WebRide: 2010 Harley-Davidson CVO Softail Convertible

A factory custom for Main Street or the open road.

By Steve Natt | Photos by Riles & Nelson

July 2009

Photos: 2010 H-D CVO Softail Convertible >>

At first blush you'd think that of all the product families in the H-D world (Buell included), the costly Custom Vehicle Operations (CVO) bikes would be hardest hit by the economic downturn. But according to H-D reps, while they expect this season's sales figures to be down from those of previous years, they don't expect the CVO line to do any worse, in relative terms, than the rest of the brand's offerings. Perhaps this is because, as CVO P&A head Steve Earnshaw put it at the recent Northern California 2010 CVO press launch, "Our motorcycles are about more than motorcycles." It's easy to argue that if this notion is generally true for "standard" H-D models, it's even more applicable to CVOs. Harley's research says these bikes are "aspirational" and that some customers actively covet them (often for years) before purchasing. So even though there are no more "too-easy-to-get second mortgages" helping to place expensive bikes in overleveraged garages, CVO sales are not expected to fall off any more than those of regular Harleys, meaning they'll keep their 4 percent slice among all Harleys sold.

Left unsaid was the somewhat obvious idea that there won't be many people buying more than one Harley to suit their disparate riding needs. Perhaps that's where the new CVO Softail Convertible could come into play. It's designed to be the one bike you can use for all your Harley lifestyle needs. Here's the scenario: Maybe you want to head to Sturgis or Bike Week or some regional facsimile. A big bagger would the bomb for the long ride in, but on arrival, there you are getting overheated as you slog through event traffic on a heavy tourer. The other side of the coin would be that you could own a cool, low-slung custom bruiser that's perfect for Main Street, but the harsh ride and lack of cargo capacity makes it Queen of the Trailer instead of King of the Road. The 2010 Softail Convertible—with its easily removable touring hardware—is built to "Get there in comfort and strip down to style," according to CVO team manager Jeff Smith.

It's a pretty simple recipe, actually. They chucked the Springer front end that lead the way on the '09 CVO Softail and replaced it with a standard fork. This allowed easy fitment of H-D's readily available quick-release fairing hardware, helping to form the basis of the new bike's convertibility. Killing bugs for you is a svelte new color-matched fairing/smoked windscreen, which strikes a nice balance between style and function. In fact, I found the Softail offered a far quieter pocket of air at 75 mph than the CVO Street Glide, and was about as pleasant as the CVO Ultra Classic (both of which we also got to ride at the press launch). That's pretty commendable wind protection from a 5 pound piece of equipment you can pop off in just a few seconds.

Out back, there are leather saddlebags that also are easily removed. They aren't particularly capacious, so you're gonna want to pack light for that world tour. To complete the transformation to boulevard cruiser, detach the padded backrest and passenger seat. It takes less than two minutes to pile all these parts in the motel room and be off to cause some local commotion—no tools required.

Other sweet details included the partially pried-open "Ventilator" ham-can intake, huge FL-style fenders that give a weighty, vintage look to the bike, and gorgeous new 18" Stinger wheels, coolest part of which is that each of the five spokes flange out all the way to the rim's edge. When our count of all the parts book chrome add-ons reached 50, we stopped counting. Suffice it to say that if you like chrome, you'll like this bike. Techies will love the new "Digispacho," which sounds a lot more like cold soup than a motorcycle part, but is in fact a trick all-in-one digital speedo/analog tach gauge. As with the other CVO models, multiple paint schemes are available, and overall fit and finish quality is phenomenal.

CVO boss Jeff Romanesko is proud of how over the years his team has created all manner of new parts and processes that trickle down into mainline H-D products. "Lately it's been more of a cascade," he told us, "and that's likely to continue." So there is a chance you just might find some of the stuff you need in the fall P&A catalog to transform your plain-Jane Softail into the multi-purpose machine you always wanted. For an over-the-top turnkey alternative, though, it is hard to beat the $27,999 CVO Softail Convertible.

WebRide: 2010 Harley-Davidson CVO Street Glide >>