, who needs a low seat, and who rides day trips and weekend loops. The Bobber has no fairing and no standard luggage; the Super Scout is the version to look at if distance is the plan. Who the Honda Rebel 500 Is Actually For Honda revised the seat and the handlebar position for 2025 and left everything else alone, including the $6,499 base price. That is an ergonomics update, not a new bike, but if the old riding position felt cramped it is worth sitting on both. At 408 pounds and 27.2 inches, this is still the most physically accessible motorcycle here. The 471cc twin makes modest torque and delivers it in a way that tolerates rough inputs, which is what a new rider actually needs. The ABS version is $6,799 and 414 pounds, and the SE is $6,999 and 419 pounds. If you are buying at the end of the model year, note that for 2026 Honda drops the non-ABS Rebel 500 entirely and makes ABS standard at $6,799, so the $6,499 entry price is on its way out. Buyer profile: a first bike, a commuter, or a light second bike. Rides under 100 miles are a pleasure. With no fairing and no standard luggage, a 300-mile day is possible but not enjoyable. Who the BMW R 1300 GS Adventure Is Actually For Read the seat height row twice. As standard the Adventure sits at 34.3 to 35.0 inches, which is taller than the base GS and taller than most riders can flat-foot. BMW's full range of seat and suspension options spans 31.0 to 36.0 inches, so it can be brought down considerably, but price that before you fall in love. If the Adventure does not fit, the base R 1300 GS at $19,495 is the obvious alternative and was 523 pounds when it arrived for the 2024 model year, well under the Adventure's 593. For riders it does fit, the Adventure is the most capable machine in this comparison by a distance. 145 horsepower, 110 lb-ft, a large tank, serious luggage capacity and suspension travel that tolerates surfaces the other three would rather avoid. It will run an interstate day and then keep going where the pavement stops, which nothing else in this table will do. Buyer profile: a tall, experienced rider covering long distances on mixed surfaces, budgeting $22,745 plus $695 destination and accepting that servicing and consumables cost more than the Japanese alternative. If you ride exclusively on pavement, you are paying for capability you will never use. How to Actually Choose Work through it in this order. First, seat height and weight. These are physical constraints and enthusiasm does not move them. The Adventure at 34.3 inches standard is out for a large share of riders unless you commit to the lower seat options. The Street Glide at 811 pounds is out for anyone uneasy about holding that up at a stop light, regardless of the low seat. That leaves the Scout at 25.6 inches and the Rebel at 27.2 inches as the two that fit the most people. Second, the distance you actually ride. Use your real annual mileage, not the one in your head. Under 100 miles a day: Rebel, or Scout if you want more bike. Regular 300-mile-plus days on pavement, often two-up: the Street Glide. Regular long days on gravel and broken surfaces: the GS Adventure, or the base GS if the tall one does not fit. Third, budget. The spread runs from $6,499 to $27,749 before freight. What the extra money buys is touring capability and equipment, not better engineering. A Rebel 500 is not a lesser motorcycle than a Street Glide, it is a smaller answer to a smaller question, and if that is your question the extra spend buys nothing you will use. Of the four, only Indian gave buyers a substantially new machine this year, and only Harley asked for meaningfully more money. Neither changes the shape of the decision. Your inseam, your annual mileage and your budget decide this, in that order, and every one of these four is the right bike for somebody who is not you. One More Fit Question Seat height and weight decide which of these bikes suits you, and the same measure-first logic applies to what you wear on it. Vests in particular are sized by chest measurement rather than shirt size, and the range runs a lot further than most charts suggest. Legendary USA documents sizing past 2XL, which is the part of the market most size guides quietly skip. Cover photo: "Harley-Davidson Street Glide parked at Hogs for Hospice, Leamington, Ontario, 2025-08-02 04" by Chris Woodrich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.