New Tour-Pak Designs Hint at the Future of Harley-Davidson Limiteds
Long-haul touring models have yet to receive Road Glide and Street Glide updates
Harley-Davidson recently updated its Street Glide and Road Glide models, introducing a number of changes including new fairing designs with integrated lighting. While not every one is a fan of the new batwing or shark nosed fairings, it does seem odd that the new fairings hadn’t yet made their way to the Road Glide Limited and Ultra Limited models.
The future of both models remains in doubt, with rumors that they will be discontinued and replaced with upgrade packages for the Road Glide and Street Glide. This would give customers the option of adding a Tour-Pak combination topcase/passenger backrest and perhaps fairing lowers, while reducing overhead by not having to produce entirely separate new models.
We expect to get some clarity on this situation when the 2025 model year is announced, but we know something is up, thanks to new design filings for an updated Tour-Pak submitted by Harley-Davidson to the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
The new designs are an evolutionary change from the current Tour-Pak, introduced in 2014 as part of Harley-Davidson’s Project Rushmore updates. The most noticeable change is a new hump on the lid that rises up towards the backrest instead of the indent found on the Project Rushmore Tour-Pak design.
We don’t know the exact dimensions of the new Tour-Pak design, so we assumed the distances between the base, the lid opening and the top of the passenger backrest will be similar. Under those assumptions, we overlaid a side view of the new design on the 2024 Road Glide Limited’s Tour-Pak, and can immediately notice some differences.
The lid is proportionally thicker than the current design, especially with the hump, which puts the luggage rack at a steeper angle. The locking mechanism is also further forward, closer to the middle of the right side instead of slightly back as with the current design. The passenger accommodations are also a new shape, including the integrated speakers below the armrests.
The hinges remain on the left side, so the new Tour-Pak design opens the same way. At the back is an integrated rear light, but the illustrations have a thick line coming down from the lid and then turning towards the rear. The thick line suggests the rear is a separate piece, but it’s clear from the shape that it doesn’t open upward with the rest of the lid. This may instead be a secondary door that opens downward to create a wider opening, or just a separate panel for different rear lighting options.
The speakers in the front of the seat are drawn in dashed lines, meaning they aren’t covered in this specific design filing. Nevertheless, there’s enough detail to show that they are not just placeholders but an indication of a new speaker design that doesn’t match what Harley-Davidson currently offers.
Going back to the fate of Harley-Davidson’s full-on touring models, the new designs don’t tell us either way whether the Limiteds are returning as separate models, or if the Tour-Pak will only be an optional add-on to the new Road Glide and Street Glide. What they do tell us, is that the current Limiteds will not be returning with the same look they’ve had the last few model years.
We expect Harley-Davidson to announce its new-for-2025 models in January, with the models returning unchanged coming as early as December. We’ll get a better idea about Harley-Davidson’s plans for its Limited models by then.
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Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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It's all speculation at this point, but for 2024 they updated the Street/Road Glides but didn't update the Ultra Limited. At the same time, they dropped the "special" and "ST" variants of the Street and Road Glides (except for the CVO ST), but instead have accessory packages that let you turn your standard Street or Road Glide into a Temo version of the ST, Ultra, or Special. So my prediction is they will get rid of the Ultra Limited and just offer the tour-pak as an add on to the standard Street/Road glide. I don't have Harley's official numbers, but around these parts they sold a lot of Ultra Limiteds and Street/Road Glide Specials. I hope they do update and keep selling the Ultra Limited as a standalone model (my last 3 motorcycles have been Ultras), but they may do like the ST and make it a CVO-exclusive.